Work Life Balance
We understand that managing work-life balance is essential for your wellbeing. As well as a generous annual leave allowance and flexible hybrid working approach, we provide a range of family friendly policies.
Hybrid Working
As a campus-based university, we are committed to enabling our colleagues to work to a hybrid model with a combination of on campus and remote working, where possible.
Many academics already have flexibility built into their working arrangements, where some aspects of academic work may be undertaken remotely. Under our new Hybrid Working Framework, this flexibility has now been extended to our Professional Support Services colleagues, and offers the opportunity for some roles to be worked partly on campus and remotely from home.
To find out more about our Hybrid Working Framework, Guidance or Frequently asked Questions, please click here: Hybrid Working - University of Huddersfield
Family Friendly Policies
We have a range of family-friendly policies designed to support the work-life balance of our staff members with family responsibilities.
Our family friendly policies include:
In addition to these policies, we also offer:
- A Dependants Leave policy, which enables staff members to take a reasonable amount of time off work, to deal with an unexpected or sudden problem involving their dependants.
- Family Leave Guidance documents to help our staff members prepare for a period of family leave. These documents include helpful checklists to guide our staff members and line managers through what to expect before, during and after their period of leave.
- A Returning Parents Support Group. This is a peer support group which aims to support staff members who are balancing ongoing caring responsibilities with work.
We are also a breastfeeding friendly campus and there are no restrictions on bottle or breastfeeding at the University. For more information please read our Breastfeeding Statement
Flexible Working Options
The University recognises that a little flexibility can sometimes make a lot of difference in helping staff to balance the demands of work and personal life.
Here at the University we offer a range of flexible working options, including:
- Flexi Time - This scheme is available to Professional Services Support Staff and enables staff members to work pre-agreed times that suit their personal circumstances whilst ensuring service standards are maintained.
- Part Time - This option allows staff members to reduce their working hours to enable them to meet temporary or permanently increased responsibilities outside work.
- Term Time Only - This is a form of part-time working, where staff members works only within the University's academic term time.
- Job Share - This is also a form of part-time working, where all aspects of a job are shared between two or more people.
- Flexible Retirement - Staff members may apply for flexible retirement (subject to eligibility) and take part of their pension benefits if they reduce their working hours.
Where it is possible and practical, we will accommodate flexible arrangements. However, requests will be considered against service needs and may be turned down if there is a good business reason for not being able to accommodate it.
Annual Leave
Here at the University, we provide a generous annual leave offering in addition to bank holidays which includes:
- 30 days for our Professional Services staff members
- 32 days for our Senior staff members
- 37 days for our Academic staff members
Staff members also benefit from discretionary University closure days over the Christmas holiday period.
Annual Leave Purchasing Scheme
We also understand that there may be occasions when you may wish to take more than their standard contractual annual leave. The University’s Annual Leave Purchase Scheme offers the opportunity to purchase additional leave through a salary sacrifice arrangement. Staff members can exchange part of their salary for up to one week (37 hours) of additional annual leave pro-rated for part-time employees. This provides a flexible option for those seeking extra time for personal or family commitments.
