The university is launching a new agile working project, which will be part of the Getting in Shape programme.

The agile working project will help the University of Nottingham define the way we will work in the future, and it will shape the requirements for the infrastructure and policies that we will need to achieve our vision.

Agile working is focused on enabling everyone in our university community to feel supported in using time, technology, workspaces and campuses in the best way to deliver our shared goals for teaching, research and students.

Returning to new and different patterns of hybrid working has undoubtedly been challenging or awkward for many of us. One of the purposes of the agile project is to establish new models of working and effective approaches to the new environment which will address these issues.

To do this the agile working project will collaborate with colleagues across the university to create a shared vision of our future way of working, and then coordinate with Estates, Digital and Technology Services, HR and Planning, Performance and Strategic Change to develop a plan to implement the culture, policies, working environments and digital platforms that will make it happen.

The first phase of the project will run for the next two years and will lay down the foundations for how we will work as we enter the second quarter of the 21^st Century. It is going to take us a bit of time to get there but we want to do this properly and get it right for everyone.

The project will build on the work of the Return to Campus and Hybrid Working projects. For the present time, we should all continue to work in the ways agreed with our local line management during these projects. Agile working will set the path for the university’s next steps.

Describing the project, Registrar and project sponsor Paul Greatrix said:

“Agile working really matters. To me, to you, to all of our staff community and for the University of Nottingham. It will be the means by which we empower our staff to achieve their potential and embed collaboration in all that we do. As we say we will in our University Strategy.

By developing a comprehensive agile working framework we will provide the structure and develop a culture which enables everyone to thrive, to deliver their best work for the university and to make more effective use of their time.

All of this will mean that we are all working better and smarter to help the university achieve our goals. This is not empty rhetoric. It is about providing everyone with the tools, environment, policies, collaborative opportunities to do what we all want to do: to deliver our best for the university in our core activities – supporting education, the student experience and research and knowledge exchange – together with all of the enabling operations that go with them.”