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Remote working, lifelong learning and digital transformation: for some ETH employees, this is already a reality. Others have had little contact with these developments to date. Thanks to a new position paper and a range of support offers, all ETH employees should now be able to engage more closely with the future of work.

Many people at ETH Zurich are faced with the challenge of combining their professional activities with caring for family members. A new, comprehensive website and events are designed to support ETH members in this endeavour.

How are our scientific staff doing? To be able to answer this question better, ETH Zurich has conducted surveys among its doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and established researchers in the last three years. The results of the 2023 surveys are now available and are pleasing.

In 2024, ETH Zurich will be implementing a new appraisal interview format called “Dialog” for all employees. The idea is to foster ongoing discussion and mutual feedback exchange between employees and supervisors. The format was tested and evaluated as part of a pilot project in autumn 2023.

Since the beginning of March, members of ETH Zurich have been able to take advantage of the Respect programme to deepen their skills in respectful collaboration. The first live event is dedicated to the topic of emotion regulation. Nadia Dörflinger-Khashman, Head of Diversity and Cooperation, explains how we all benefit from the input lecture.

“Respect – Reflect – Respond”: Starting today, you’ll come across this slogan at various places at ETH Zurich. It’s part of the new Respect programme aimed at all members of the university community. These three words summarise how we should treat each other at ETH: on equal terms, willing to reflect on our own thoughts and actions, and responding appropriately in a variety of contexts.

Develop skills that will take you further. The 2024 course offering is now available to all ETH employees in the new Lifelong Learning Hub L3H. Educate yourself in the new year. Popular learning offerings include courses on mindfulness, lateral leadership, and time and self-management.

2023 was a busy year for the Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership (VPPL), with a number of initiatives launched. Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, looks back on them and explains both what has pleased her and what has troubled her in recent months.

The pilot test for the Leadership Feedback Process has proved positive. From 2024, all full professors will systematically obtain and address feedback on their leadership role at regular intervals. Alongside individual reflection on potential blind spots, this process will enable ETH to specifically gear and tailor the support it offers for professors.

There is a connection between our health and the sense of belonging to a community. In our recent digital lunch time session, “Health,” now accessible via recording, discover the impact of team belonging on your individual well-being and its role in reducing burnout.

In collaboration with AVETH, ETH Diversity is conferring the Diversity Award for the third year this November. Individuals and organisations will be honoured for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion at ETH Zurich. Submit your nomination now!

Save the date: Find out how social connections can help reduce burnouts and improve your well-being at the next "Health" lunchtime event on October­ 5.­­­­

Lifelong Learning Hub (L3H) is the name of the new learning environment that looks to the future by allowing ETH employees to shape their own personal and professional development. It is a platform for an active and collaborative learning culture where knowledge is shared and learning content is shaped collectively. L3H will be rolled out gradually. By the end of the year all employees will be invited to join the L3H learning community.

In November 2021, the President of ETH Zurich, Joel Mesot, and the Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, appointed seven professors to investigate the current situation of women faculty at ETH Zurich. The aim is to gain an insight into how things stand today.

“Time to shine”: this was the motto of the ceremony on the 6th of July celebrating the completion of vocational training at ETH Zurich for 42 apprentices. The 2023 graduation ceremony represents a major stepping stone in their ongoing career path.

Anyone wishing to register a guest at ETH Zurich will in future be able to do this in one of 14 guest categories by means of a new process. This will create more transparency and increase security.

How flexible is your way of working? And how would you like to handle this in the future? These were just some of the questions addressed in last year’s survey on the future of work, which gave all ETH employees the opportunity to share their experiences and preferences regarding the new, flexible work arrangements at ETH Zurich. The results are now in.

The summer holidays are coming up. Those still looking for holiday care for their children during this time will find it at the kihz Foundation. Registrations are now being accepted.

An anonymous reporting form has been available to ETH members since 1 April 2023 if they experience or witness inappropriate behaviour at the university. The online form is another way in which staff and students can report anyone who has overstepped boundaries.

As well as objective stress and excessive demands, there are also internal stressors that can create or intensify stress. Learn in the recording of the most recent “Health” lunch event how to overcome or at least mitigate such stressors.

A newspaper article about a study conducted by the University of Zurich is currently raising a lot of questions. The article claims that women students are less ambitious than their male counterparts and consequently not interested in pursuing a career. This conclusion has alienated many in the ETH community – including Julia Dannath, who as Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership is responsible for diversity at ETH Zurich. In this interview, she explains why.

How are our scientific staff doing? In order to be able to answer this question better, ETH Zurich has conducted surveys among its doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and senior assistants in the last three years. The collected results are now available.

