SWARM workload allocation

Wednesday 13th May 2015

Professor Nick Talbot FRS

Deputy Vice- Chancellor for Research

Contents page • Workload allocation and SWARM

• Why do we have SWARM?

• How do we use it?

• Notes for head of discipline

• An example of personal workload

• An example of departmental workload

Workload Allocation and SWARM • All Colleges have a workload policy

o Time allocations for tasks are informed by experience

o Policies have been harmonised between Colleges to ensure fairness

o Available on College intranet

• SWARM shows how the College Workload Policy has been implementedo Academics have access to the current year and previous years

o SWARM data for the coming year is available when it has been completed to the best of the College’s ability

o Pac, SITS and Trent provide data, other data is provided by the discipline

Why do we have SWARM?

• Transparent workload allocation

• Allows Colleges to allocate duties in a way that can be seen to be fair while taking capacity into consideration .

• To ensure staff workload is efficiently allocated

• To assist in balancing the cost of teaching and research within Colleges

Academic Workload Planning is becoming Industry standard

How do we use it?

• A ‘Broad Brush’ summary of an academic’s workload allocation

• Checking staff are fairly resourced

• Ascertaining the teaching cost of modules

• Informing TRAC

• NOT for Performance Management, but can be helpful in PDRs

Notes for head of discipline

• HoDs must manage peaks and troughs in an individual’s workload over the course of the year.

• An individual’s workload profile must be checked for capacity.

• Inform staff of changes to workload policy.

Academics with issues about workload policy should raise these with their HoD whose responsibility it is to escalate until an appropriate conclusion is reached.

An example of personal workload

An example of Departmental view

Thank you for listening

Any questions?