Rewards and benefits

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Pay

The University is committed to providing a competitive pay structure, aimed at attracting external talent and maintaining the satisfaction and commitment of our existing employees. Our pay structure is adjusted annually in line with the national pay award, and our pay scales allow for internal in-grade progression, including discretionary ranges, to recognise and reward exceptional contributions and performance.

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Pension

We have two generous Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes available to our staff, alongside an alternative Defined Contribution (DC) scheme that offers more choice and flexibility in planning for your retirement.

Academic and Research staff will be enrolled in the Teacher’s Pension Scheme (TPS), a defined benefit scheme. Employees receive tax relief on their contributions of between 7.4% and 11.7% (depending on salary) and have the opportunity to make additional voluntary contributions.

Professional Services staff and Research Assistants will be enrolled in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), a defined benefit scheme. Employees receive tax relief on their contributions of between 5.5% and 12.5% (depending on salary) and have the opportunity to make additional voluntary contributions. The 50/50 section allows you to pay 50% contributions and build up 50% pension benefits for the period you’re in it; it is designed to help you continue to build up your pension if you are experiencing financial difficulties.

The University makes significant employer contributions towards the cost of providing TPS and LGPS pension benefits.  Both of these schemes offer secure pensions, life cover and a pension payment to your nominated beneficiaries in the event of death and early access to your pension in the event of you become seriously ill (two-year vesting period is applicable).  You can choose when to access your pension (currently from the age of 55 rising to 57 in April 2028), if you choose to take your pension before your normal retirement age (this is linked to your state pension age) there will be reductions in your benefits.

The defined contribution scheme offered by Aviva provides a flexible and affordable alternative to the traditional defined benefit schemes.  It operates as a salary exchange scheme meaning you agree to give up part of your salary in exchange for the university making all pension payments for you.  This arrangement reduces your National Insurance (NI) costs.  Your contributions can start from 3% of salary and the university will double your contribution, up to a maximum of 10%.  If the fixed contributions of the LGPS / TPS feel too high, this alternative scheme enables you to save for retirement at a lower cost, giving you more take-home pay while still benefiting from employer contributions.

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Holiday

At Derby, we understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance and are pleased to offer great annual leave allowances:

• 26 days for Professional Services staff, including those in Management, Professional and Specialist grades (MPS), and Research Assistants.
• 30 days for those in Leadership grades.
• 35 days for Academic staff.

On top of this, all staff receive up to 4 university closure days per year, as well as bank holidays.

Staff in MPS and Leadership grades are also invited to participate in the university’s Holiday Purchase Scheme where additional annual leave can be bought via a salary sacrifice arrangement. 

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Family-friendly benefits

The University is committed to providing competitive family-friendly packages in support of talent, attraction, retention, staff well-being and career progression. We have competitive maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave and pay provisions. 

Subject to eligibility criteria (which includes having one year's continuous service by the Qualifying Week (the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth) or Matching Week (the week in which you were notified of being matched with the child for adoption):

• Employees taking maternity, adoption and shared parental leave can enjoy up to 18 weeks leave at full pay
• Employees taking paternity leave can benefit from 3 weeks leave at full pay to be taken together or separately 

As part of our Special Leave Policy, we allow for five paid days of Carer's leave to be taken together or separately. We also offer special leave provisions for antenatal appointments, adoption appointments, emergency dependant leave, parental bereavement leave and fertility treatment.

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Flexible working

We aim to foster a culture where flexible working is viewed as the norm, not the exception, and we operate under the presumption that all roles are open to some form of flexibility.

As part of our commitment, we acknowledge and strive to accommodate the diversity of our staff by being as flexible as possible in our work arrangements. This includes considering the broad-ranging personal or professional obligations of our employees, such as parental or caring responsibilities, commuting time, health/wellbeing needs, educational pursuits, charity work, leisure activities, and other personal interests.

Any employee, irrespective of their length of service, can make a request for flexible working.

Hybrid working

At the University of Derby, we operate an Adaptive Working Framework, which allows our people the flexibility to work both on-site and remotely, depending on the nature of their role.

Our job adverts state the Adaptive Working mode for that particular role, which include on-site, hybrid and remote. Where hybrid working is available, you’ll be able to agree with your manager when you will be working from site or remotely, but this will remain flexible and will change depending on the business needs. If you need to fix the days you work remotely, you will need to submit a flexible working request.

Read more about our Adaptive Working Framework

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Health

Our Kedleston Road campus is home to our multi-million pound Sports Centre where staff can benefit from discounted membership and enjoy access to a range of facilities, including our gym, climbing wall, squash courts, tennis/netball courts, group fitness studio, cycling studio and two outdoor 3G synthetic pitches.

As part of our ongoing commitment to promoting health, sustainability and employee well-being, the University operates a Cycle to Work Scheme. This government approved salary sacrifice scheme enables you to get a new bike and safety equipment through the University for getting to and from work and for use at evenings and weekends.

You can choose a bike (and equipment) up to the value of £3,000.  The cost is deducted from salary over 12 months. 