Save the date: at the next “Health” lunchtime event on 16 May you can learn how to recognise, mitigate or even overcome your personal internal stressors.

The spring holidays are coming up. Those still looking for holiday care for their children during this time will find it at the kihz Foundation. Registrations are now being accepted.

The ALEA – the Art of Leadership Award – has been conferred by ETH Zurich since 2017 in recognition of leaders who facilitate modern and innovative working conditions and who actively encourage and support the reconciliation of work, family, and part-time commitments. This time the award was for the first time jointly presented at an independent event by AVETH (Academic Association of Scientific Staff at ETH Zurich) and VPPL.

Vocational training for adolescents and young adults is firmly rooted at ETH Zurich. In order to ensure that this remains the case – and to guarantee that the training meets the demands of the future labour market – the university is adopting a new strategy for 2023–2026.

Women also continue to earn less than men in Switzerland. Salary differences exist from the start of a career and are particularly pronounced among highly qualified women. ETH Zurich offers workshops on the topic.

“Acting responsibly”, “Driving innovation”, “Building bridges”, “Nurturing well-being”, “Living inclusivity”, “Enabling people”: The new social and leadership competencies have been in place since the start of this year. But how can we integrate these competencies into our everyday life?

The ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved a cost-of-living adjustment of 2.5 percent for doctoral students and scientific assistants I. While this conclusively resolves the question of salary adjustments for these members of the ETH community, the discussion surrounding the salary model for ETH doctoral students continues.

Good news for doctoral students at ETH Zurich: the Swiss National Science Foundation will pay a cost-of-living adjustment as of 1 March 2023. Accordingly, ETH doctoral students are also set to receive a salary increase of 2.5 percent – with one proviso: the ETH Executive Board has yet to confirm this adjustment.

“Acting responsibly”, “Driving innovation”, “Building bridges”, “Nurturing well-being”, “Living inclusivity”, “Enabling people”: these are the new social and leadership competencies that will be part of ETH employees’ university work from now on. Read on to find out how this came about, why competencies are important and how they differ from the new ETH values.

In contrast to other ETH Zurich employees, it is still unclear for doctoral students whether and when they will receive a cost-of-living adjustment and how this will be financed. The Executive Board is unhappy with this situation. A working group will seek a solution in early 2023.

For the past five years, exemplary leadership at ETH Zurich has been honoured with the ALEA award. Now the award is being upgraded. AVETH and VPPL are jointly taking over the presentation of the award as well as linking it with an adequate understanding of leadership.

Last August saw the launch of ETH Zurich’s newly designed commercial training lab with seven apprentices on the Hönggerberg campus. Both the apprentices and the vocational trainers stand to benefit from the ensuing gains in basic professional skills and the lab’s focus on the working world of tomorrow. This will also strengthen the basic commercial training programme as a whole.  

Flexwork models like working from home and mobile working – are they only possible for administrative jobs? No, these are also viable ways of working for researchers, as a team from D-BIOL shows us below.  

More than 300 children aged 10 to 13 visited the ETH Zukunftstag, or “Future Day”, last Thursday. They enjoyed a varied programme that gave them an idea of what it’s like to learn, research or work at our university.

As of today, all ETH members have access to a new preventive service to avoid sexual harassment: the e-learning course provides knowledge about forms of sexual harassment and offers tools for responding to it, either as an affected individual or a witness. The Executive Board asks all ETH members to complete the e-learning course.  

National Future Day is taking place on 9 November 2023, when fifth to seventh grade children will have the opportunity at ETH Zurich to delve into the diverse professional world of science, technology and administration.

For around half a year now, most ETH employees have once again been working on site – albeit a bit differently than before the pandemic. A new video featuring the ETH transfer team shows how they are getting to grips with flexible working, working from home and virtual meetings.

48 young professionals from ETH Zurich have successfully passed this year's final apprenticeship exams. They completed their apprenticeship last Friday, 8 July, as part of the 2022 graduation ceremony.

After two years of pandemic-related absence, most ETH employees have now returned to their workplaces at the university. This phase of the transition back to in-person working is called “Return to the office”, and employees are trying out how flexible working can be put into practice. A new video series sheds light on the process.

After around a year and a half of facilitating connections at ETH, LunchLottery will be held for the last time in June. The programme showed that the desire of the ETH community to make connections with different parts of the university still persisted strongly throughout the pandemic.

The recruiting team is currently testing two text analysis tools that people recruiting at ETH Zurich can use to check their job advertisements for linguistic discrimination and hidden stereotypes. The tools support the creation of job advertisements and automatically suggest inclusive formulations.

