Thank you to everyone who completed our Wellbeing Survey. This significant survey is run every two years, to gather staff input on a range of issues relating to wellbeing and sustainability. The results of the survey will be used to inform the development of our wellness programme, as well as supporting healthier and more sustainable travel options. The results of the flexible working arrangements section will also be used to explore new ways of working in a post-COVID world, which will be discussed at the upcoming Tū Arotake staff event (please register now if you haven’t already)
Merran shared a summary of the results earlier this week, and you can now read full reports of all sections. The full reports will tell more of the story behind the numbers and give a more in-depth insight into the feedback.
- Full report: Flexible working and Christmas leave
- Full report: Wellness programme and mental health
- Full report: Sustainable travel
Highlights from the survey sections
During COVID-19 there were five main themes to the lessons learned. There were two points of shared experience and five points where experiences diverged. Click on the image to see the full report.
Flexible work arrangements
- Most staff (73%) are in favour of remote working each week and the majority would like this to be less than half of the working week.
- A third (30%) of staff have mentioned that they would need an extra monitor. Support staff are needing more equipment (monitor, ergonomic chair, headset/ keyboard/ mouse) when compared to academic staff.
Flexible work arrangements will be discussed at Tū Arotake next Friday. Click on the image to see the full report.
- Almost all staff (86%) are interested in flexible start and finishing hours. This view is consistent across all roles, age and gender.
- Support staff are more interested (40%) in the ability to cash in a week’s leave while academic staff are more interested (46%) in an extended period of leave.
Christmas close-down period
- 72% of staff state that they were happy with the length of the Christmas closedown period last year. This high proportion is consistent across gender and age (except 70yrs+ which is a small sample size so should be treated with caution).
- Academic staff show slightly higher approval (77%) compared to Support staff (69%).
- Staff are split on whether they would like a minimal period vs an extended period over Christmas with 39% preferring each. A quarter (22%) are ambivalent.
- Academic staff are less likely to prefer a minimal period (33%) when compared to support staff (42%). However, they are similar in wanting an extended period. Preference is relatively similar across age and gender of staff.
Wellness programme
- The proportion of staff not aware of the wellness programme has declined significantly from 26% in 2018 to 2% in 2020. Awareness of the wellness programme is lower amongst younger staff members (less than 29yrs) which provides an opportunity for more targeted communications.
- Digital channels (Nest, Pou Tukutuku Weekly newsletter and emails) are proving to be a large influence in driving awareness of the wellness programme.
Our Sustainability and Wellbeing team is incorporating your ideas into the new August wellness programme. Click on the image to see the full report.
- Word of mouth continues to be the third most used channel, specifically amongst support teams and Māori and Pacific staff.
- When it comes to enablers, there has been a slight increase (2.4%) in managerial support for wellness initiatives but staff comments point to lack of organisational approach and fairness across all of the Unitec teams. There is a need for conversations to be had re: wellness at work attitudes and matching up expectations of both staff and leaders.
- High workloads and unsuitable timing of the initiatives were named as the key barriers to engaging with the wellness programme. In addition to offering wider range of timing options for the wellness initiatives, there is a need for conversations to be had re: wellness at work, how it relates to stress management and what is the pragmatic way to share the health and safety responsibility at individual, team and organisational level.
Mental health and stress management
- A third of staff (31%) have had some form of training for mental health and stress management. This proportion is slightly higher amongst academic staff (38%) and Pacific and Asian staff (34% and 37% respectively).
- 17% of staff have expressed interest in partaking in formal training which is higher amongst support staff (20%) and Staff 30 – 39 years of age (31%).
- Awareness of Unitec’s support resources is high across most initiatives with peer support being the highest source for staff.
- Awareness of the more ‘formal’ resources (EAP, HR Business Partners, ALLY, Speak Up Process) is lower amongst academic staff and males which provides an opportunity to target these groups with more communications. Asian staff could also benefit from targeted approach.
- Māori staff have a large awareness of Wharekai Maanaki & Puukenga compared to other resources.
Sustainable travel
- The majority of staff continue to drive alone to work for both campuses. There has been no change in the main mode of transport for staff over the past 4 years with the only statistically significant change being a decline in staff walking/ running to the Mt Albert campus from 8% to 3% over the past 4 years.
- Driving alone remains the main preferred mode of transport in the future, while appetite to start using public transport more is high and has increased over the past 2 years. Intentions to bike to work in the future has declined for both campuses.
- Awareness of Unitec’s internal shuttle remains high with a slight decline in usage shown over the past 2 years.
- Awareness of the fleet of e-bikes and bicycles has increased significantly since 2018, however actual usage has only increased slightly over the same period.
- Awareness of showers on-site is high (81%) and 21% of our staff have used them.
- Awareness of e-bike discounts needs more work as 64% of staff aren’t aware of the discount offered on e-bike purchases