How has the everyday working life of university employees changed during the pandemic? The Presidential Board and Staff Council asked this question in February. It was about work motivation, work-life balance, communication within the team and working from home.
The situation came as a surprise to everyone: In March 2020, the majority of the university's employees switched to working from home, the buildings were basically locked and the campus was deserted. In February, the Presidential Board and Staff Council jointly conducted an employee survey to find out how employees were experiencing this change in their everyday working life as a result of the pandemic - also to find out how a university can be managed in such an exceptional situation.
According to the Staff Council, this situation was a kind of real-life experiment at record speed, for which several studies would have had to be conducted under normal circumstances. Jörg Stahlmann, Vice President for Administration and Finance, explains that making a virtue out of a grade was also the background to the survey. "We can draw important conclusions for future work at the university from our experiences during the coronavirus period. Especially when it comes to teleworking and mobile working. We want to take even better account of the tasks and personal needs of each individual," he emphasises.
In fact, the survey provides a comprehensive picture of working under pandemic conditions: 1,234 of the 2,875 employees surveyed, almost 43 per cent, completed the questionnaire in full. As the responses were received from all areas of work at the university, the results can be considered representative, says Dr Carolin Schöbel-Peinemann, Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development.
Desire for more flexibility in work location
Schöbel-Peinemann organised the survey together with her colleagues Dr Astrid Beermann and Inga Rüdebusch from Health Management as well as representatives from the Staff Council and Staff Department. The Internal Evaluation team from the Department for Study Affairs analysed the results anonymously. According to the results, a good half of employees took on different tasks in their own area of responsibility during the pandemic than before. Most employees (87 per cent) felt that they were able to cope with the tasks sufficiently. The majority of respondents also rated aspects such as work motivation and cooperation with colleagues and superiors as positive.
At the time of the survey, over 90 per cent of respondents were working from home either fully or partially. Three quarters of this group were "very satisfied" or "fairly satisfied" with the situation. The elimination of travelling to work and the better compatibility of academic appointments and private commitments, such as childcare, were among the positive experiences. The majority of respondents therefore expressed the wish to be able to do some of their work from home in the future. "Many have developed a more positive attitude towards working from home," says Schöbel-Peinemann.
However, the results also show the downsides of the situation: many rated the accessibility of other organisational units as more negative compared to before. A quarter to almost half of employees also felt that communication with colleagues and superiors was worse - depending on whether they were working from home or not. In addition to social isolation, many also found it difficult to switch off from work and draw sufficient boundaries between academic appointments and private life when working from home.
New service agreement on the way
The Staff Council concludes from the results that the university has created sufficiently good conditions for employees despite the circumstances - even if this naturally cannot apply to all employees. It is now a matter of drawing appropriate conclusions for the future and allowing employees more flexibility in terms of where and how they work, in line with their wishes. It is important to consider the needs of everyone, including those who do not benefit from working from home.
The Presidential Board and Division 1 are now working with the Staff Council to define the organisational, social and legal framework. Among other things, this includes digitalisation and equipping the home office, but also the development of skills among managers and employees. The current "Service agreement on workplace alternatives during the coronavirus crisis" will remain valid until the end of the winter semester. By then, the parties involved plan to have finalised a new service agreement, which will then come into force.
