Achievements of our professional services staff

I was particularly struck by the recurring themes around excitement, optimism, professionalism and pride. There were also refreshing reminders that we can’t do everything all at once, and that maintaining and building our sense of collaboration and ‘togetherness’ is paramount.

Getting up for a staff conference when it looks like rain may not sound like an exhilarating way to start the day. However, this year’s Professional Services Conference, held at the Exam Schools on 26 September, was a high-energy, jam-packed event from start to finish. The theme of the conference was Professional Services Together, and it was inspiring to the see first-hand the difference our professional services colleagues are making across the University in the key areas of people, quality and collaboration.

An enthusiastic buzz

The day began in the South School with the Registrar’s opening remarks focusing on achievements from the last year, and exciting plans for building on our Professional Services Together progress in the year ahead. This was followed by a relaxed and engaging Q&A session with the Vice Chancellor.

The morning sessions looked like standing room only. Many other colleagues dialled in on-line. The stalls and specialist afternoon presentations all created an enthusiastic buzz right through to close of business. The organisers and contributors are all to be commended for such a fantastic day.

 Visit the conference webpage to view recordings of the event's sessions

Oxford-wide careers

One of the key aims of Professional Services Together is supporting our professional staff to develop their careers around the University, and in this spirit in the afternoon, I first joined the ‘Oxford-wide careers’ session.

Here, Sophie Brotherston and Sarah Lewis from the People and Organisational Development (POD) team gave us all a great overview of and introduction to the recently launched ‘Oxford-wide careers programme’.

They were joined by Dr Fiona Whitehouse, Head of the Internship Office, who gave a brilliant presentation on the importance of developing both ‘occupational awareness’ and ‘self-awareness’ as the basis of informing our career decisions and actions.

Fiona also spoke about the critical importance of ‘pitching’ job applications in a targeted way as well as providing evidence of our skills and interests rather than simply leaving potential new managers to work out why we might, indeed, be the perfect person for their vacancy.

Her own personal (and very practical) example of the ‘joy of being in charge of puddings’ in a previous role and what she learnt from that in terms of her own interests and transferable skills, will stay in my mind for a long time to come.

Interactive sessions

I then moved onto a second session on ‘Developing effective teams and managing change’ led by Kate Bunce and

Julie Varndell, again from POD. This was probably the most interactive session I have ever attended, anywhere. 

Kate and Julie were exceptional facilitators, sharing thought-provoking images and pithy quotations, and asking questions that got the whole room talking in ways that could barely be contained.

We were asked to think about how many different teams we each belonged to (I got to 12 in the session and have remembered a few more since!) and to reflect on the fact that ‘change is ever-present’, often coming on top of the day-job and eliciting a broad range of psychological reactions from individuals across very varied and individual timelines.

At the heart of Professional Services Together is supporting our people’s development, and supporting them to deliver high quality services. Both exercises in this session helped support these aims - reminding us of the importance of being able to explain and ‘land’ change well, taking the bigger picture and relevant team dynamics into account.

It was another inspiring session and something I would be keen to revisit including in the Change Community Forum – one of the University’s ‘communities of practice’ (another key part of the Professional Services Together programme - which the Humanities Division’s Karen Brill now chairs).

Stand-out moments

For me personally, there were several stand out moments from the day.

I was particularly struck by the recurring themes around excitement, optimism, professionalism and pride. There were also refreshing reminders that we can’t do everything all at once, and that maintaining and building our sense of collaboration and ‘togetherness’ is paramount.

The Vice Chancellor’s personal perspective that 'all of the success of the University is the people' resonated deeply, as did her encouragement to everyone to 'engage, communicate and be bold, with courtesy' and to 'get involved'.

As the day concluded, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of regret that I hadn’t been able to attend all the afternoon sessions and explore every stall.

Nonetheless, I left the event on a high, having enjoyed all the discussions and presentations, as well as all the meaningful conversations with friends and colleagues, including at the bus stop outside.

I left inspired, reflecting on everything we can achieve together in the coming year.   

Images by Lucy Kilbey

• The Professional Services Conference takes place every September in the Examination Schools. 
• A number of sessions from the 2023 event are available to watch again via the conference webpage.