21 January 2016

Liaison group – notes from meeting (January 20th 2016)

Attending: Anna Eriksson, Carl Johan Lagerkvist, Cilla Mark-Herbert, Ruben Hoffmann, Staffan Waldo & Sara Säll

Unable to attend: Anna Mårtensson (union representative), Birgitta Norén,Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah Tina Ericsson

Location: D437 Östad

Welcome to the meeting + a preliminary agenda

Structure for the meeting

-Social Work Environment (SAM), appendix 1

-Last meeting notes

-Work environment survey (at SLU, centrally in April 2016)

- Reflection on our psycho-social work environment survey (2015)

-Principles for allocation of rooms for the staff

-Principles, routines and responsibilities concerning individual student demands that are above and beyond what can be expected for example scanning exams or writing up certificates for partial examination

- Our time management program that is going to put in practice this spring at the department

- Additional questions

- Our next meeting…

Social Work Environment (SAM)

This document (Appendix 1) needs to be updated by Carl Johan, Helena & Rob (Prefektgruppen)

The Risk Inventory concerning our moved location in 2015 is discussed

Some comments will be transferred to future risk inventories

- Political risk policy

- Bad feelings – colleagues talk about them

A recent risk inventory was made in January 2016 (by Ruben and Anna)If you have issues that you would like Anna and Ruben to check up the next time they do this risk inventory please make contact with Anna or Ruben.

Fire Education – for staff working in Ulls hus (has been sent to all of us)

Additional opportunities will be offered later this spring.

Last meeting notes

A reminder of that we have a book shelf that we can leave books at that we no longer need. It is located in the copying room.

Work environment survey (at SLU, centrally in April 2016)

The survey of work environment that is going to be conducted in April.

It will be sent out centrally – with background information already integrated in the link that each person gets when responding. The data will be owned by and located outside SLU. The persons in leading positions (HOD, Deans…) will get a data compliliation directly.

We can provide additional questions (Dedadline is February 1st). Our suggestion is that we point to the possibility of asking questions about:

social sciences (which is not the norm at SLU),

and the fact that our educational role at the Department is relatively big.

Questions we assume are covered in the standard survey:

+ Over all “happy at work” question

+ The fact that SLU is spread over different campuses where a boss may be on a different location

+ Information, communication and transparency is key in work satisfaction – but few of us have the time to investigate (it is cause of stress because of uncertainty – we don’t know if we know what we should know…)

+ Information in Swedish and English – in accordance with our bilingual policy (forms, home pages etc.)

Reflection on our psycho-social work environment survey (2015)

  • High response rate
  • Work content – most respondents seem to be happy with their work tasks (76%, but about half of the staff don’t feel that they can complete their tasks with in the stipulated work hours, which is something that is concerning).
  • The vast majority find their work tasks stimulating.
  • The vast majority of the staff are tired after a day at work (OK but not every day) There is a difference between tired and exhausted...
  • A good number of persons bring work home – this is a warning that we need to keep an eye on (17% bring work home).
  • Objectives and work tasks – the majority of the staff knows about the objectives but we need to continue our efforts with employee dialogue and engagement in development at the Department
  • The majority of the staff feel good at work – but 40 % state that collaboration is not stimulated. Is this an academic system effect? The organizational aspects are key for creating shared work conditions.
  • (page 11) – resolving problems. About 40% perceive that it is hard to find mutual grounds in a discussions where individuals have different opinions. This question points to needs to continue the efforts to work on our value grounds (norm guarding)
  • (page 17- 19) About 20% state that they are not met with respect. © Conflict resolution and d) openness to changes – about half of the staff feel that the leaders are not open for changes, e) lacking openness
  • A possible action that can be suggested here would be to increase transparency in central decision-making and an activity that addresses our shared value grounds
  • We know little about the conditions were for each person when responding to the survey...

SynthesisThese bullet points (above) serve as starting points for Carl Johan’s synthesis – and reflection – of our survey.

  • Both department leadership group and persons with a leading position lack in capability in resolving problems (18 – 22).
  • We ALL need to work on conflict management – and finding shared ground.
  • We will not be able to create a good organization – until we find constructive leaders in each of the research groups.

This reflection is far from complete – but it is a start of the learning we can make from the employee survey.

Suggestion for a Department Conference: talking about the expectations on a group leader from the employees

Principles for allocation of rooms for the staff

Carl Johan shares a policy for dividing the office spaces (Appendix 2)

We have to be (all of us) ready to alter our room as the staff profile changes.

