3.4 LUT’s examples of successful enhancement activities

LUT intranet

LUT’s intranet is the online quality manual for LUT personnel and students. It contains detailed quality management documentation for internal stakeholders. The documentation is in both Finnish and English, ensuring sustainable internal communication that serves all LUT community members. The information structure on the intranet has been designed according to the LUT QMS, including e.g. information on the main functions, their objectives, people responsible, instructions and assessment as well as support services. The intranet front page serves as a common information and communication forum where all topical issues are shared. Anyone can post a message on the LUT stream and give anonymous feedback in an open feedback channel. All the feedback will be responded to regularly on the intranet. The intranet is managed by the intranet team, and it is developed continuously to better serve the internal stakeholders’ need for information and based on changing operations.

Happiness through Health activities

LUT supports the physical, psychological and social well-being of its staff through Happiness through Health activities. The activities are mainly free of charge activities and include e.g. different clubs, fitness classes, office workouts, and welfare coaching individually or in a small group. The activities are usually arranged just after working hours on the campuses. Due to the pandemic, the sports activities take place online. For example coffee break workouts have received much positive feedback, and many of these online operating models will continue. An annual feedback survey steers the development of the activities.

Employee mood tracker

The employee mood tracker is an anonymous survey on LUT employee moods, applied at LUT since 2015. It is repeated monthly, giving employees a regular possibility to give feedback on any work-related issue. The survey asks to rate the mood of the day on a scale of 1 to 5 and gives an option to comment further. The survey allows top management, deans and heads of units to follow how staff members experience their work. The university level results are summarised on the intranet, and supervisors receive a report on their own unit and communicate the results with their team. The mood tracker enables supervisors to follow the development of employee moods and take action as needed.

Tenure track for researchers

LUT has applied a four-level tenure track for researchers since 2016, when the first tenure track positions were filled. The tenure track offers a clear and systematic career path for researchers and supports their continuous competence development. The university commits to researcher’s advancement in stages, provided that the researcher succeeds in the LUT performance evaluation.  All tenure track recruitments involve an open international application process. The tenure track recruitment requirements and process, tenure track levels and advancement criteria are communicated to applicants. During the recruitment process, all the applicants are actively informed about the progress of the process and decisions.

LUT is commitment to promoting the principles of the European guidelines that support the continuous development of the university as a working environment especially for researchers. The European Commission gave LUT University the HR Excellence in Research award in 2013 and renewed it in 2019.

External assessments supporting continuous development

LUT is committed to seeking and utilising views of external, preferably international experts to improve its operations and performance and to increase the transparency of university activities.  The functioning and impact of the university’s quality management system has been evaluated regularly by FINEEC. An international research assessment has been conducted twice, in 2012 (Research Assessment Exercise, RAE) and 2019 (Research and Impact Assessment, RIA), to assess the quality, impact and potential of scientific research at the university. International assessments of research also take place in LUT’s internal research platform application processes and in the European Commission’s HRS4R process. To develop the international comparability, recognition and quality assurance of degree programmes and schools, the university has applied for international accreditations as of 2011. The LUT School of Business and Management has committed to an institutional accreditation process to support comprehensive quality assurance and development at the school. The university participates in rankings, which provide the university with valuable benchmarking information with regard to key partners and competitors.