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Kia ora koutou
Wellbeing survey – Flexible working and Christmas close-down
Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in our recent Wellbeing survey, which is designed to shape our Wellness programme, explore new ways of working post-COVID-19, understand any benefits gained while working from home, and to get your input on sustainable travel.
This is our second biennial survey since we initiated this in 2018. This year we made a particular emphasis on flexible working practices and also asked you for your feedback on the length of the Christmas close-down period. You can find the summary results on these sections in the Wellbeing survey – Flexible work arrangements and Christmas close-down sections.
In this part of the survey we asked you about the length of the 2019/20 Christmas closedown period and 72% of staff stated that they were happy with this, but you were divided on whether you would like a minimal period versus an extended period over the upcoming close-down 2020/21, with 39% preferring each. A quarter, 22%, were undecided.
The ELT have considered this feedback along with comments around staff fatigue after the COVID-19 lockdown and inability for staff to take their usual leave mid-year. We have also had to consider the large leave balances we are carrying, which indicates that many staff are due for a break. On this basis we have decided that the for close-down period for 2020, our last day will be Friday 18 December 2020, returning Monday 11 January 2021. This means you will be using eleven annual leave days and will have a break in total of 23 days (includes statutory days). I appreciate many of you take a much longer break over the summer and we are very supportive of this. You can book your leave now.
For some of our staff, and as allowed for previously, you can return earlier if your role requires you to be back on site, particularly in areas critical to student support or teaching summer school. If you do meet these criteria, please discuss this with your manager and get this signed off in advance of logging your leave.
We’ll be reporting back to you on other sections from the survey later this week - these will be posted on the Nest.
Tū Arotake · Checkpoint
I’m really looking forward to Tū Arotake · Checkpoint on Friday 7 August and encourage you to make every effort to attend our mid-year event. We appreciate that this year our event is during semester time, but I’m hoping most of you will be able to cover your commitments and be able to attend. It will be great to be together again and this is an opportunity for you to hear how Unitec is doing, more on the upcoming EER and also from Peter Winder, our Board Chair, on what is happening with the NZIST.
Make sure you register now so we can ensure we have enough seating and also kai, for the post event catch-up with colleagues.
During the event, at a workshop session, we’ll be exploring more on your insights on new ways of working, including flexible work practices and working remotely. One of the key themes we captured on this topic from the May Staff Pulse survey and the Wellbeing survey, was the need for a set of guiding principles. We’ll work on developing these principles to ensure that they are fit for purpose so that we can move forward confidently into new ways of working, that reflect our values. This is the opportunity to have discussions with colleagues and ensure your voice has been heard.
Tū Arotake is a key event on our staff calendar and an opportunity for us to come together after an unprecedented and very challenging time. It is another way for us to recognise and thank you for the excellent mahi that you have all done during very trying times.
I look forward to seeing you in person on Friday 7 August - make sure all your colleagues are there as well.
Wellbeing survey - And the winners are…
And finally, we really appreciated the high participation rate for the Wellbeing survey and the thoughtful feedback that was provided. Everyone that filled out the survey went into a prize draw and congratulations to Rudolph Mario – School of Trades and Services, Pip Newman – School of Architecture, Kate Harder – School of Environmental and Animal Sciences, and Brigette Shutkowski – Industry Workforce team, for (respectively) winning two Fitbits and two $70.00 Subway vouchers.
Ngā mihi
Merran Davis
Interim Chief Executive
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