Improvements to Service

Campus Support

The Holocaust North Centre requested additional support to ensure that they felt safer in their space during the recent conflict in Gaza. The CS team have been a constant source of re-assurance and provide regular visits to the centre during their opening hours to reassure the staff of their presence. The CS team have also provided rehearsals for the team in the centre regarding their emergency procedures and identified issues with emergency phones which were rectified.

Following feedback from students regarding the lack of  provision of bird and bat boxes across campus, we have installed 8 new bat and bird boxes along the canal to improve biodiversity and enhance the customer experience when using the space.

Car Parking

We realised that staff wanted more car parking spaces nearer to campus, so we made use of space used for a waste area and created spaces closer to campus to offer staff wanting these spaces a better service.

Car Park users were complaining that overhanging trees from the neighbouring land were impacting on their car parking experience. We improved the overall safety, cleanliness, and aesthetics of all car parks by investing in ground’s maintenance work, re-lining etc which has improved the customer experience when using the car parks.

Blue badge holders requested that we offer dedicated permits for blue badge holders in key areas to ensure that they could park outside their workplaces. We amended the car parking policy to be able to offer this service which has been well received and improved the customer experience..

Motorcycle users were experiencing attempted thefts of their motorcycles as we had several motorcycle parking areas across campus that were underused and not very secure. After consultation with the users, we now offer 2 robust, well lit, CCTV covered motorcycle parks which has made the motorcycle group very happy, this has reduced the attempted thefts of motorcycles across campus.

Cleaning Services 

  • To maintain a clean and hygienic work environment for staff, students, and visitors that meet our standards of cleanliness, bi-monthly building audits have been introduced.
  • In contribution to the University's sustainability initiative, Soapâ‚‚O has been introduced in washrooms across campus which removes single use plastic from the soap we now use.   

General Maintenance 

  • Instant Response (IR) Process – it was identified that we were failing several of our customers when jobs were being recorded and the team not attending them within the 2-hour SLA. Upon review it was found that the process for assigning the jobs to the technical trades team was failing in the process. Therefor we have set up a notification process that immediately alerts the Maintenance Manager and Maintenance Supervisor of an IR reported issue. This has now provided us with a greater window of opportunity to assign the IR task to the relevant trade operative, to provide them with the best possible chance of attending the reported IR task and ensuring the customers requirements are attended to as per the SLA.
  • Room closure reporting/process – it was identified that the customer didn’t have full clarity as to when a room had been taken out of service for a maintenance issue and when the works were complete so the room could be utilised again. A process has been put in place to ensure that upon an issue arising and a room is required to be taken out of service then the required people/teams are notified of the issue, provided with an expected time frame for the works to be undertaken and notified upon completion of the works.
  • High Voltage Network Upgrades: The upgrades should improve resilience to faults on our electrical network, where a fault occurs the power outage time should be reduced and buildings affected less widespread. Maintenance activities will also be less disruptive - switching can be planned to minimise power loss on campus. 
  • Fire Panel Beeping: High volume of jobs on Planon reporting fire alarm panels beeping. We arranged for extra training for CSG Elec staff with Protec - improving their knowledge of the complex fire alarm network we have on campus. We also carried out an audit of panel responses to network events, that data was used to make alterations within the software configurations to reduce the beeping on campus. This should hopefully be reflected within Planon data as well - although inevitably we will still receive jobs when servicing. 

Helpdesk & Admin/IT

Keeping users informed

We responded to feedback about email notifications and keeping track of jobs:

We added a reminder on the form about logging to Estates Online to keep track, and we gave users the option of opting out of emails.

Originally, we had this as an opt-in to receive emails, but following feedback from users that the opt-in option was sometimes missed and that some users liked the confidence that receiving the email gives, we changed it to an opt-out.

Quicker notification of urgent jobs

We found that the response to some urgent maintenance jobs was being delayed because the managers were not always notified in a timely manner, especially in busy periods.

We have introduced email and Teams notifications to the maintenance team managers that are triggered within 5 minutes of the jobs being logged. We gave them the ability to view and allocate those jobs directly from their phones if away from their desks, and also to mark jobs as non-urgent if they are already aware of the issue and consider this to be the case.

Post Room

Schools and Services wanted a more efficient way to print and deliver their mail. The Post Room introduced Hybrid Mail service to the schools and services which allowed them to design, print and mail letters and marketing materials remotely saving time and money. This has enhanced the both the staff and recipients experience for those who use the new service.

Security 

In a recent safety walk which is carried out during a dark evening, the students and SU staff highlighted several areas that they felt were unsafe on campus, the actions from this safety walk which have now been resolved included improved lighting, cutting back foliage and additional locks on cycle shelters. These actions will improve students’ perception of being safe on campus.

Students provided feedback that they weren’t sure where the security base was and when on campus later in an evening couldn’t identify the Hub. We invested in new flags for outside the Hub which clearly identified the security Hub and where students should head to if they needed assistance.

Staff and Students were unsure where to report a security incident. The security team designed a QR code which was printed onto small cards which are handed out to students and staff at any opportunity. The cards have the QR code but also provide the card holder with telephone numbers, email addresses etc of the security team.

Catering 

We have upgraded our till system, this has resulted in faster transaction speeds, the introduction of digital vouchers and will allow us to develop a customer loyalty app in the near future.

In response to customer feedback we have trialled an evening ‘supper club’ in collaboration with one of our current students and the Huddersfield Enterprise Scheme.  The trial completed on 5th March 2024 and we will be working with all involved to review in the coming weeks

We have frozen the price of our £1.99 hot meals on Eco Eats for the 23/24 academic year.  We have also frozen the price on our build your own salad boxes, available at International Kitchen, The Street and Weavers Café.

We now offer a hot meal, snack and soft drink for £3.25 on Eco Eats.

Estates Procurement 

Updated our standard tender documents to reflect new considerations & to make it easier for both evaluators and bidders.

Actively used the new file structure when storing, saving & publishing tender documentation.