Email sent to all FD staff from Ann Allen, Director of Campus Innovation and Development, on Tuesday 1 April.
With the Employee Engagement Survey now closed, I am delighted to be able to tell you that the participation rate for the Facilities Directorate was 68% – that’s a 15% increase on 2023 and meets the ambitious target set by the University. Thank you to everyone who filled it in and to everyone who worked so hard to enable staff to take part, in particular Angela Baker, FD Culture & Engagement Lead supported by Prue Griffiths, Communications Manager.
The results will be available early in the summer and you will shortly receive an invitation to the next FD Online Town Hall on 12 June at 10.30am in which we will discuss those results.
I do want to reiterate that your views help us to shape the future and this is a major resource for helping us to understand what you think. Can I also reassure you that the Survey is anonymous; it’s run by an external company – Culture Amp – not the University, and no one here has access to the background data.
The ‘One Leeds’ review is still open for your comments – the deadline is 16 April. I’d urge you to find time to let the University know what you think.
Campus work begins
Our £32 million project to improve the campus this year has officially begun work this week with replacement of outdated audio/visual equipment at laboratories in the L.C. Miall Building – which houses the Faculty of Biological Sciences – including research offices and laboratories. This will make a real difference to learning and teaching.
The project as a whole will create new informal student spaces and upgrade teaching facilities across the campus, as well as see the refurbishment of existing university spaces and entrances, and roofing and cladding work. It’s an essential part of the University’s push to attract new students at a time when competition is fierce, so it’s exciting to see it underway. You can read more about it here.
Thank you to everyone involved in the space utilisation surveys for the Campus Reimagined project, which have now completed. These were needed to get a better understanding of how the campus is being used. The Campus Reimagined work is beginning in earnest with the appointment of Prior + Partners as the masterplanners. More information to come soon!
Net Zero update
I enjoyed reading this summary of our progress in Net Zero work, as featured in last week’s eNews.
As James Dixon-Gough tells us, we’re about to move from planning and feasibility studies into the design and delivery phases for two major projects in the Net Zero Delivery Plan:
- Upgrade of the ventilation system in the Worsley building to a ‘heat recovery’ system that captures waste heat to reduce heating needs.
- A new energy centre to heat the Engineering cluster of buildings using electricity.
This is exciting progress and my thanks to all involved.
Budgets for next year
It’s the time of year when we plan financially for the academic year ahead. Your heads of service will keep you updated on progress but I just wanted to respond to questions about staff roles that ceased to exist last year. These roles are not automatically being reinstated: we are working with heads of service to see where roles are critical to the business. The same applies across the whole University.
LinkedIn Learning
A reminder that there are many great opportunities to learn and develop your skills available for free through LinkedIn Leaning. You can read case studies from the University on this page and it’s lovely to see colleagues from Cleaning Services in this video explaining the benefits.
And finally….
It’s great to see our staff being featured and celebrated in the University’s eNews bulletin. You can read about why our Outside Spaces Manager Sean Craven finds the University so inspiring in this piece and how many of our fantastic FD colleagues were mentioned in the International Women’s Day ‘Wall of Women’ on the staff intranet.
Ann Allen,
Director of Campus Innovation & Development
FD Bulletin – April 2025
/by Matthew ShevlinEmail sent to all FD staff from Ann Allen, Director of Campus Innovation and Development, on Tuesday 1 April.
With the Employee Engagement Survey now closed, I am delighted to be able to tell you that the participation rate for the Facilities Directorate was 68% – that’s a 15% increase on 2023 and meets the ambitious target set by the University. Thank you to everyone who filled it in and to everyone who worked so hard to enable staff to take part, in particular Angela Baker, FD Culture & Engagement Lead supported by Prue Griffiths, Communications Manager.
The results will be available early in the summer and you will shortly receive an invitation to the next FD Online Town Hall on 12 June at 10.30am in which we will discuss those results.
I do want to reiterate that your views help us to shape the future and this is a major resource for helping us to understand what you think. Can I also reassure you that the Survey is anonymous; it’s run by an external company – Culture Amp – not the University, and no one here has access to the background data.
The ‘One Leeds’ review is still open for your comments – the deadline is 16 April. I’d urge you to find time to let the University know what you think.
Campus work begins
Our £32 million project to improve the campus this year has officially begun work this week with replacement of outdated audio/visual equipment at laboratories in the L.C. Miall Building – which houses the Faculty of Biological Sciences – including research offices and laboratories. This will make a real difference to learning and teaching.
The project as a whole will create new informal student spaces and upgrade teaching facilities across the campus, as well as see the refurbishment of existing university spaces and entrances, and roofing and cladding work. It’s an essential part of the University’s push to attract new students at a time when competition is fierce, so it’s exciting to see it underway. You can read more about it here.
Thank you to everyone involved in the space utilisation surveys for the Campus Reimagined project, which have now completed. These were needed to get a better understanding of how the campus is being used. The Campus Reimagined work is beginning in earnest with the appointment of Prior + Partners as the masterplanners. More information to come soon!
Net Zero update
I enjoyed reading this summary of our progress in Net Zero work, as featured in last week’s eNews.
As James Dixon-Gough tells us, we’re about to move from planning and feasibility studies into the design and delivery phases for two major projects in the Net Zero Delivery Plan:
This is exciting progress and my thanks to all involved.
Budgets for next year
It’s the time of year when we plan financially for the academic year ahead. Your heads of service will keep you updated on progress but I just wanted to respond to questions about staff roles that ceased to exist last year. These roles are not automatically being reinstated: we are working with heads of service to see where roles are critical to the business. The same applies across the whole University.
LinkedIn Learning
A reminder that there are many great opportunities to learn and develop your skills available for free through LinkedIn Leaning. You can read case studies from the University on this page and it’s lovely to see colleagues from Cleaning Services in this video explaining the benefits.
And finally….
It’s great to see our staff being featured and celebrated in the University’s eNews bulletin. You can read about why our Outside Spaces Manager Sean Craven finds the University so inspiring in this piece and how many of our fantastic FD colleagues were mentioned in the International Women’s Day ‘Wall of Women’ on the staff intranet.
Ann Allen,
Director of Campus Innovation & Development
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