In May this year we surveyed staff on central communications at Oxford, and we’ve been acting on the findings to make changes where needed.
The survey respondents told us what was working, and what could be improved. The results enabled us to pick out themes, and today we wanted to report back on progress made.
Improving routes for staff to give feedback.
Since the survey, we have:
- Launched the Oxford Communications Feedback Group, who will be invited to provide feedback via email on communications twice a year
- Introduced increased feedback options in the University Bulletin; for example, you may have seen the ‘thumbs up / thumbs down’ feature.
Clarifying information that is relevant for different staff groups.
Since the survey, we have:
Including more information that was felt to be missing.
Since the survey, we have:
- Worked more closely with major projects to ensure follow up information is included after major launches
- Approached a greater range of staff to be profiled in University Bulletin. If you would like to nominate colleagues or teams to be profiled, please email us (universitybulletin@admin.ox.ac.uk).
Improving cascading information and mailing lists*.
Since the survey:
- Forward plans for communications have been shared on a pilot basis with communications staff across the University, to assist with coordination of information shared with staff.
Exploring the benefits of providing communications in hard copy.
Since the survey:
- We have created a print-friendly version of University Bulletin, and made these available to communications staff across Oxford, along with the Gazette, so that printed copies may be provided where needed
- Uptake of printed communications will continue to be monitored through ongoing evaluation of communications activity.
If you have any further feedback about University communications, or have ideas for how else we might respond to the survey findings, please do contact our team (internal.communications@admin.ox.ac.uk). We read all emails received and we welcome feedback from staff.
* The UAS Communications team is separately working to enhance communications from the central University, following the UAS Communications Service Review. This includes the introduction of the new University Cascade email, designed to provide leadership teams with key policy and operational updates, as well as an exploratory project looking at how mailing list functionality may be enhanced using existing University technology.
The Internal Communications team, Public Affairs Directorate, December 2022
