Supporting you competition winners announced
Friday, 21 October 2011
From l to r: Libby Graham, Sara Broad, Vicky Clarke (seated), Robin Wilson and Professor Tony Downes
Congratulations to Vicky Clarke, winner of the ‘Supporting You Suggestions Competition'. Professor Tony Downes, Acting Vice-Chancellor presented Vicky with her prize - two Eurostar tickets kindly donated by Robin Wilson of Ian Allen Travel.
The competition was run during the University's ‘Take a Break' days in June. We were asked to give our suggestions on how the University could better support staff's well-being at work.
Vicky was keen that staff should be given more opportunity to take part in sports activities and suggested that it would be a good idea to have inter-University sports tournaments such as badminton or squash, for staff to take part in.
"I thought that by encouraging staff to play sport together would be a great way to relax and meet other members of staff;" said Vicky.
As a result of Vicky's suggestion, Libby Graham, Director of the Centre for Staff Training and Development is currently talking to the SportsPark to collate all of the initiatives either already available or that can be arranged for staff. These will be advertised on the Staff Portal and ‘Supporting you' pages once they have been collated.
The two runners up in the competition were, Polly Grove, Statistician in the Statistical Services Centre and Sara Broad, Lecturer in the Institute of Education. Both won £25 worth of book tokens.
Sara suggested that ‘Peer Mentors' from each department could share best practice in each other's working environment.
"I have experienced working in different departments myself and have found it useful to be able to take elements of best practice from one job to another;" said Sara.
Polly, who is currently on maternity leave, suggested that it would be a good idea to set up a informal ‘get-togethers' for women expecting babies, staff out on maternity leave, back at work with children in nursery etc. Polly felt that such a group would be good for new staff arriving in Reading who have young preschool-age children, giving them a chance to make friends with those at a similar stage in their life.
Human Resources are working to incorporate both of these ideas into benefits to offer staff in the future.