By Rasmus Simonsen, Central Section for Occupational Health and Safety, HR. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication

AAU's staff well-being barometer that takes the temperature of the well-being of AAU's staff members will get a new format. This was decided by AAU's Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee at its most recent meeting on 12 September.

As requested by the committee at the March meeting, a working group presented a proposal for a revised staff well-being barometer that the National Research Centre for the Working Environment and the Department of Sociology and Social Work provided input to. The members of Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee discussed the proposal and decided to use the revised staff well-being barometer in the future.

Since 2016, the staff well-being barometer has consisted of nine questions; the new barometer will contain 20 general questions plus eight sub-questions. Questions that are asked if the staff member expressed in their other responses that they were subjected to offensive behaviour or are experiencing stress.

The response categories will also be changed so that the staff member must answer statements based on six answer categories: "to a very low degree", "to a low degree" to a lesser degree", "to some degree", "to a high degree" and "to a very high degree". Thus, the response categories match those used in surveys like the National Overvågning af Arbejdsmiljøet blandt Lønmodtagere [National Monitoring of the Working Environment among Salaried Employees] and by the National Research Centre for the Working Environment.

- This also gives us a tool that makes us even better able to initiate and implement targeted initiatives, both locally and at AAU as a whole, adds Martin Mølholm.

The fundamental importance of the staff well-being barometer is still that it serves as inspiration and input for the local mapping work and for dialogue about the future work on occupational health and safety.

The Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee also decided that the staff well-being barometer will be done every two years instead of every year, and that the new staff well-being barometer will be pilot-tested in the autumn of 2022 at two departments and one Shared Services unit.

The Working Environment Award given for the last time in 2022

When AAU's Working Environment Award is given in 2022, for the seventh time, to a person or group that has made an extraordinary effort for AAU's health and safety environment in the past year, it will also be for the last time.

- The Working Environment Award has been an opportunity to highlight the extraordinary health and safety work that has served as an inspiration to others. The Central Section for Occupational Health and Safety (Central OHS Section) will maintain its focus on sharing knowledge with – and getting inspiration from – each other, so that we continue to learn from each other's efforts across the occupational health and safety organisation, says Line Renée Thellufsen, Head of Well-being & Development, HR and Working Environment Specialist in the Central OHS Section.

The committee expects that in the future the Central OHS Section will have more opportunity for greater involvement in local working environment efforts to help and support specific needs.

The overall workplace assessment concept

Given the decisions regarding some elements in AAU's workplace assessment concept, the Central OHS Section has started to review the entire workplace assessment concept. The purpose of the work is to ensure that:

• coherence between the different OHS processes is further strengthened,
• going forward, there will continue to be strong reasons for ongoing occupational health and safety work, and
• there is focus on knowledge sharing and exchange of experience across the university's occupational health and safety organisation.

The Central OHS Section will also consider which other elements, if any, could be included in the future workplace assessment concept to support the decisions and wishes of the Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee.

At the Main Occupational Health and Safety Committee meeting in November 2022, the Central OHS Section will present the committee with a proposal for how AAU's future workplace assessment concept can benefit. Once the future workplace assessment concept is in place, this will be widely communicated across the entire university – including in newsletters and articles here at AAU Update.