Professional and Administrative Services (PAS) review update

Friday, 04 March 2016

In the update provided on Monday I described the letters that would be sent to relevant colleagues this week.

All letters are being emailed to relevant colleagues today, and I wanted to take the opportunity to provide you with some further information that I hope will be useful to you.

Firstly let me say that as a consequence of the steps we have been taking to minimise the potential for compulsory redundancies we are in the fortunate position to be able to offer a wide variety of opportunities for internal recruitment.

We have been working through the suggestions received to match colleagues to particular roles in the new services, and I’m pleased to be able to report that we have been able to identify proposed matches for many colleagues.

In a small number of cases there are more colleagues matched than there are available roles, and a further selection process may be required.  However if you are in this position you should bear in mind that not every colleague will accept the match and some will apply for and be appointed to other posts as part of ongoing internal recruitment.. The combination of these factors may negate the need for any further selection process.

Unfortunately it has not been possible to match every colleague to a particular role. I appreciate that this will be worrying for those concerned, but I hope that you will be encouraged by the fact that we do have a large number of remaining vacancies which we would encourage you to apply for as we do wish to fill these vacancies through internal-only recruitment in the first instance where possible.

The matching process required an 80% fit between current substantive role and the new role; not being matched only means that future roles are different to your current post, it does not preclude you from applying and being a good candidate for the roles available. You are free to apply for as many of these roles as you like. A summary of the available roles will appear later today on the main PAS webpage

I would add that we will be consulting formally with those colleagues who haven’t been matched to a role as yet, and we will work together with you to try to identify suitable opportunities for redeployment.  Impacted employees will be contacted shortly with details of next steps.

In some cases colleagues will have been matched to a role on a lower grade than their current one. We have been discussing pay protection arrangements with the UCU and the Staff Forum as part of the consultation process. Although we have not been able to reach a formal agreement, we will apply the University’s best offer in these circumstances. Details of the pay protection arrangements can be seen here

As stated previously, if you feel that you should have been matched to a particular role please raise this directly by e-mail to PAS@reading.ac.uk as soon as possible.

Just as importantly, if you have not received a letter and were expecting to receive one please let us know as soon as possible by e-mail to the above address.

For those who have received a letter confirming that you have been matched to a role, you will note that you have until Friday 18 March 2016 to sign and return your letter to confirm or reject the match.  Following this date all additional vacancies will be made available for employees to apply.

I would also like to remind you that the option of voluntary redundancy will remain open until 23 March 2016 and if you wish to find out more please email PAS@reading.ac.uk   We will continue to respond to VR requests as quickly as possible.

If you have any queries then please email to the above address or contact the relevant HR Partner for the work stream.  HR colleagues will continue to be available to meet with staff.

As I stated in my previous update I will be available to meet with individuals or groups of colleagues to discuss the process and next steps. If you would like to arrange a meeting please feel free to contact me directly at j.j.brady@reading.ac.uk

John Brady

Director of Human Resources