A suite of courses designed to help you build interpersonal skills and manage your career

Personal development

• Getting the most out of your PDR
• Springboard development for women
• Change – Supporting and Embracing Change (see below)
• Personal Presence and Impact
• The Way of the Productivity Ninja
• The Productivity Ninja's Guide to Hybrid Working

Career development

• Taking Control of Your Career
• CV and Application Forms
• Interview Skills and Techniques
• How to Plan to Achieve Your Goals and Personal Vision
• Developing A Success Orientated and Resilient Mindset
• Skills Toolkit

A range of activities to support your own wellbeing and that of those you work with.

• Supporting the Mental Wellbeing of your Team
• Mental Health First Aid - 2 day course (see details below)
• Mental Health First Aid - 1 day course (see details below)
• Managing Long COVID in the Workplace
• Positive Mindset Toolkit (see below)
• Supporting Students with Mental Health, Wellbeing & the HWSS Procedure (online course details below)

 Positive Mindset Toolkit

Join Clinical Psychologist Vikki Barnes to help you foster a positive mindset and continue to learn and grow from your experiences (“to be your best self no matter what you are going through”) in and beyond the current working situation.

The toolkit involves six distinct but interrelated topics: Stay Connected, Find the Calm, Mindfulness, Find Balance, Gratitude and One Good Thing. Please see below to book on to webinars on each of these.

1. Stay Connected
2. Find the calm
3. Mindfulness
4. Find Balance
5. Gratitude
6. One Good Thing

Mindfulness Groups for Staff at the University of Exeter

 About Vikki

Vikki is a practising Clinical Psychologist and an Alumna of the University of Exeter.  Vikki has a substantial online following and presence and is renowned in the sector for her approach to a positive mindset and solution focus. For more information please visit Vikki's social media.

• Website

Supporting Students: Mental Health, Wellbeing & the HWSS Procedure (online)

Mental Health First Aid - 2 day course

Mental Health First Aid - 1 day course

It is vital to our University community that everyone understands the core principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion; and that we continually build on our skills and knowledge as individuals. EDI is an ever-changing landscape, and there are frequent personal and professional development opportunities offered so that our community can stay up-to-date in these areas. Please visit the ED&I Resources and Training pages for more opportunities.

• Introduction to Equality and Diversity (online)

As we continue to transition to working from home, it is important that you feel confident and supported to do so.  We have put together relevant resources, updated our courses and linked to useful sites in order to help and guide you.  There are also some fantastic resources on LearnSmart to support you and to help you keep your knowledge, skills and career up to date.

Working from home

Some of you will have found working from home an easy transition, for others it might be taking a little longer to get into the rhythm of balancing home life and work.

A number of teams in HR Services have collected a range of information to help you while you navigate your way into a healthy and productive homeworking life:     

• Home Working SWAY                                                                     
• Leading teams SWAY
• Keeping Healthy Yammer
• Disability guidance
• Specific Guidance for Parents/Guardians and Carers

Information for staff

• Ten Top Tips for working remotely: If you have 2 minutes to spare, this is a great little guide.  Useful for those new to remote working and those of us who might need a reminder.
• How to manage your time better: A great infographic about managing your time!
• How to make virtual meetings work: A few gentle reminders for us when attending or running virual meetings. We also run an online session about this area- find more details here
• Don't-forget-the-human-side-of-homeworking: An interesting Blog just reminding us that even though we might be working remotely from each other, we are still all human!

Information for managers

• Leading and managing hybrid Teams
• 10 top tips for managing remote teams
• Top Tips for Leading Remote Teams
• How to Run a Great Virtual Meeting         
• Top Ten Challenges of Managing a Virtual Team
• Work-Life Integration
• Virtual Project Teams

Learning from home

While you are working from home try to make time for your own personal development - there are lots of ideas to explore.  The UK government has launched a Skills Toolkit aimed at those being furloughed (but useful to everyone) to continue to develop new skills at home.

We have also curated a number of different learning and development opportunities in our Developing yourself during homeworking resource which you can dip into at any time.   

A suite of courses covering key business themes, processes and skills all useful for today’s workplace.

• Data Protection and Freedom Of Information Acts
• GDPR Training Video
• Investigating Officer
• Introduction to Project Management (online resource)
• Student Visa Overview
• LEAN
• SITs
• IIB Essentials Series – This series distils the essential information that researchers need to know about how to work effectively with non-academic partners, and what support they can draw upon.

University of Exeter IT - Advice, Guidance and Support

The Digital Hub

The University of Exeter IT Department’s Digital Hub is loaded with help, guidance and advice. It is your place to go, to help you master and adapt to new and existing tools, working with the available technology in the best way possible. The hub is updated with new guides and content every week.

