The document discusses initiatives at the University of Kent to promote professional development and excellence for administrative staff: 1. It outlines the AUA CPD Framework project which developed a professional development framework based on AUA behaviors and values to be used in staff appraisals. This aimed to focus more on how roles are performed rather than tasks. 2. It describes Special Interest Groups established across faculties to share information and best practices. Benefits included improved communication, collaboration, and leadership opportunities for staff. 3. A mentoring scheme was launched to support new staff through peer mentoring. Standard role profiles and titles were also introduced. 4. A "Service Excellence Initiative" involved administrative teams undertaking enhancement projects

1. Melissa Bradley, FAUA and AUA Board Trustee
Faculty Administration Manager , University of Kent
AUA and Staff Development

2. Session Outline
1) AUA
2) Special Interest Groups
3) Mentoring, Role profiles and Administration structures
4) Excellence Initiatives
Page 2 University of Dundee 8th November 2013

3. 1) AUA
• Founded in 1961 with ~4,000 registered members
• Open membership but with new accreditation scheme
• Gives a professional/career identity
• Promotes excellence in the sector through a code of
professional standards and AUA values
• Helps individuals realise their potential
o Conferences, learning events & qualifications
o HE specific with general skills development
o Publications (Perspectives, Newslink, GPGs)
o Travel exchange and awards
o Local, Regional and National Networks
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4. AUA at a local level:
UofKent case study
• ~ 50 members and a local network team
• Supported by Learning and Development
• AUA National Conference
o UoKent supports up to 5-10 delegates annually
o Runs pre and post briefing sessions for Kent delegates
• AUA@Kent Lunchtime Workshops
o Students as Consumers VS Students as Co-Producers,
March 2012
o Collaboration – A Catalyst for Change? November 2012
o The experience of joint honours students, September 2013
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 4

5. AUA CPD Framework: context
• Changing Higher Education Sector
• University Administration Review
• Faculty wide review of administration restructures
• Opportunity to use the AUA CPD Framework and
decided to use this in the appraisal process
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6. AUA CPD Framework: overview
• Two year project to trial the use of the AUA CPD
Framework at Kent as part of our appraisal process
• Undertaken in two stages:
o The first smaller scale pilot was undertaken in the
Faculty of Humanities
o The second pilot involved a cross section of
academic schools from the three Faculties as well
as a central professional service department
• Used the participants’ feedback from first pilot to
decide the future of project, adapt the framework and
the project implementation
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7. AUA CPD Framework: project aims
• To reconceptualise appraisals and provide equal
weight to performance and personal and professional
development
• To enhance meaningful engagement with appraisal
• To outline expectations of professional behaviours and
focus much more on the how roles are undertaken
rather than a task based approach
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8. AUA CPD Framework: project outcomes
• A professional development framework based upon
the AUA behaviours & CPD Framework and matched
to the University’s main grades: 1-9
• The framework was revised in year two of the project
in light of the participants’ feedback and to raise
expectations further
• Accompanying guidance notes for appraisers, FAQs,
a self assessment form and CPD summary log
• Project feedback helped shape the changes to the
new University wide appraisal (RPD) process and the
documentation developed is included in the supporting
guidance to staff
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9. AUA websites
• Further details can be found via:
http://www.aua.ac.uk/
http://cpdframework.aua.ac.uk/
http://www.kent.ac.uk/human-
resources/rpd/develop/index2.html
Page 9 University of Dundee 8th November 2013

10. Round up and Discussion
• Questions?
• Further details?
• Suggestions?
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 10

11. 2) Staff development: UoKent Case Study
• Faculty Managers at Kent have identified 4 main goals
and one of these is “Developing People”
Developing People
• Realise staff potential and enhance standards across
the administration provision.
o Embed professional behaviours associated with best
practice in the sector
o Create clear role profiles, career pathways and
progression opportunities
o Provide learning opportunities via a comprehensive
range of professional development programmes
o Drive creative thinking to achieve innovative solutions
Page 11 University of Dundee 8th November 2013

12. Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• Initial UG and PG student administration SIG groups
introduced in 2009-10
• Range extended to include:
o Student Support, Finance, IT and
Communications, Recruitment, Marketing and in
2011-12,
o Student Experience in 2013
o Cross-Faculties SIG at our Medway campus
• Currently considering a new SIG/ network for PAs
• Future possibilities include a research SIG
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13. Aims of the SIGs
• Aim is to provide a forum for administrative staff
across each Faculty in a particular function to meet.
• Main focus is to share information and good practice,
discuss issues, provide support (particularly to new
staff) and enhance processes.
• SIG agendas are either devised by the SIG or
cascaded via the Faculty Manager/s
• Each Faculty SIG is expected to liaise with the relative
SIG in the other Faculties as well as with
representatives from central services.
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14. Governance of SIGs
• Oversight rests with Faculty Managers and their respective
Administrative Management Group
• Each SIG is led by a School Manager and supported by a
co-lead
• The SIG reporting lines have evolved over time and a
number of the SIGs now formally report to Faculty
Committees e.g.:
o the Recruitment, Marketing and Communications SIG reports to the
Faculty Committee and the chair of this SIG also serves as a
member of the Faculty Committee
o the Postgraduate SIG reports to the Faculty Graduate Studies
Committee
• Formal terms of reference for SIGs were established in
May 2013
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15. Benefits of SIGs
• Enhances communication, knowledge and
understanding across the administration
• Facilitates collaboration and cohesion across each
Faculty’s administration as well as across the three
Faculties
• Supports and initiates Faculty/Faculties projects
• Provides opportunities for all administrative staff to
actively contribute to the Faculty as well as participate
in meetings as full members
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16. Benefits of SIGs continued
• Created a new (and very positive) Faculty leadership
role for the School Managers
• Created a way for administrative staff to work
collectively together by cascading ownership of
problem solving to the staff involved in the detailed
administration operations of the Faculty
• Provides professional development opportunities for
all administrative staff to hone or learn new skills e.g.
presenting on topics to their peers and identifying
resolutions to issues, undertaking peer review
activities etc
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17. Examples of some SIGs outputs
• Student Support role handbook and a range of
professional development for this group of staff
• Revised processes for Visit Days and Open Days
• Peer review of School websites, student
undergraduate handbooks and promotional videos
• Contributing to University wide change processes e.g.
new PGR monitoring system
• Mapping key finance processes and bringing about
changes to central processes
• Introduction of a University Procurement Newsletter
following feedback from the Finance SIGs
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18. Round up and Discussion
• Questions?
• Further details?
• Suggestions?
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19. 3) Mentoring Scheme
• Developed a cross Faculties mentoring scheme which
introduced peer mentoring for all new staff as part of
their induction programme, 2012-13
• Provision for existing administrative staff to be
mentored if a need is identified
• Launched in collaboration with Learning and
Development via a series of workshops and
discussions with School Managers
• Mentors are normally provided from across the three
Faculties with strong links to our SIGs
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20. Role Profiles/Administration structures
• Developed a job title naming convention in
collaboration with HR, January 2013
• Devised standard job descriptions across the School
administration e.g. Student Support Officer, Student
Experience Manager/Student Office Manager,
Programme Co-ordinator
• Introducing a School administration model with core
required roles (regardless of size) across each
department in order of priority
• Next priority is to establish research administrators as
a core role in each School
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21. Round up and Discussion
• Questions?
• Further details?
• Suggestions?
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 21

22. 4) Service Excellence Initiative
Cross Faculty initiative where the administrative teams in
each academic School undertook an enhancement
project under the theme of Service Excellence
Timeline and Major Phases:
Took place across the 2012 calendar year with three
main activities:
• January 2012: Launch Conference (Phase 1)
• May 2012: Working Session (Phase 3)
• October 2012: Poster Presentation (Phase 5)
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 22

23. Service Excellence Initiative: Objectives
• To provide wider access to different learning and
development methods
• To facilitate joined up thinking and understanding e.g.
breaking down silos
• To enable further sharing of good practice across the
different Schools and Faculties
• To strive for consistency while allowing for local
context
• Above all to raise profile and celebrate the service
delivered by administrative staff to students and
academics as well as to other professional colleagues
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24. Service Excellence Initiative: Challenges
• Getting logistics sorted
• Getting buy-in from the Deans and all the
Heads of School so that they would support the
project and encourage their staff
• Getting buy-in from staff
• Taking staff out of their comfort zone into a type
of event they had not experienced before
• Getting staff to think about different ways of
doing things and start a specific project despite
workload
• Keeping the momentum beyond the one year
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 24

25. Service Excellence Initiative: Staff feedback
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26. Phase II - Excellence through Partnerships
• Wish to continue the project work under the
‘excellence’ banner
• The new theme was agreed at a professional
development planning workshop with School
Managers facilitated by Faculty Managers and
Learning and Development
• Agreed to follow a similar format and launch the
new initiative at a conference for all
administrative staff (7th
January 2014)
• Established a conference design team after a
call for volunteers
• Currently planning the Conference programme
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 26

27. SAMs
Situation
Review
Involve ALL
Staff input
into the
design
Link with SIGs
An away day for all
Central ServicesVenueLogistics
Overall
Theme
Lever
for
Change
External
Input
Professional
Development
Commonality
between schools
Networking for
Support Staff
Links to
training,
mentoring,
development
Link to RPD
Create a
sense of
identity
Timing
Avoid May
and October
July and
November
OK
Space to
network
and
circulate
Create a
sense of
value/ kudos
to the event
Guest
speaker(s)
Common goal /
common purpose
Academic
Awareness
Present back
to school
colleagues
What do we
want to
achieve ?
Partnerships
‘Excellence
through
Partnership’ Specific Themes
Enable & Enhance
Overarching name
‘ Excellence’
New identity for Admin?
Change mind-set of team
Output
Local projects
Timing of
workshops must
make sense to
people
‘Away day’
Change people’s
mind-sets Avoid ‘just
additional
work’
Avoid ‘drift’
over time
Link to outputs
Keep momentum
Timing
is critical
Jan is good
Oct and May
difficult
Purpose
Professional
support
Wider Ac. Div.
involvement
Staff
Networks
Academic
involvement
Part of
planning
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 27

28. Round up and Discussion
• Questions?
• Further details?
• Suggestions?
University of Dundee 8th November 2013Page 28