Dublin Institute of Technology staff concerned at lack of ‘clear vision’

A significant proportion of staff at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has expressed concern about lack of consultation and poor leadership in the college, including the absence of a “clear vision”.

An employee engagement survey, the first of its kind done at the college, found that only 35 per cent of staff considered themselves valued and only 29 per cent believed DIT’s leadership team managed the institution well. Only 38 per cent of staff felt the senior leadership had set out a clear vision for the organisation.

The survey was conducted before the opening of the first phase of the Grangegorman campus last month and ahead of the forthcoming merger with Tallaght and Blanchardstown institutes of technology as part of DIT’s bid for technological university status.

Only 20 per cent believed that senior leadership listened to and responded to their views, while just a third had attended a performance management meeting or review in the past 12 months.

Fourteen per cent felt they were discriminated against in the past year.

The study was carried out by UK-based human resources consultants Capita at a cost of €30,000. It ranked DIT against the other higher education institutions (HEI) which it had surveyed in the UK.

While 76 per cent of respondents said DIT was a good place to work, this was well below the HEI benchmark of 88 per cent. Of 50 HEIs surveyed by Capita, DIT ranked 48th for staff satisfaction.

DIT president Prof Brian Norton said there were positives and negatives to take from the survey, which the college planned to repeat every two years.

“I am told we are only the second Irish higher education institution to carry out a survey like this, which I was surprised to hear. When you do something like this for the first time, a lot of it is ‘getting things of your chest’, so we won’t really know how representative it is until we repeat it a couple of times.”

He noted the survey was taken before the summer and he believed a clearer picture of the college’s strategy has been communicated to staff since.

In other findings, 58 per cent of staff said they felt “fairly paid” for work, compared to a HEI benchmark of 66 per cent; 28 per cent felt unduly stressed (versus a 32 per cent benchmark) and 8 per cent were “currently being harassed or bullied at work” (versus a 5 per cent benchmark).

Prof Norton said the latter finding “deeply worries me”, though 92 per cent of respondents were aware of DIT’s anti-bullying and harassment policy.

Of those who said they were being harassed or bullied, 62 per cent said it was by a manager, while 6 per cent said it was by students. Fewer than half reported the complaints, the main reasons for not doing so were belief that nothing would happen (74 per cent) and fear of victimisation (66 per cent).