On Monday, 28 March 2022, ETH community members were informed about the topic "Return to the Office & Future of Work" in the town hall meeting. Now you can find helpful FAQs about flexible working on the website.

"Sleep as a success factor" was the focus of the health lunchtime event on 4 April. For all those who want to make the most of their sleep but missed the online event, the recording is now available.

On Monday, 28 March 2022, ETH Zurich held a town hall meeting entitled “Return to the office & Future of work” to inform ETH community members about the university’s two-phase approach to this issue. The recording of the Zoom event is now available.

New guidelines governing the outside employment and other activities of ETH staff and professors were introduced on 1 January of this year. We sat down with Lukas Vonesch, Head of the Human Resources Consulting department, to learn more about the rules.

ETH Zurich advocates for diversity and equal opportunity, including equal pay for its employees. The university and other institutions from the ETH Domain have been formally audited using the EQUAL-SALARY method – with positive results.

Members of the ETH community who find themselves facing difficult situations, interpersonal conflicts or inappropriate behaviour can receive support from the university's various counselling and advice services. There are now new options available for those who need support to improve their mental well-being.

“Put a full stop. When others don’t.” This was the slogan of ETH Zurich’s Respect campaign that finished at the end of November. Over the course of a month, Respect was right at the top of the university’s internal agenda and was examined from different perspectives. The high level of interest in our “Respect events” showed just how topical this issue is at present.

ETH Zurich has a duty of care towards its employees. In order to fulfil this duty and adhere to personnel regulations, ETH Zurich is requiring employees as of summer 2021 to reduce high time credits by taking time off. As we are approaching the end of the year, here is a summary of the applicable rules for 2022/23.

As part of the recently launched Respect campaign, ETH members can attend a series of events on the subject of Respect. Deadline for registration is this Thursday, 4 November.

“Put a full stop. When others don’t.” This slogan kicks off ETH Zurich’s new Respect campaign today. Following on from previous campaigns on this topic since 2004, Respect is once again at the top of the agenda for our university. This time the emphasis is slightly different: “Stand up for respect.”

Right on time for the start of the semester, the LunchLottery is back. The next draw will take place next Monday. If you still need a good reason to sign up, you might find it in the testimonials of some of the participants.

ETH employees are being asked to reduce high levels of accrued time off (holidays, over-hours, overtime and loyalty bonus holiday credits). Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources at ETH Zurich, explains what’s behind this move.

In June there's one more chance to take part in the LunchLottery and grow your ETH network before the summer break begins. The networking event will be back with a new round in September.

The last of our town hall series “Well-being in challenging times” focused on emotions and health. It was an occasion not to be missed: as well as presenting the results from the second survey on working from home, the event included an exciting update on the coronavirus situation.  

Following the latest decisions by the Federal Council, the requirement for ETH employees to work remotely from home is being cautiously relaxed. The university’s own testing programme launched back in April has made this possible.

The ETH Executive Board has approved a new coronavirus master plan, effective Monday 26 April. It includes more face-to-face options for students and also allows certain events to be held at the university. The Main Building will now be open at weekends as well.

A week ago, the Federal Council announced numerous easing measures. What these mean for ETH Zurich was explained by members of the Executive Board and the ETH Covid 19 Taskforce at the virtual Townhall. Now the recording of the event is available.

ETH may be growing, but its available physical space is limited. Do you think desk-sharing might be the answer to this issue? Or do you believe everybody should have their own fixed workstation? Have your say on the matter in the next issue of life magazine!

Julia Dannath-Schuh has been serving as Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership (VPPL) since November 2020 and has headed up the VPPL staff unit since its creation one month later. We inquired about how the set-up phase is going.

ETH Zurich is setting up stations for saliva PCR tests where staff and students can be tested free of charge on a regular basis. Testing will start on 20 April, with capacity being increased on an ongoing basis.

The ETH LunchLottery has been growing in popularity over the past three months. Now the LunchLottery drawing will be held once per month instead of every two weeks. This gives the three participants more time to find a meeting slot that works for everyone.

Employees are currently being asked to give their opinion on the work situation and on internal communication. The fact that these two surveys are taking place almost simultaneously has raised some questions.  

About 300 ETH members have taken part in the “Taking our pulse” survey on the values of ETH. Their responses will now provide food for thought in the forthcoming rETHink culture and values discussion.  

With so many people working from home due to the coronavirus, it’s hard to expand your network. The ETH LunchLottery can provide some help: every two weeks, you are randomly matched with two members of the ETH community. Meeting them (virtually) is an opportunity to exchange ideas beyond the usual team boundaries.

