Thank you all for your response to the communication audit! I take it that you are curious about the result and what we are going to do about it. Some of you are content with some things, some of you with other things. In this pdf you find the results from the audit with the comments removed (pdf; 414 kB; new window).
A few things became clear with the audit. Most noticeable is that people don’t know about things that can help them. How do we convey relevant information to everybody? This blog post is one way. And you can also help out. Please show new people not only the office surroundings, but also the web, the BioBullen and the Biology blog and other digital items (like presentation and poster templates). Good to know, where to find them and how they work.
Personal pages
To be able to find a person who works at the department it is important that the employee has a photo and a text on his or hers personal web page. You can update your page by yourself or ask your unit’s/research group’s web publisher to do it. Here you find information how to do it yourself. Here is a list of all web publishers. And here is some information about what to put on your page. Jan Olsson has started translate the personal pages into Swedish. So, please, check that your personal page in English is up-to-date at once.
Internal website
As you hopefully already know, we have internal websites for all staff at the department, one in English and one in Swedish. At these websites you find information about your employment, communication, PhD studies, education etc. Both websites also have a calendar. In the calendar, I try to put everything that happens at the department, like seminars, meetings and thesis defences. If you arrange something, please let me know and I will put it in the calendars. As you probably have seen, there is now a link to the calendar in every BioBulle.
I will go through the internal website to check if anything can be removed or information is outdated. If you have knowledge of the present content, like being a chairperson at some board, HR-administrator, IT-personnel or such, please have a look and see if anything should be updated.
Newsletter and blog
As an internal communication tool, we also have our weekly newsletter BioBullen, where I write about things that will happen the next week at the department and where our research and researchers have been seen in media. If you do not get BioBullen every Friday morning, please let me know.
We also have the Biology blog where I write about more social things that happen at the department, like SACT events (our group for joint scientific and social activities). New people must send me a presentation and a photo for the blog (inger.ekstrom@biol.lu.se). All agendas, memorandum and minutes from our different department boards also end up at the blog, for you to keep track of what is going on. If there is a new blog post, you will get an email around four o’clock in the afternoon. If not, let me know.
The audit also showed that there is some confusion about BioBullen and the Biology blog, since both send out emails that look nearly the same. I will change the appearance of the Biology blog emails, which hopefully makes it easier to distinguish between them.
Templates and LU’s graphic profile
Lund University has a graphic profile to provide clear and coherent communication, generate recognition, distinguish Lund University from other higher education institutions, increase the University’s visibility, increase credibility and give a professional impression. To help you follow the graphic profile, there are templates for powerpoint presentations and scientific posters, among other things, in the LU image bank.
LUCRIS
LUCRIS is the University’s research database. All personal pages have a link to a personal research page in LUCRIS, under the contact information. To distinguish between your personal page in LUCRIS and your personal page at our website, the personal page at LUCRIS should be as the CV you write when you apply for a job and the personal page at our website as the personal letter. The University has decided that it is mandatory for all personnel doing research to have some information on their LUCRIS page. The Faculty of Science has decided about the lowest amount of information you are required to have. See the faculty’s web for the required information. At LU’s Staff Pages you find more information about LUCRIS and how to update your pages. Your web publisher may also help you with LUCRIS.
Email lists
There are two email lists at the department level. The Biology list is for the really, really important things that concern everyone at the department. Only very few people can post to this list. Anslagstavlan is the second one. Everybody can post here. Please, think twice before you post to Anslagstavlan and don’t post just because it is easy. Do you really have to reach everybody with the information? Is the information really job related? If not, send emails only to the people it concerns. Everybody is happy with fewer emails.
If you need any help with your communication feel free to contact me, Inger Ekström, or Jan Olsson.
Finally, it is everybody’s responsibility to keep themselves updated in order to know what happens and will happen at the department.
Text by Inger Ekström
