Staff on parental leave feeling excluded from university activities and opportunities.
There was no formal process in place for contact and communication with women and men during parental leave.
Formal process in place for contacts and communication with women and men during parental leaves
Problem (evidence)
Aims/objectives
To define a process in order to ensure that every person during their parental leaves has the chance, if they want to, to communicate with and be aware of the university activities and opportunities.
Resources
Time of the Gender Equality Team members to design the guide for coordinators and time to implement the guide.
Brief outcomes
A short guide will be shortly distributed across faculties and will include relevant guidelines.
Key area
Work and personal life integration
Type of action
Positive action/policy
Organization
Mondragon Unibertsitatea
Higher education institution
Action level of implementation
Researchers and professors
Implementation
The MU-PLOTINA team analysed the communication policy of the university. It was found that when members of staff are on parental leave, they were removed from some mailing lists but were still included in others. However, they were not asked about their preferences. This did not ensure that the university respects the desires of staff, so a guide for the coordinators needed to be designed. We designed a short guide that will be distributed to all the knowledge areas and department coordinators in the next months. This guide will explain the importance of this topic and the new guidelines in the university.
Challenges
Lack of consistency between different departmental coordinators.
Coping strategies
A common guide for all departments that is presented at the knowledge areas coordinators meeting.
Tips/strategies – Lessons learnt
The guide needs to be short and simple and included in the parental leave concession process.
More detailed Outcomes/Impact
Members of staff that are on parental leave will feel more respected and will not miss opportunities for training/promotion. They will also find the return to work easier as they will still feel part of the community.