Thriving at work: Career development, leadership, training and networks
The Department is committed to ensuring there are no barriers to career success for all our staff, and we encourage everyone to take up career development, leadership, and relevant training opportunities.
- Find out more — Imperial College's Staff Development homepage.
- The Educational Development Unit offers specific development activities for those staff who teach.
Annual Review Conversations (ARC)
The ARC is a dedicated opportunity for staff to have a discussion with their line manager focused on everything they need to thrive at work.
Crucially the ARC is not an evaluation of the previous year’s performance, but instead should be forward looking and planning for the year ahead, building on previous conversations in regular 1-2-1 meetings.
All staff will submit an agenda setting survey at least two weeks ahead of their meeting. This enables staff to determine the subtopics that are important to them and for line managers to prepare for the discussion and a ‘no-surprises’ approach at the meeting. The ARC itself should be focused around the actual conversation, rather than form filling.
We have two ARC Champions in the Department – George Constantinides and Tom Clarke. You can talk to them about the process at any time.
EEE’s 2022 staff survey indicated that whilst many staff in the Department were undertaking annual reviews, they were not finding that the conversations were particularly helping in planning for their career. We therefore ask that all line managers attend one of the briefing sessions and to review the toolkits available to support successful conversations. There is also a useful Line Manager Checklist, some Line Manager questions to help guide the conversation and example videos.
Feedback on an individuals impact can also be sought ahead of the meeting using the feedback tool. Or for those who prefer the style of ratings to support the conversation, there is also the ARC Ratings Tool.
Sabbatical leave for Academic refreshment
The Department is very supportive of academic sabbatical leave. It can be a valuable exercise for staff, providing opportunities to help develop a new research idea, transition into a new topic, or to build strong collaborative links with your hosts.
- Imperial College HR policy on Special Leave
- Applying for Sabbatical Leave - EEE guidance and policy .docx (log-in required)
Staff networks
- Imperial has a number of staff networks that aim to encourage collaborative working, knowledge sharing, and opportunities for staff development and social engagement.
- These include forums for various staff groups including technicians, professional and operational staff, educators, postdocs and fellows - as well as our equality and diversity networks that work to raise awareness of issues, and organise events and leadership and development opportunities.
- In the department we have staff networks for Fellows and Postdoc staff, and for Professional, Technical and Operational staff:
Staff networks in EEE
PTO Staff Forum
The EEE Professional, Technical and Operational Staff Forum is an opportunity for all PTO staff in our department to get together as a team, both socially and to share information about what is happening across the Department and the College.
Contact the Department Operations Manager to suggest topics for the next meeting.