Here are some of the things you can do:

Get some time talking directly to an expert

Book dedicated 1-2-1 support wherever you are with 10 minute surgery sessions for those times when you just need to know something specific. Or Super User sessions for 45 minutes that provide more detailed overviews and cover topics that you agree in advance. Book here.

Learn something new in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

The Digital Transformation team, along with other experts, will be developing and hosting a series of Espresso sessions. These will be available to view initially online, through the Digital Hub and eventually as live drop-in sessions at the Digital Hub in the Forum on campus.

Have a look at the Espresso training sessions menu to see what is on offer. 

Office 365

Exeter IT has resources available on their Office 365 Help and Support site, including training and new features for SharePoint, Microsoft Teams and other Office 365 apps.

• SharePoint and Office 365 help, advice and guidance (includes information about setting up a SharePoint site)
• Further advice, guidance and support for all areas of Office 365

Join the discussion – Yammer Groups

There are a number of Yammer groups available to keep up-to-date with Office 365 and to ask any questions, links to all the Yammer groups can be found below:-

• Office 365 Yammer group
• SharePoint Yammer group
• Power Automate and PowerApps Yammer group
• Teams Yammer group

Microsoft Teams Support

Specific support to help you navigate Teams has been created at the following links:

• Webpages  – links to guides, FAQ and other communication.
• Videos – Exeter IT have produced some video guides on some of the most useful functionality.
• How to Guides – some useful step-by-step guides.

Microsoft Office Training

Microsoft offer some great online training solutions that are free to use via their Training Centre.  Follow the links below to some of the key applications:

• Office 365 training resources including Outlook, OneDrive, Yammer, Visio and more
• Word 2013
• Excel 2013
• Power Point 2013
• Teams
• Outlook
• SharePoint

IT Helpdesk

The IT Helpdesk is the single point of contact for University of Exeter staff, across all campuses, to request IT support. Staff have the ability to report an IT problem or request an IT service via this link: IT Helpdesk - and have it assigned directly to the specialist IT team responsible for their request. 

Training and Support from the Technology Enhanced Learning team (TEL)

Our team support the use of digital teaching and learning technologies across the University. We take a pedagogically driven approach and want to ensure that each piece of technology used supports the intended learning outcomes for your teaching.

Training

The TEL team offer a range of different training sessions on a regular basis. These include introductory sessions on ELE and other technologies, and a session that covers ELE exam set ups (ELE Timed Quiz Exams or Mid-Term Exams). These sessions are perfect for new starters and anyone who wishes to refresh their knowledge.

 Please visit our TEL Events and Workshops page to browse upcoming sessions and register for any you wish to attend.

Support

Book time with TEL:

Through our Book Time with TEL service, you can book a 15 or 30 minute Teams appointment with a member of the TEL team at a time that suits you.

DLD Support:

Within each Faculty, there are a team of Graduate Digital Learning Developers (DLDs) ready to help with any digital learning queries you may have. You can view a list of DLDs for your Faculty on our About Us page.

TEL SharePoint Site:

For further information about what we do and how to access support, in addition to a wide range of support guides, please visit the TEL SharePoint site.

This learning pathway has been created as a ‘playlist’ around the theme of Virtual Collaboration .  It encourages participants to complete a pre and post learning assessment with suggested development content in between.  You will cover areas such as:

• How to manage a Virtual Team
• Virtually Perfect Meetings
• Connect and Collaborate
• Communication skills

And more…

Work through the playlist in your own time and explore more detail via the LearnSmart search function, should you wish to know more about specific subjects.

It is important that when we think about how we manage our time we reflect on our current and past practices.  Everyone will have different reasons for needing to review how they apportion time to tasks, how they achieve work/life balance or how to be more efficient with the time they have.  The following resources aim to help you understand your current time management approach and then suggest ways to make improvements.

Essential Time Management Skillbook : this is a great booklet to work through either as an individual or as a Team (either work through it as an individual and then come together to discuss your thoughts and support each other (self-facilitation) or approach it as a Team and consider how the department works). An alternative is the Time Management Self-Assessment tool, great for individual refection and/or some subsequent group discussions.

The ABC Time Management Method: As an individual or team you could create an ‘ABC’ list and even go one step further analysing whether ‘C’ tasks are necessary – what usually falls out from this activity is that people/teams have got into the habit of thinking of everything as an ‘A’ task and then it all becomes overwhelming. The Time Management Matrix could be used as a similar/alternative exercise.

A shorter individual or group task could be to watch this video about Six Time Management Dos and Don’ts and then reflect on or discuss your thoughts about the themes and ideas covered; could they work for you, what are the barriers stopping you from implementing them and how can you overcome those barriers? An alternative is to read through this short article about How to improve your time management which discusses the issues but also offers some solutions.

