Table 4 Thematic analysis of suggestions to improve workplace culture
Theme | Sub themes | Quotes |
|---|---|---|
Improve job security and remuneration | ▪ improving job security ▪ pay reflective of qualifications and experience | Ensure longer contracts and better job security for EMCRs Supporting continuity in insecure work environments Base level research position for job security Better support around the time of contract renewal, ie what financial support you may be eligible for if you don’t get renewed Improved wages |
Provide career planning support | ▪ career mentoring and coaching ▪ better supporting people from diverse backgrounds and with career interruptions to get promoted ▪ capacity building ▪ clear expectations | Mandatory Mentorship and career development A realistic promotion pathway. The criteria for promotion are just way too hard, particularly if you have more than one circumstance that may affect this e.g. rural location disadvantage, carer responsibilities, teaching (when research metrics are the main metrics looked at. Opportunity to develop own career whilst working on someone else’s grant Providing realistic information on chances of success/failure in this career early enough so people can make a decision to leave |
Invest in people and culture | ▪ promoting positive workplace behaviours and mentoring ▪ a more adequate and transparent process of reporting and managing workplace abuse ▪ improving diversity and inclusion ▪ remove silos through better integration of people into teams, Schools and University | Appropriately manage supervisors who are performing poorly—have a system of 360 degree feedback that operates all the time, like SETUs [anonymous method for Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units] Hold the bullies accountable and listen to the ECRs when they complain Create a channel for the EMCR to report issues anonymously Provide ways for new (especially international) EMCRs to interact in a social setting have more people of colour on ALL panels, committees Inclusion—building social connectedness in the team Better integration into the school |
Manage realistic workloads, reduce burnout, and have clear performance management | ▪ Managing unsustainable workloads ▪ wellbeing support and mental health education for EMCRs and supervisors ▪ collaboratively agreeing on performance expectations ▪ registering overtime, and provide flexi-time and support with leave (backfill) | Ensure a transparent and reasonable workload for staff Achievable, co-developed timelines for outputs pay more attention to how many hours EMCRs work and discourage a workaholic culture Regular workshops for staff (supervisor) training on mental health—if they don’t know what to do everything else is limited in effect More promotion of taking mental health days Meaningful strategies to reduce burnout. The 2020 year of COVID disruptions was enormously hard for staff with young families. Yet all we got was 4 days in September to have ‘no email Friday’…woefully inadequate Focus on the quality of work instead of pursuing dozens of metrics of quantity. Greater emphasis on realistic expectations of EMCRs and realistic career outcomes. I believe many mental health issues arise from a mismatch between unrealistic expectations and reality. |
Provide support for grants and funding | ▪ Administrative support for grants ▪ Programs to teach about grant funding ▪ Reduce pressure to apply for category 1 funding ▪ Recognise relative to opportunity including the impact of intersectionality | increased administrative assistance during grant development Research support—although the research office offers support, I wonder if there could be more training into writing a winning grant? Also, there is so much ridiculous admin associated with grants that if there was someone to help we could just focus on the important parts. No pressure to apply for Cat 1 schemes Funding one’s job is the biggest pressure and i believe leads to poor mental health. No other occupation requires one to find their own salary. Options of “relative to opportunity” actually need to be ‘relative to opportunity… not just lip service Ability for teaching research staff to be fairly assessed in grants |