Background

Having been commissioned to develop a policy for managing capability and under-performance within the University, there was a need to ensure that managers and senior academics were familiar with the policy and able to work with the process for managing capability issues within it.

We were asked to develop an appropriate training programme for approximately 150 managers/academics and roll it out over a period of nine months.

What we did

We designed a programme based around a case study/role play, set in the academic context and through which, the policy, its three-stage procedure and the role of the manager/academic, could be explored in detail.  We built in to the case study some of the problems likely to be encountered and the decisions to be made.

We piloted the programme with a group of senior managers/academics and in response to feedback, made some adjustments to the timing of sessions and the length of the workshop overall.

We then planned the roll-out programme with the Learning and Development Team, building in time to review progress and feedback from participants.

Once the most senior group of managers/academics had attended the workshop, we revised the case study and role plays to reflect the different roles and input more junior managers would have in the process. 

As the roll-out continued it became clear to us that for the more junior staff it would be possible to reduce the amount of training time.  We proposed a revised workshop which, whilst still covering the essential material, reduced the length to a half-day, providing savings for the staff development budget.

How we helped

All staff who needed to attend the workshop have done so and feedback indicates that they gained the confidence to manage capability issues from the inputs, case study and role plays. 

Our approach is always to review and evaluate our programmes and through this approach, the Learning and Development Team has achieved cost savings as we were able to reduce our facilitator time.

The University now has a consistent approach to dealing constructively and supportively with capability issues which previously have not been managed and, longer-term, it anticipates that this will have a positive impact on departments and teams.