During the autumn of 2021, the workgroup for work environment goals, with representatives from the unions, safety representatives, student safety representatives, and the employer, worked out new and clearer university-wide work environment goals for the university. The new work environment goals apply to the period 2022–2024 and were formally adopted on 20 December by Vice-Chancellor Mats Tinnsten.

Director of HR Marie Granberg Klasson has led the work of developing the work environment goals. “According to the Work Environment Act, the employer is obliged to work systematically with the work environment. Clear work environment goals give the university a focus when it comes to how we should work to further improve our work environment. The purpose is to make work environment efforts a natural part of everyday university operations. Part of this work is to set work environment goals for the university,” she explained.

“A good work environment is a prerequisite for recruiting and retaining our employees and strengthening the university as a workplace. This, in turn, affects our students, who then also have a good study environment.”

Two prioritised goals

These new work environment goals apply to the entire university and its managers, employees, and students, and describe the goals and sub-goals that must be prioritised during the specified period to create a good work environment and to prevent ill health and workplace accidents.

During 2022–2024, the university will give special priority to two goals: 

• that the university must meet the requirements of the Work Environment Act with regard to working systematically with the work environment.
• that employees and students at the university are to experience that they have a good work and study environment both organisationally and socially.

Under each goal, there are sub-goals with tools and activities that will contribute to achieving the main goals. Among other things, there is the SAM annual cycle (or annual cycle for systematic work environment efforts) as support for the university's operations. In this annual cycle, there are planned activities and trainings with a focus on further improving the work environments at the university.

“The SAM annual cycle is an important tool that has been developed at a central level to support the different departments at the university so that they can actively work with the work environment. It should be a standing point on the agendas of each department's work environment meetings and in management councils,” said Director of HR Marie Granberg Klasson.

Students' study environment

New for the period of 2022–2024 is that the university has chosen to focus more on the students' study environment than in previous years. This will be done, among other things, by creating a university-wide introduction for new students at the start of each term, holding simpler digital trainings, and providing informational webpages on the website. Activities that weave focus on the students' study environment into the work environment goals have also been planned in the SAM annual cycle.

Read more

Read more about the university's work environment efforts (Swedish only)

Read more about the university-wide work environment goals for the period 2022–2024 (PDF) (Swedish only)