Employee survey – results and full report for 2021

The Executive Board commissioned this year's employee survey to keep their finger on the pulse of ETH Zurich’s staff and to get an overview of employee satisfaction at the university. The survey has collected valuable feedback for the Board, giving them an overview of how satisfied employees are with their working situation and with ETH as an employer. The response rate of this year's survey was 51.8 percent. The results, which were evaluated over the course of May, will have a direct impact on the future development of the university.

One encouraging finding from the survey is the strong feeling of belonging and commitment felt by ETH employees towards the university (84 points). This is reflected in the high marks (measured on a scale of 0 to 100 points) given to identification with ETH (80 points), willingness to perform (87 points), and loyalty to ETH as an employer (85 points). In addition, the job satisfaction remains at a good level (75 points). The survey revealed room for improvement in areas such as mental health measures, development possibilities and dealing with change.

Below you will find an initial overview of ETH Zurich’s strengths, points for improvement and action areas as revealed by the survey. For a more in-depth look at the findings, please visit the employee survey website.

Strengths and points for improvement

Overall, the latest employee survey results are to be regarded positively and show several improvements compared with the survey conducted in 2016. The top three factors – job satisfaction (2021: 75 points; 2016: 76 points), commitment and feeling of belonging (2021 and 2016: 84 points), and objective-oriented behaviour (combination of commitment and job satisfaction; 2021 and 2016: 80 points) – continue to enjoy high ratings, showing that employees are actively and consciously committed to helping ETH Zurich achieve its goals. The findings paint a relatively uniform picture of the situation in ETH’s academic departments and administrative units, while there appear to be bigger differences when it comes to professorial chairs or teams.

According to the survey, ETH Zurich is particularly strong in the following areas: supervision/leadership, work content/freedom of action, attractiveness/image, working climate, respect/diversity, working conditions as well as internal communication and work/life balance. Another positive development is that line managers and supervisors are making increasing use of appraisal interviews, objective-setting meetings, status reviews and personal development meetings. In 2021, 73 percent of staff stated that they had meetings of this kind. In 2016, this figure was only 64 percent.

The survey revealed room for improvement when it comes to cooperation within teams/research groups, mental health measures and development possibilities. Respondents also identified workload and dealing with change as points for improvement.

For more details on these findings, please visit the employee survey website.

Action areas

The Executive Board has analysed and discussed all the findings, strengths and points for improvement that were revealed by the survey.

To start with, the Board would like to maintain or further improve on the overall positive results. The positive results in the following areas in particular can be regarded as the outcome of numerous improvement measures taken over the past years:

•  Supervision/leadership and appraisal interviews/objective-setting meetings/status reviews/personal development meetings
• Cooperation and working climate
• Work/life balance and diversity/respect

In contrast, the following issues were rated more critically and should therefore be addressed with concrete measures:

• Mental health (particularly in connection with the coronavirus situation
•  Development possibilities
• Dealing with change

You can find more details on the action areas on the employee survey website. The Executive Board will communicate the measures they decide on in Autumn 2021 after they are finalised.

Next steps

The next step is for managers and professors to start a dialogue with their teams or research groups and discuss the findings relevant to their departments.

In parallel, the Executive Board will derive concrete measures from the survey findings and communicate them in the autumn of 2021.

You can find the detailed results, the action areas that have been identified and the full report on the employee survey website.