College of Life Sciences
About the Mirror College Leadership Team
The Mirror College Leadership Team (M-CLT) is a group of non-executive employees that works with our senior leaders on strategic initiatives. Our College Leadership Team (CLT) uses the Mirror group's insights to diversify the perspectives that leaders are exposed to. Currently there are 21 M-CLT staff members working on various projects including College culture and morale. We have had three application rounds: December 2021, April 2023 and March 2024.
M-CLT members commit to attending group meetings every 4-6 weeks and meet additionally in subgroups to work on issues. They have the opportunity to attend CLT meetings and work with a senior leadership buddy. In addition our chairs attend CLT meetings, away days and present to senior executives.
What does M-CLT do?
The two co-chairs of the group attend College Leadership Team (CLT) meetings once a month. CLT members along with members of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team also regularly take part in the Mirror CLT meetings. This two-way interaction provides a link between the Mirror CLT and the CLT and creates opportunities for information and ideas exchange.
After useful debates, the Mirror CLT group pinpointed three areas of work, which they assessed as detrimental to the staff morale and therefore needed urgent attention:
- recognition and appreciation of staff;
- staff career progression;
- communication of information between the leadership of the University and the staff at all levels.
Each member of the group self-elected themselves to work in small groups on these topics.
The Recognition and Appreciation Sub-group are focusing on changes to the University Rewards schemes and are in talks with Human Resources. Proposed changes include publishing model answers and success rate on the websites with the aim to increase participation in the schemes and make them simpler to use. Arranging a competitive seminar series for Early Careers Researchers to showcase the breadth of their work, will hopefully be a really interesting and inspiring day, with networking opportunities.
The Career Development Sub-group are focusing on changes to enhance career development and career progression for staff of the University. The University already offers a range of initiatives and opportunities for staff to develop their career. However, the group would like the University to go a step further by promoting innovative ideas and be a real trailblazer on this question. Ideas include career-focused mentoring schemes, the right for paid training leave for every member of staff and the introduction of formal discussions about promotion and career development as part of the annual appraisal (PDD). The group are also working on clarifying and better advertising the resources and initiatives currently ongoing across the university with a view to better engage staff at all levels in career progression.
The Communication Sub-group are developing a digital overview of the organisational structure for the College in partnership with CLS administration and the CLT, to make it easier to identify who to contact, where staff and units fit into the College, and provide the hierarchical structure “at a glance”. They are also developing communications guidelines, which staff can use to improve internal communications, from emails to meeting minutes.
The M-CLT has several other ideas in the pipeline and this is an exciting time to be involved, with progress and change already being seen.
Contact
To contact the Mirror CLT, please email the College EDI Team via clsedi@le.ac.uk