Finally if it is work/life balance that you want to reflect upon then try Life Priorities: A Time Management Exercise .  This exercise is designed to help you examine your work-life balance and time management. It will help you to identify how you would like to allocate your time and compare this with how you currently spend it. The exercise should be completed over the course of a week.

There are lots more Time Management resources that can be used in a similar way to the suggestions above (for instance How do you spend your time?; How to handle workload peaks;  Do you know when to say no? ).  The skillbooks are a great way to get thinking about the subject and to do a bit of reflection and planning, whether as a group or individual.

Prioritisation is a key skill that you need to make the best use of your own efforts and those of your team.  It helps you allocate your time where it's most needed, freeing you and your team from tasks that can be addressed later. By knowing how to prioritise you can stay on track with commitments while keeping stress at bay.

We suggest you start this subject by watching the following 2 minute video: Prioritisation Skills

And then try the How to Prioritise Skillbook . Designed to fit into just one hour, it will help you:

• evaluate the true value of prioritisation
• explore two important prioritisation techniques
• consider how resource scarcity should affect your priorities

Team Activity: Try the Action Priority Matrix – watch the video together and then complete a matrix as a team.  If you have a larger team split into groups and then discuss your findings.  Discuss where your priorities should sit and whether there are activities that can be removed or reprioritised.

There are lots more Prioritisation skills resources that can be used in a similar way to the suggestions above – the skills books are a great way to get thinking about the subject and to do a bit of reflection and planning, whether as a group or individual.

Are you struggling to get started on tasks, putting off the same tasks or flitting between tasks and never finishing, you may feel as though you are procrastinating.

We suggest you start this subject by watching the following 2 minute video: Overcoming Procrastination

And then try the Overcoming Procrastination Skillbookwhich will help you to get out of the procrastination habit. In under an hour, you’ll look at how you can:

• Recognize the signs and symptoms of procrastination.

• Plan to complete high-value tasks.

• Set the stage for getting work done

There are lots more Procrastination resources that can be used either as an individual or as a team – the skillbooks are a great way to get thinking about the subject and to do a bit of reflection and planning, whether as a group or individual.

Confidence is key to success, piece of mind and wellbeing. Having self-confidence boosts your self-esteem and helps you achieve your goals.

We suggest you start this subject by reading this short introduction about the subject: Building Self-Confidence

For a quick activity watch the Confidence Hacks video and then consider the reflective questions listed under the video.  This could be done as a team activity too, watch the video and discuss your thoughts about the ‘Hacks’ suggested, would they help your team?

And then try the Building you self-confidence skillbook which will help you to understand yourself better. It takes about an hour and you'll learn how to boost your self-confidence by:

• reminding yourself of previous successes
• envisioning a successful future for yourself
• reframing past mistakes
• setting self-confidence building goals

Once you have run through the skills book consider whether a mentor might help you get to where you want to be, visit the University Mentoring and Coaching  pages to find out more.  Or maybe you feel you have lots to offer other colleagues and would like to become a mentor yourself, again visit the mentoring webpages to find out how you can sign up.

There are lots more Self-Confidence related resources that can be used either as an individual or as a team – the skillbooks are a great way to get thinking about the subject and to do a bit of reflection and planning, whether as a group or individual.

Do you sometimes feel as though you fail to get your opinions heard, or people readily dismiss your views? Maybe you have a habit of handling situations aggressively, or lack the confidence to speak up. If so, the following resources will help you develop your assertiveness skills in order to boost both your confidence and influencing skills.

We suggest you start this subject by watching the following 2 minute video: Assertiveness

And then try the Assertiveness Skillbook , designed to fit into one hour, you will learn to:

• identify what your rights are and understand why you let others’ needs and demands encroach on you
• practice assertive communication techniques
• learn how to use a LADDER to get what you need

There are lots more Assertiveness related resources that can be used either as an individual or as a team – the skillbooks are a great way to get thinking about the subject and to do a bit of reflection and planning, whether as a group or individual.  The Assertiveness resources also delve into the subject of dealing with difficult situations and conflict.

Why do some people manage to go the extra mile while others struggle to get into the starting blocks? What is it that motivates us to work hard and how can we take responsibility for our own motivation? Below are some resources that will help you identify areas where you might be lacking in motivation and address the causes as well as identifying ways to boost your motivation.

We suggest you start this subject by reading this short introduction: Understanding Motivation

And then have a go at completing the How Self-Motivated Are you? questionnaire.  This will help to highlight specific areas that you might want to develop further. 

The Get Motivate! Skillbook is designed to fit into just one hour, you'll learn three key elements of self-motivation and you'll start to motivate yourself by:

• building your self-confidence and thinking positively
• finding your focus so you know why you need to get motivated
• setting goals to take you where you want to go

There are lots more Self-Motivation related resources that can be used either as an individual or as a team – the skillbooks are a great way to get thinking about the subject and to do a bit of reflection and planning, whether as a group or individual.