The focus was again on the well-being of ETH members in the third part of the townhall series led by Julia Dannath on 23 February 2021. Mental fitness was the main issue of the virtual event, during which the ALEA Award was also presented and the three nominees were recognised for their progressive leadership at ETH.

Every two years, the ETH Zurich community comes together and takes part in the “together” staff party. Last year's event was shifted to this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the decision has been taken to postpone the event yet another year. The next edition of “together” is now scheduled to take place in August 2022.

The second instalment of the new townhall series “Well-being in challenging times”, organised by the Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, kicked off on 29 January. This time around, the subject is physical fitness. During the virtual event, Dannath and the other participants discussed how important exercise is to our well-being.

The deadline for the survey of ETH values has been extended. All members of ETH now have until the end of January to contribute their views and play a role in the cultural development of the university.

ETH Zurich has expanded its Executive Board from five to seven domains. life presents a profile of the two new vice presidents.

Sports and physical activity are important for your well-being during this challenging period. ETH Zurich is launching #moveETH to encourage students and staff to be active and to motivate each other on social media.

The new Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, Julia Dannath, kicked off a new town hall series on 8 December that focused on personal well-being and social fitness. Around a thousand ETH employees and doctoral students took part in the live virtual discussion.

ETH Zurich is growing. To make more space for teaching, research and knowledge and technology transfer on campus, the Executive Board domains of Infrastructure and Personnel Development and Leadership moved to the Octavo building in Oerlikon this month. In this building near the railway station, employees work in open multi-space office premises that facilitate new forms of collaboration.

Football or tennis? Planning or implementing? Trust or monitoring? Julia Dannath took up her role as ETH Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership in November. Now she’s introducing herself to the ETH community by answering a few “this or that” questions in a video interview.

The ETH Zurich Executive Board has approved a new master plan outlining measures designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The most important changes concern teaching, the compulsory wearing of face masks and university events.

For those experiencing serious conflicts, threats or abuse in the workplace, it can often seem as though there is no way out. New regulations set out the procedure for dealing with difficult situations at ETH.

The ETH discussion on values has been launched – and the new rETHink blog gives all ETH members a voice. Take part in the discussion, and make a contribution to shaping the future of our university.

A revised Personnel Ordinance was implemented by the ETH Board on 1 October. Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources at ETH Zurich, explains what the changes mean for employees and discusses how these changes came about.

Emergency mode at ETH has led to many changes: from teleworking and virtual lectures to online events, concepts that were still in their infancy a few months ago have now become the new normal. In this interview, Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources, speaks about the hectic changeover period, the challenges that have been mastered, and how lockdown has opened up new ways of working.

The culture development workstream of the rETHink project has gained momentum. Members of the ETH community from all university groups have held initial discussions about the values that our university should adhere to, paving the way for a wide-ranging discussion across the institution.

In mid-March, vocational education and training at ETH Zurich also had to swiftly make the move to distance learning. We took a look at the IT and laboratory technician programmes to find out how trainers and apprentices are coping with the situation.

Working from home for such a long period of time is a new challenge for us ETH members. Here is some advice from HR on how to make the best of the situation – while staying healthy in body and mind.

The arrival of autumn means that annual appraisal interviews are back on the agenda. Lukas Vonesch, Head of Human Resources at ETH Zurich, sheds light on whether this management tool is still fit for purpose, how useful it is to have a graded assessment, and what constitutes a valuable interview.

ETH Zurich is modernising its recruitment tools and processes, including the web integration of open positions into the websites of ETH departments.

ETH supports its staff in their personal and professional development, offering a variety of opportunities for continuing education. life takes a look at what’s on offer and highlights the key points when it comes to future staff development.

Forty-nine young professionals have passed their final apprenticeship exams. As part of the 2019 apprentice graduation ceremony, they celebrated completing their vocational training at ETH Zurich on Thursday.

As President of the Staff Commission (PeKo), André Blanchard focused on dialogue and achieved good results for employees. What strategies will his successor Christopher Sauder be pursuing and what are his aims?

“You can’t say that, it’s far too provocative!” “That’s too wishy-washy, it has to be clear.” “You’ve crossed a line there!”

On 1 January 2019, PUBLICA will adjust the technical interest rate and conversion rate that determine new pension amounts. Dieter Stohler, PUBLICA Director, explains the background behind this decision.

The federal pension provider PUBLICA is adjusting the technical interest rate and the conversion rate downwards. Thanks to provisions agreed earlier, pension reductions for ETH employees will largely be avoided.

The Executive Board is launching a new campaign to encourage respectful behaviour and personal responsibility among ETH members.