Your feedback on the second Let’s Talk event, held on 9 April, confirms that most of those who took part appreciated the change in format with more time for questions. 220 colleagues attended on the day and at least 300 others watched it live on their PCs. With the recorded footage viewed 290 times, up to 800 of you took part in some way – nearly a third of all staff.
Responding to your questions
There were almost 20 topics raised, covering areas from our involvement with the GW4 research grouping to our email software. To find out more, you can watch the recording here.
At the meeting, the Vice-Chancellor committed to providing a fuller response to some of your questions.
Several of you raised concerns that requests for repairs to facilities were not being responded to. The Director of Estates, Martyn Whalley, who was present at Let’s Talk has investigated both the specific issues mentioned and the concerns expressed over lack of effective communication with those affected.
“With the continuing expansion of the campus, the Department of Estates recognises that the existing arrangement is no longer coping, creating disruption and inconvenience for some.
“We have identified that the problem in 3 East toilets was due to underground drainage. This has now been addressed and the entire facility is now back on line. The toilets in 3 West are now working and have been modified to ensure the system is more robust.
“The Department of Estates has reviewed why these were not reinstated as quickly as they should have been and have assessed any other toilets which were out of order. As a result we are investigating a new customer service manager role to improve how ‘green button’ maintenance requests are dealt with.”
A question was also asked about whether there was an opportunity for departments and individuals to get involved with green impact initiatives. Commenting on the ‘green impact’ initiative, Martyn adds: “The initiative has created a framework and embedded a lot of good practice into departments. The University has also embarked on other community-wide initiatives such as the big switch off and various energy/sustainable programmes. Now is the time to consolidate these principles through engagement, implementation and good housekeeping.”
Colleagues are currently looking into other topics raised and answers will be made available soon.
What you thought
Your responses to the feedback survey showed appreciation of the adjustment to the format in response to your previous comments – 86% of the 114 respondents agreed that the format was good, up from 67% last time.
80% said you found the session interesting, rising from the 65% who agreed last time and 86% said you planned to attend or watch this kind of meeting again, up from 79%.
We will be using your feedback and comments to help plan future sessions.
Let’s Talk… again
The next sessions will be on different times and days of the week to ensure as many colleagues have the chance to attend as possible:
- Thursday 14 November 2013 from 10.30am to 11.30am
- Wednesday 19 March 2014 from 2.30pm to 3.30pm
Both events will be in the new GTA building.
We look forward to seeing you there. If you have any further suggestions or comments please get in touch at lets-talk@bath.ac.uk