Tuesday 1 May 2018 2:32pm
The University's Support Services Review is beginning to take effect.
SSR Executive Sponsor Kevin Seales.
The University’s Support Services Review (SSR) is beginning to take effect – with 155 expressions of interest from staff in voluntary redundancy to date, and 92 voluntary redundancies confirmed.
SSR Executive Sponsor Kevin Seales says the voluntary redundancy process, where staff can apply to take redundancy, and receive redundancy compensation, began in October last year and is ongoing.
The University has also confirmed a large number of professional staff into roles where there has been little or no change to pre-existing roles, as the Support Services Review, now well into the implementation phase, presses on.
“While confirmation of continued employment is great for staff who have received this, we are aware that other staff who have not been advised whether the restructuring will affect them, are feeling anxious,” Mr Seales says.
“We appreciate this is a difficult time for some staff and we are grateful for their ongoing patience. We are working as diligently and quickly as we can to provide all staff with certainty and remain on track to have this process completed by the middle of the year.”
As a number of new services are being introduced as part of the business case, it has also been necessary to advertise positions. For example, with the planned new service entity, AskOtago, some 20 new positions were advertised to allow for the extensive training required for staff to be ready when this service goes live.
Employment legislation requires the University to advertise externally also, unless there is a very strong reason not to. So most of the newly created positions have been available to both internal and external applicants.
"We appreciate this is a difficult time for some staff and we are grateful for their ongoing patience."
“With the remaining management of change processes our aim is to align discussions with staff about the impact on their current roles with advertising as many vacancies as possible,” Mr Seales says.
“This will ensure staff are able to consider future roles that would allow them to be redeployed, thereby continuing their employment with the University.”
The University meets with TEU and PSA staff representatives every fortnight, specifically to give Union representatives updates on the review, with these closely following regular SSR Steering Group update meetings usually taking place a few days earlier. These have involved gathering feedback the Unions have received from staff, discussions about how to best support staff, and the SSR Executive Sponsor providing updates on the process from the SSR Steering Group.
The University has also provided career development, resilience and change training sessions, and has directed additional resources into providing support for staff who may be concerned or worried (e.g. the Employee Assistance Programme) about the impact of the review. This support is available to staff in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
In recent weeks there has been a considerable number of staff information sessions describing how services will be provided in the future. Staff can also submit feedback, comments and ask questions via the SSR website.