Employee survey 2021 – action areas and measures

The survey gave employees a chance to give feedback on their work situation and their satisfaction with ETH as an employer. The results of the survey will be used to further improve and develop the university.

In contrast to previous surveys, this year's survey yielded more than 620 detailed, tailored reports for teams and research groups that had at least five respondents. This translates into 54% of professorial chairs having received their own report. These reports give supervisors valuable insight into the situation of their teams or groups.

Action areas and measures

The Executive Board and VPPL have identified the following four action areas, along with corresponding measures, to further optimise working conditions and the university as a whole:

Leadership, management/supervision and development

These areas have remained on a high level and in some cases even improved slightly. ETH Zurich aims to reinforce this strength with the following measures:

• Academy for leadership and development: VPPL is working together with various stakeholders to expand leadership and development support in line with the concept of lifelong learning.
• Status reviews and personal development meetings should continue to be promoted. Employee development topics should be a regular part of discussions between employees and supervisors, along with clarifications of mutual expectations. For specific groups such as doctoral students, new doctoral regulations are entering into force on 1 January 2022 that contain provisions and additional support for promoting status reviews.
• Smart working ¨C flexible and mobile ways of working: The Executive Board supports the facilitation of more flexible and mobile ways of working. The Board has asked VPPL to work together with various stakeholder and university groups to implement the planned measures. The university will be drawing from its experience during the corona lockdowns and the desk-sharing discussions with the federal government.
• Digital literacy: With digitalisation on the rise (keywords: paperless office, hybrid collaboration), promoting digital literacy is also important to ETH Zurich. Digital literacy encompasses digital skills, for instance in IT security, data protection, efficiency/automation and handling information. Offering an introductory course on digital literacy is being discussed within rETHink Workstream 5. In addition to technology, issues surrounding leadership and collaboration are also in the spotlight.

Diversity and respect

For the most part, employees feel that their supervisors treat them with respect. It is important to ETH Zurich to maintain and promote this culture of respect.

• Discussions on university culture: Diversity is one of the five values of ETH Zurich and received good evaluations in the employee survey. More emphasis should be placed on diversity when it comes to equal treatment of all groups at ETH, particularly regarding people's academic/hierarchical position. This issue is already being discussed within the culture development rETHink team.
• Diversity strategy: VPPL is currently working on a diversity strategy for ETH Zurich.
• Respect campaign: The ¡°Stand up for respect¡± awareness campaign communicates ETH Zurich's position and expectations regarding mutual respect and consideration.
• Support for assistant professors is being addressed in rETHink Workstream 3 with the intent to implement a special onboarding procedure.

Mental health

Employee health is very important to the university. According to the survey results, however, ETH could do even more to promote employees¡¯ psychological well-being. For this reason, the following measures have been devised:

• Coaching and support service: The existing contact, support and advice services will be expanded with the addition of an external psychological counselling office. Similar to the counselling services for students and doctoral candidates, the new external counselling service will be available to scientific and technical-administrative staff who are privately seeking professional help.
• First aid courses: ETH plans to implement first aid courses regarding mental health for supervisors and employees. Members of the ETH community should feel equipped to offer "first aid¡± to people in their environment who are experiencing mental health struggles. The courses will be offered by the ensa foundation and have proven effective in other organisations.
• Awareness: Regular informational events, along with messages integrated into existing platforms such as leadership courses, aim to raise awareness among supervisors and staff about stress and resources.

Dealing with change

Change poses challenges to employees, supervisors and the university as a whole. For that reason, it is important to receive buy-in from members of the ETH community in order to meet these challenges.

• Communication and involvement: Centrally driven changes (such as the rETHink project) will continue to be actively communicated by Corporate Communications.
• Change communication: Changes that take place in academic and administrative departments should be accompanied by stakeholder involvement and good communication. VPPL is already providing support together with HR Consulting and the Personnel and Organisational Development team.