University of York

Background

Founded on principles of excellence, equality and opportunity for all, the University of York opened in 1963 with just 230 students. With a pioneering attitude it has grown to become one of the world’s leading academic institutions, recently becoming a member of the Russell Group of Universities. Today it has 16,000 students and is ranked 8th in the world according to the Times Higher Education ranking of universities less than 50 years old.

Requirement

The University had undertaken an extensive project to develop a framework of new leadership principles via consultation with senior managers and employees. A 360° feedback instrument was sought that would be flexible enough to integrate the principles and embed them for the leadership team as part of a new leadership programme.

Talent Innovations were recommended to the University of York. A tender process was constructed involving three companies but the university team were impressed with Talent Innovations’ expertise and great credentials within the realms of 360°. A university generally comes complete with academic experts and so it was essential for the HR team that a supplier have credibility and offer rigour in their methodologies. The reliability and statistical robustness of Talent Innovations’ 360° model impressed the selection panel.

Our solution

An extensive consultation amongst the senior leadership and steering groups had already been led by the University to develop a new set of leadership principles. Talent Innovations set about turning these into behavioural clusters that were clearly understood by all and a bespoke 360° questionnaire was created based on these clusters.

York were determined to ensure the new survey tool fitted their objectives thoroughly and so set up a robust pilot programme divided into two waves. 46 participants were involved in the first wave of the pilot. Each had 10 raters on average with a total of 447 surveys being completed. Every single one of the focuses and raters were asked for feedback on the process and questionnaire and their insights were used to ascertain whether what the University was testing was true. Talent Innovations used Exploratory Factor Analysis to analyse the survey data to ensure reliability of the items, and recommendations were made to refine the tool for Wave 2.

Following successful completion of the pilot phase, the University of York’s new 360° tool was ready to be launched.

It now forms an important part of the university’s leadership programme – an essential management tool.

Outcomes

The solutions recommended and delivered by Talent Innovations are bespoke to the University of York and tailored to the University’s own leadership principles. The solution is highly relevant to all employees who complete the tool and wholly appropriate for the culture of the University of York.

Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to evaluate the quality and validity of the test tool and several improvements were suggested as a result.

The seniority and expertise of the University of York team meant that a credible and sufficiently expert supplier needed to be found to engender trust that the job would be done properly. Talent Innovations and the University of York were a perfect match.