Networking is all about developing and nurturing meaningful relationships. You might have multiple networks for different parts of your life or you might be wondering whether networking is a useful tool that you should be using. Those already engaged in networking activities might want to brush up on the skills that will help the tool of networking to be even more fruitful. The following information aims to help you identfy your network goals and objectives and to develop the skills that will help you develop a positive networking experience. 

Networking can be a fantastic tool for developing ourselves, gaining knowledge, skills and experience and for achieving positive outcomes in the workplace. It can however be very time-consuming and so at the heart of it we need to understand what our networking objectives are to ensure we are using the right tool for the job and to make sure our activities are focused.  

We suggest starting with The Secrets of Successful Networking - a 12 minute audio that provides a nice introduction and some practical guidance. 

And then have a go at the Am I an Effective Networker to review your current skills. 

And then try the Networking Skills Skillbook  which will help you to understand your networking goals better. It takes about an hour and you'll cover the following:

• identify your network objectives
• map your network
• develop an effective "elevator pitch"
• plan network activities

If you then want to go into more depth the following might help:

• Networking Skills: How to Get the most from LinkedIn- social media can be really useful BUT make sure you are using the most relevant tool for your network, if you are on LinkedIn but the rest of your network is on Twitter you will be missing out!
• Networking Tools- practice your "elevator pitch" and introductory letter
• Top Tips for Internal Networking -how do you network in your current role/organisation
• Terrified of Twitter- how to use Twitter positively for networking

There are lots more Networking related resources covering all aspects of this useful tool. 

Project management is the process of planning, budgeting, co-ordinating and monitoring a series of pre-determined steps that need to be taken in order to achieve a particular goal or objective within an agreed timescale. The following resources aim to get you started on your project management journey or build some depth to current knowledge.

This infographic offers a nice introduction to some of the terms and background around project management and this Project Management Overview provides more detail about each stage of the process.  

The Strategic Delivery Unit at the University has developed an online session titled Introduction to Project Management.  This is the best resource to use for a fuller introduction to project management.

Then we would suggest working through the Project Management Basics Skillbook or the Planning Small Projects Skillbook depending on the size of your project.

If you are looking for a specific qualification or a course that sits between what has been listed and more formal qualifications have a look through the options with https://www.qa.com/training/courses/project-management/  – a majority of these courses do have cost attached which will need to be met by your department.

Beyond these suggestions there are numerous free resources on our LearnSmart hub available to all members of staff, just search under project management or something more specific if you know what you are looking for: Project management Search in LearnSmart, this include subjects such as Agile Project Management, Project Management Glossary of Terms and How good are your project management skills?

Self-Study Opportunities:

A great way to start considering ‘change’ is to watch the Jason Clarke – Embracing Change TED Talk, it is 18 mins and gives a relatable view of change, including common themes, phrases and feelings employees have towards change – reflect on your own / team situation in relation to the areas Jason discusses.

Then work through the Managing Change Skillbook : this booklet is designed to take just one hour and will help you better understand your approach and role in the management of change. You can explore further resources in Change Resources in LearnSmart around subjects that fall out the booklet exercises, a few examples include:

• The Change Curve – A Managers Role
• Discussing Resistance to Change with an Individual
• Overcoming Negativity and Resistance to Change
• Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Change 

Activities to do with your team:

Taking your team with you and helping them to feel prepared is really important in times of significant change.  The following resources are aimed at supporting teams to work together through change:

•  Preparing for Change: A Change Management Exercise – takes 30-60 mins depending in the size of your team.  This exercise should be held shortly after the announcement of a change in your team, department or organisation. It is best suited for groups of six to ten people.
• Visualising Change in a Group - This exercise is designed to help participants plan organisational change by expressing their ideas as sketches. It is best used when there is a specific problem to be addressed.

Live training:

The following webinars are available to all staff, follow the links for more details:

• Accepting and Embracing Change
• Developing A Success Orientated and Resilient Mindset

Self-Study Opportunities:

You may feel that you are going through various emotions around ‘changes’ being proposed in the workplace, the Coping with Change article and video introduces stages that you may recognise in relation to change proposals.  Follow it up with these Embracing Change and How to Make Change Work for You articles in order to start identifying the positives within the proposed changes.  Discuss any concerns or ideas for how to move forward positively with your manager.

Consider how you can remain positive and resilient through workplace changes, the following resources may be of help:

• How Resilient Are you?  
• Emotional Resilience Toolkit
• How to be Flexible in the Workplace
• Positive Mindset Toolkit - see guidance under wellbeing