Pay & Conditions: Work–life balance, health and wellbeing

A series of measures will be put in place to improve support for staff work–life balance, health and wellbeing, following the recommendations of this review.

These include: 

• Measures to address workload pressures
• A review of how the New Ways of Working framework has been implemented across the University
• Continued investment in existing workplace wellbeing programmes. 

Further work to be progressed in the 2024/25 academic year includes reviewing options for: 

• Providing targeted medical and wellbeing benefits for all staff 
• Improving staff access to the University’s cultural facilities and intellectual opportunities 
• Improving staff access to sports and gym facilities and activities, including options for provision outside of Oxford. 
• Improving staff access to the University’s nursery provision for parents/guardians on lower pay. 
• Additional digital systems to support effective hybrid working, including easy-to-use workspace booking systems to allow teams to meet and collaborate more easily.

You can find out more about each of these measures in more detail, below.

Workload

The Pay & Conditions Steering Committee heard concerns that workload is unfairly distributed across some groups or departments, and that individuals take on more of the burden than others in some areas. 

Work to get underway this summer: 

• The University will further examine the range of workload pressures affecting different staff groups and strengthen action to address them, by securing additional capacity to design and develop new training/support that will help staff and their leaders/managers to manage their own workload and that of their teams. This will be piloted in 2025 for staff and leaders/managers. 

Action already underway:

Several related activities are well underway meanwhile that should, over time, impact workload for different parts of the University. These include: 

• The Academic Career & Reward Framework project – which aims to remove the need for all academics to do everything, to allow a better balance of activities for any given individual and to enable appropriate reward and recognition across that balance of activities; 
• Digital Transformation – where it is hoped there is real opportunity to take some of the burden out of administrative systems; 
• The Strategic Review of Professional Services – which aims to evolve the way professional services are organised across the University. 

Action on workload will be prioritised in each of these programmes, with mechanisms established for monitoring improvement. 

One of the four Academic Career and Reward Framework (ACRF) workstreams is dedicated to academic workload. Progress has been informed by insight from the Staff Experience Survey and Pay & Conditions review focus groups, as well as the ACRF focus groups held in Hilary term 2024. This workstream is also examining different workload management models in place in parts of the University and in other organisations, to build a clear picture of best practice. Findings will be incorporated into the new framework which will progress to consultation early in 2025. 

Other work–life balance, health and wellbeing measures 

Beyond workload, the following action will be taken to help improve the work–life balance, physical and mental health and wellbeing of staff across the University, as part of the overall pay and conditions package: 

Initial action already completed: 

• Canteens: Outcomes of a review of food and cost of food in canteens across the University, completed since the Pay & Conditions Steering Committee submitted its report to Council, are currently being considered by relevant committees. Updates will be shared separately as this work progresses, by the teams involved.

Action to be progressed from this summer: 

• Hybrid/remote working (New Ways of Working): Our hybrid/remote working guidance will be reviewed, to examine how it has been implemented and to seek to ensure that it is applied in a fair and transparent manner across the University. 
• Workplace wellbeing programmes: Investment will continue to be made in supporting staff health and wellbeing through the University’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Thriving at Oxford programme, and future workplace wellbeing platforms.  

Further work to be progressed by the end of Trinity term 2025: 

• Wellbeing and medical benefits: The feasibility of more targeted wellbeing and medical benefits for all staff will be explored. Options may include access to a wellbeing platform, dental care and/or private health insurance, subject to affordability. This work will inform the development of proposals for future consideration by Council. 
• Cultural facilities and intellectual opportunities: An initial review will be carried out to explore the feasibility of making more of the University’s wealth of cultural facilities and intellectual opportunities available to staff at no cost, to inform future conversations. 
• Sports and gym facilities and opportunities: An initial review will be carried out to examine options for improving staff access to sports and gym facilities and activities, including provision options (such as gym/fitness) for staff who live outside of the ring road. Outcomes will be used to inform future conversations. 
• Access to University childcare services: Options will be explored for helping staff who are parents/carers on lower income to access University childcare services, drawing on the Pay & Conditions Steering Committee’s recommendation for childcare support. 
• Additional digital systems to support effective hybrid working: A range of systems will be explored, including options for easy-to-use workspace booking systems to allow teams to meet and collaborate more easily.