A year of change
From the personnel’s perspective, 2023 was a year of changes. Since the spring, following up on the change negotiations earlier in the year, there has been plenty of discussion revolving around the review of support staff duties, development of processes as well as work arrangements. Among the focal points were reduced government funding and support for increasing external funding. We developed our principal lecturers’ duties, objectives and organisation by consolidating principal lecturers to our Applied Research Center. Personnel and supervisors were supported in the change process with shared change preparations and constant dialogue.
We continued the development measures highlighted in the personnel survey conducted in late 2022 in our various units. The measures were related to, for instance, the fragmented nature of work, uneven workload distribution and insufficient sense of agency in work. According to our personnel survey, meaningful duties and use of competence are the primary motivators for the personnel in our expert organisation. Meeting practices and intranet instructions were also improved to streamline the work of our personnel. We have organised general TAMK onboarding and constantly provided personnel with specific onboarding related to their duties.
We continued to implement service design practices in many of our functions, such as communications and marketing as well as education and learning services. The process has helped our personnel improve in their core functions and prepare customer group-specific services for implementation across various channels. Engaging our personnel in our development process is essential and has generated positive feedback. We have relied on the help of TAMK’s trained coaches in moving the processes forward. Feedback by Tarja Kalliomäki-Linnas, Manager in-charge of Education and Learning Services, sheds light on the benefits gained.
As the Education and Learning Services management team, we strived to clarify our service solutions and team formation through coaching. In addition to service design, this was driven by the change situation brought on by the new organisation along with our clear objective to pivot to a new, increasingly team-based working and operating model. We made huge strides in a very short period of time and took concrete action. In the process, members of the management team got better acquainted and became more familiar with the challenges and unique requirements of each area of responsibility.
We also supported teaching staff teams through internal coaching. Teams felt that operations and objectives became clearer and interaction increased. Coaching has helped, particularly in change situations, such as when an established team undergoes changes through retirements and change negotiations.
Over the course of the year, supervisor coaching was focused not only on change management but also on the identification and development of supervisors’ own activities. We implemented resilience profiles to help us achieve this. In supervisor activities, we reviewed various characteristics, such as positivity, self-esteem, priorities, creativity, connection to others, structure and willingness to experiment. Supervisors devised a commitment board with three leadership promises for integration into everyday organisational culture:
- We promise to bring more enthusiasm, trust, learning and appreciation.
- We promise to involve our personnel in our shared development efforts, inspire faith and find ways to address future challenges.
- We promise to lead change through positivity and identification of its benefits. Personnel is encouraged to let us know if they think we fall short on these promises!
Additionally, reform of pedagogical competence and education was the prevalent theme of the year, in addition to teaching staff competence badges. Accessibility plan for the TAMK community was launched early in the year. Implementing its measures, such as increasing awareness among students and personnel, went ahead as planned.
Launched in the autumn, our HR Programme 2024–2026 was showcased in unit meetings as part of TAMK’s development programmes under “Me toiminnan uudistajina” (We as reformers). It is essential to secure the personnel competence and well-being required by TAMK’s strategy and development programmes. We constantly develop competencies, supervisory work and occupational safety. We are also happy to continue to support our personnel’s collaboration efforts, based on feedback from November. Feedback from TAMK’s “Kehitä ja kiitä” (Develop and thank) channel:
While my feedback is not about providing praise per se, I want to thank every person I’ve had the opportunity and pleasure to deal with at TAMK.
The work community appears highly welcoming and friendly. Everyone clearly wants to help, and each and every person I’ve talked to has welcomed me to TAMK, which I have found particularly endearing.
With its changes, adjustments and recovery, it was a very eventful year for our personnel. But towards the end of the year, most teams were already picking up steam. We look forward to what’s coming next!
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Text: Merja Jortikka, Director of Human Resources
Editors: TAMK Communications
Image: Konsta Leppänen