A suggestion: An empty room – that can be booked (telephone meetings etc.)

A suggestion: Alter the telephone – from land-lines to mobile phones, both for every day practical matters as well as for having the same equipment as the students when we work with our Fronter pages and other communicational platforms that now is taken for granted among students. We, teachers lag behind if we don’t see the same views as the students.

Principles, routines and responsibilities concerning individual student demands that are above and beyond what can be expected for example scanning exams or writing up certificates for partial examination

A suggestion for a seminar for staff that has teaching and advisory services – where we have a continuous dialogue about the practical procedures for us.

The planned seminars for this spring is an excellent start, but we need to talk about the small seemingly trivial things too.

Our time management program that is going to put in practice this spring at the department

A closer presentation of the time management system that will be initiated this spring (the 4th quarter). The new program is going to help us keep track of course management (teaching mainly). It is not planned for general time management (other tasks than that related to teaching).

It would be ideal if we have some kind of “point 0”- measurement of perceptions of time management with plans to do a follow up some time after we have developed some comfort with the new system (and encouragement to all of us to make notes of what is easy, hard, what works well and not so…).

Additional questions

A process for the election for a HOD for the next period. Carl Johan’s HOD role ends June 30th 2016. An election group will be selected to start the process (from the Dean).

Our next meeting…

Suggested time for the next meeting April 13th at 14 in Östad

Tentatively the next meeting is planned for June 15th at 14 in Östad

Thanks for your input!

Ruben & Cilla

APPENDIX 1.(SAM –needs to be updated)

Social environment work – identified needs (2013)

The social work environment at the Department of Economics is a key task for the social environment group. Our work aims at proactively identifying factors that will positively influence the work environment.

Need / factor / Activity / Responsible person / Follow up/ communication / Time
Clarity in tasks and conditions for work / Annual employee dialogue
All persons in leading positions have undergone training in promoting a good work environment / Head of department / Research group coordinator / Summary to the HOD and feed-back to employees at the Department / Annually, September
Balancing work and private life / Work descriptioin
NL- faculty seminar 22/5 “Den framgångsrika forskaren…” (sw) / All, persons in leading positions / Employee follow-up dialogues / Annually, September
Job safety / Information about how the financial system works / Persons with leading positions / Employee follow-up dialogues / Annually
A feeling of creating shared values / Shared objectives / All
A shared understanding of what is desirable and acceptable in professional work / Implementing our code of conduct (our codex) / Individuals in leading positions / Feedback in relation to the value grounds (our codex) + A “compass” training task at dep. conf. / Continuously
Annually
Clarity with regards to what is expected and desired in a professional role / Rewards and encouragement for extraordinary work performances / Attention – a cake, news in the newsletter… to recognize achievements.
Regular information / Informative meetings on a continuous basis / Individuals in leading positions / Follow up on information needs by the employees / Follow-up at the Department conferences
Employee understanding of what should be done in emergencies / Annual information about safety procedures / HOD and research coordinators / Ask about this during employee dialogues / At the time of employment/ at Department conferences
New employees learning about the structure at the Department / ”A welcome package” presentations at Department meetings and on our web page / HOD and research coordinators / Employee follow-up dialogues / Annually
Social activities / For example Christmas lunch, BBQ, sports activities and celebrations / Social environment work group
Knowledge of issues related to physical work place* / A current issue is related to measurement of Radon in our house / Work Environment representative / Regular information to all employees, regular information on our Department meetings / When needed, regular information
Contact with our alumni / Sending out information about seminars etc to our former work mates

*It is important that we ALL know about the fact that the vent system should be ON at ALL hours – all days of the week (even during our vacations). If the vents are not on, please sent a complaint to Akademiska hus – form on this web page: . Urgent matters – contact: Mikael Rimskog,Phone: 683121

This ”SAM- work environment work” document will be followed up when needed and in the spring of 2014.

Appendix 2. Policy for room distribution at the Department of Economics (2016)

Principles for allocating office spaces (rooms)

PhD-students, Post Doc’s and non-permanent researcher positions will use shared offices. Single-space offices will be used as an exception and then only on an temporary basis.

Tenured positions (FLK)/ Senior lectures/Professors/permanent Administrative staff should have single-space offices. Office spaces are allocated by seniority.

Retired Professors (Prof em)/Visiting scholars will use shared offices and office spaces are allocated based on availability.

Carl Johan Lagerkvist

Helena Hansson

Rob Hart

(2016)

1