We also offer a generous sick pay provision, with eligible staff receiving up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 26 weeks half pay depending on length of service.

Staff in Leadership grades also have access to employer-funded Private Health Insurance with Bupa and flexible benefits including dental insurance and a health cash plan.

Wellbeing

The University of Derby takes a holistic approach to wellbeing, recognising there is an implicit link between inclusion and wellbeing and how people experience work. To support this holistic approach our wellbeing framework supports the 8 pillars of wellbeing:

• emotional
• physical
• spiritual
• environmental
• social
• digital
• occupational
• financial

We also support our staff’s wellbeing through awareness raising, development activity and through support services, including our comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme which provides 24/7 emotional support as well as practical guidance to support you and your immediate family.

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Discounts

University of Derby staff can take advantage of hundreds of shopping discounts on a wide range of products with popular retailers as well as attractions using our discount platform. Discounts are available as instant vouchers, reloadable cards and cashback.

Staff can also benefit from discounted membership of our multi-million pound Sports Centre, with a fully equipped gym, climbing wall, courts and pitches as well as access to fitness classes and personal training sessions.

The University offers a discount to staff and their children who have chosen to come to study at the University of Derby. This contribution is also available to partners of staff on undergraduate, professional and postgraduate courses. The scheme provides a substantial monetary saving to the 'potential' student which, over the duration of the course, adds up to a significant saving.

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Career Development and Recognition

As an education institution, we’re passionate about supporting our staff to develop both personally and professionally. We believe it’s important for learning to be a continuous journey, and that’s why have a talent management strategy and facilitate a range of impactful development opportunities so that colleagues can develop their careers from early career roles through to professor/leadership levels. To support employee performance, potential managers have regular one-to-ones and two formal touchpoints in a year to focus on development conversations, which forms part of our appraisal experience.

Our agile development provision includes on-the-job coaching and mentoring, over 50 apprenticeship programmes and a central programme of learning, covering webinar/live sessions on research, learning and teaching, leadership and management, digital and core workplace skills. We also offer learning at times suited to individuals through a library of learning including Linkedin Learning, giving access to over 5000 courses.  

We take professional recognition and qualifications seriously and so we support up to 80% funding and time off for accredited learning programmes, which equated to circa £200,000 in 2024 where colleagues demonstrated a sound business case for investment. As a TEF Gold Institution teaching standards are very important to us. So, we support new academic staff to achieve Fellowship to AdvanceHE, where appropriate, within 24 months of appointment through our Academic Professional Apprenticeship (APA) delivered through the Institute of Education (Ofsted Outstanding rating in 2024), as our default support route.

We have a Celebrating Staff Excellence Framework which demonstrates how we value our people by recognising staff who have made a notable contribution in a variety of financial and non-financial ways. Our Framework includes local award ceremonies and recognition e-cards, plus an Exceptional Contribution Scheme, Local Reward Vouchers and Loyalty Awards, where we financially recognise people. 

Finally, we have an active listening strategy and a Culture Panel to support ‘how’ we are working. This means we take the time to find out staff views on a regular basis on a range of topics from development, inclusion, reward and recognition. Our staff are our unique selling point and play an important part in what and how we shape our future endeavours.  That’s why we also have an Ideas Forum where staff can put forward proposals which may need resource (time/money) to realise great ideas that help us, individuals and teams achieve great things.

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Community, Connection and Sustainability

We have shaped our philosophy with the voices of our employees and students and by organisational need.  We recognise that there is a deeply felt connection between inclusion and wellbeing that rests in an environment where people feel psychologically safe to be their whole self and we enable people to contribute where they can. 

Through inclusion, we aim to raise awareness of equity and encourage role modelling positive behaviours. We see inclusion as everyone’s business, and we are proud of our commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing. Our philosophy is a felt, lived, valued and inclusive experience where people feel they have purpose, place, choice and belonging.

There are many different ways that staff can get involved with our rich and diverse University community. We offer a range of activities that provide a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and make new friends, including the University choir, various sporting activities such as badminton and yoga, charity walks and fundraising events and the annual Santa Run.

Staff are welcome to join our employee networks, designed to help promote inclusion and build belonging at the University:

• Race Equality Network
• LGBTQ+ Equality Network
• Women and Allies Network
• Disability and Wellbeing Network
• Faith and Belief Network
• Aurora Network
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

There’s also lots of opportunities for staff to get involved and support our students through volunteering at Open Day and Graduation events, as well as annual clearing events.

Volunteering

We are delighted to be a Civic University and proud of the positive impact we are making across the city and county. Staff can use up to 3 paid days per year to engage in volunteering activities associated with our civic agenda which may include, supporting the health and social care needs of our local communities, environmental/conservation initiatives, charity work and enhancing the local area’s overall offer and vibrancy.

Sustainability

At the University of Derby, we are passionate about embedding sustainability into everything that we do. We aim to bring environmental sustainability into all aspects of the University, including teaching, research and operational activities. In line with the University’s strategic framework, we expect all our staff to embed sustainability into their working practices and support the University’s objective to reach net zero carbon by 2050.