Staff training and development is key to retaining and enhancing the workforce
Among the most profound long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could be in the changes to the way that work is done.
Jisc’s digital experience insights (DEI) survey for professional services staff in higher education (HE) shows that 92% of respondents were working virtually.
Although this may seem an atypically large population, their experiences do not seem especially atypical of professional services staff across the country.
The opportunity to examine a large population of hybrid workers and to gain their insights into their experience is invaluable for the HE sector in particular, but also for the wider understanding of hybrid work in general.
The survey examined questions on the issues and barriers to online working, how well institutions support online working (generally well, but with definite improvement possible), and respondents’ views of IT support. For example, 87% of respondents stated that their experience of the support available for online working was at least ‘good’.
Training emerged as a potential issue in the wider debate, with UK plc’s long underinvestment in skills training starting to become a millstone to development and adoption of new practices.
Guidance on online working was also highly praised, with 73% saying they’d received support and training. Training emerged as a potential issue in the wider debate, with UK plc’s long underinvestment in skills training starting to become a millstone to development and adoption of new practices.
This survey examined that important question and found that, much as in the wider business world, the sector still has work to do: 16% of staff stated that they’d had an assessment of their digital skills, and only 10% said they had received recognition for developing digital skills.
Most staff said they had little time to develop skills and a minority have had training. GDPR training was the most common, but still only taken by 30%. Only 14% said they had training in creating digital learning material, 7% in digital copyright, and 5% in social media management.
Another increasingly vexed issue has emerged around the support for the wellbeing of staff with hybrid working patterns.
As recruitment and retention issues look likely to continue in the foreseeable future, there is a real need for the sector to engage properly with training and development to ensure we conserve and enhance our workforce.
Another increasingly vexed issue has emerged around the support for the wellbeing of staff with hybrid working patterns. This is likely to be a subject of considerable debate in the future and may represent a long-term roadblock to hybrid working.
Our survey gains valuable insight into how staff have experienced these key issues. In one way it is reassuring that 72% of workers turned to their colleagues when they had issues, but it may highlight a need for new channels and forms of support for hybrid workers that perhaps need to be developed.
Overall, this is a valuable piece of insight not just into our vital HE professional services workforce, but into the experiences of all UK professional services workers as we all navigate into a future none of us expected.
This survey shows there are strengths in IT and digital support that could be allied with more investment in training to help the HE professional services workforce feel confident they are ready for the challenges of the future.
It shows we were perhaps better prepared than we might have thought, but also provides thought-provoking insight into what we need to do better and how we can do it.
This survey shows there are strengths in IT and digital support that could be allied with more investment in training to help the HE professional services workforce feel confident they are ready for the challenges of the future.
All Jisc's digital experience insights surveys are published on the website.
About the author
I am the in-house specialist on the graduate labour market. I research and analyse all things to do with post-18 employment, including regional economies, skills supply and demand and postgraduate issues, usually with a careers and employability perspective.