Human Resources

Welcome to the Glasgow Professional Behavioural Framework

Our Strategy sets out our ambition to be a world-class, world-changing University, focussing on transforming the way we work and interact with each other, our students and our partners. Our Glasgow Professional initiative complements our strategy and is a philosophy and ethos, defining what it means to be a Professional Services member of staff.

The University has now developed a bespoke Behavioural Competency Framework across the Professional Services job families – Management, Professional and Administrative (MPA), Technical & Specialist (T&S) and the Operational job family.

This Framework defines ‘how’ we can all contribute to the success of the organisation and to our own successes as individuals. Values and behaviours are very much linked and the University of Glasgow’s values – Ambition and Excellence, Curiosity and Discovery, Integrity and Truth and An Inclusive Community - sit at the heart of everything we do. Our behaviours are what people see and are an expression of what we value; they demonstrate the attitude and approach we, as Professional Services members of staff, should bring to our work and encompass how we do things, how we treat others and how we expect to be treated.

Professional Services staff work in an extensive range of jobs across the University, and have shared aims that underpin all we do - we are here to support the University to bring inspiring people together, and create a world-class environment for learning and research, empowering our staff and students to discover and share knowledge that can change the world.  

Staff from across the University identified these behaviours to be those that would help support us in achieving the University’s priorities and continue to make Glasgow a great place to work.

What are Behavioural Competencies?

Competencies are the skills, knowledge and behaviours that lead to successful performance. Our Framework outlines a range of behavioural competencies, which are grouped into clusters and, for each, there is a description of what it means in practice and some examples of effective and ineffective behaviours at all levels.

The behavioural competencies are intended to be discrete and cumulative, with each level building on the levels below. For example, a person demonstrating a behavioural competency at Senior Leader level should be demonstrating behaviours at the other levels as a matter of course. These indicators of behaviour are not designed to be comprehensive but should provide a clear and consistent sense of what is expected from Professional Services staff in the University of Glasgow.

What will the Behavioural Competency Framework mean for staff?

It is envisaged that the Framework will be used for recruitment & selection, performance & development review discussions and for decisions about career progression. Our objectives/performance standards set out ‘what’ we need to achieve over the course of a year and the Behavioural Competency Framework sets out ‘how’ we need to work to achieve those objectives.