Dear employees,
All employees will receive the ARK survey via e-mail on Tuesday 1 February. I would like to encourage everyone to take ten minutes to respond to the survey! The survey represents an important contribution to our shared working environment.
The working environment is changing
After two years of living with the pandemic, working remotely and having to adjust to major changes to how we work and collaborate, it is now important to take the time to reflect on and discuss how it has affected us, our jobs, the way in which we collaborate and our work community.
We have added new words and expressions such as Zoom fatigue, hybrid meetings and “you’re on mute” to our vocabularies. There are both positive and negative aspects associated with working remotely from home and opinions on the matter are divided. Perhaps the pandemic has made us more conscious of the importance of community and the social, relationship-based aspects of our jobs?
The working environment relates to how we organise, plan and implement our work. A good, safe working environment is important for us to be able to do a good job, enjoy good health and feel happy. The ARK process is about retaining the aspects that work well and improving the aspects your unit feels it needs to improve.
The outcomes of the survey rely on us all participating
The survey and the follow-up meetings provide you, as employees, with the opportunity to say something about how you find things at work and to influence your working environment and working day. The feedback you provide will help your manager to promote a good working environment. The more of us that respond to the survey, the better the basis for developing accurate working environment initiatives that the entire unit considers relevant and that meet the actual needs of employees.
All employees have a responsibility to contribute to the development of their working environment and to participate in follow-up meetings. Experiences from other universities that use ARK show that employees are more motivated to participate in the follow-up efforts if they have responded to the survey. Nevertheless, I must stress that responding to the survey is entirely voluntary.
During the mapping meeting after the survey, you will also have the opportunity to raise issues that affect the working environment but that are not covered by the survey.
A good working environment requires continuous, systematic work
It has been a long time since the last ARK survey back in 2014 and only parts of the Faculty participated at the time. The Faculty management has now decided that MED will complete the ARK survey every three years. A fixed cycle is important in order to ensure systematic follow-up. In the periods between each survey, the units will work to identify good initiatives, implement these and evaluate them, perhaps even adjusting them or replacing them with other initiatives. In this way, ARK is intended to be a continuous process spanning five phases.
Please do not hesitate to contact your safety representative, manager or ARK contact person if you have any questions.
It is important to the Faculty Management that everyone feels confident that they can say what they think. The ARK survey safeguards your anonymity. If you have any questions about the survey or the follow-up meetings, please contact your safety representative, manager or the ARK contact person for your unit.
Yours sincerely,
Acting Faculty Director, Hans Mossin
Read more
- The ARK web pages
- Article in MED News before Christmas: The Working Environment Survey (ARK) at MED