The Department of Psychology must work actively and purposefully to improve the gender balance at the department through good employment practices and career promotion measures.
The Department of Psychology has a male predominance in top academic positions, despite a predominance of female students. Due to this, a BalanseHub project has been launched in the period 2021-2022 to increase the gender balance and diversity at the institute. The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and lays the foundation for more sustainable equality and diversity work over time at the institute.
The project focuses on systemic and career-promoting measures to promote equality and diversity, such as:
- The establishment of an equality framework to equalize gender differences in top academic positions
- Career promotion measures and career development - Work package 1
- Measures aimed at recruitment and the employment processes at PSI - Work package 2
- Cooperation and experience sharing with equality networks at UiO, as well as national networks - Work Package 3
The project is initiated and coordinated by the management at PSI, and anchored in UiO's equality policy by promoting an organizational culture and working environment that is inclusive and fair for both genders through a system-oriented initiative. In line with UiO's strategic goals, the project focuses on equal opportunities through career promotion measures and a recruitment policy that evens out differences, and has a goal that the gender distribution in top academic positions should reflect the population.
Work package 1 - Career promotion measures and career development
A series of events focusing on the qualification requirements for academic top positions will be implemented. The aim is for everyone to have access to information about what is valued when hiring in different types of positions and how to acquire the necessary skills. The program is intended for Ph.D. students and Postdocs, and will be integrated into PSI's doctoral program. In addition to the internal program, PSI will promote cultural and attitude-related tools in the established national leadership development program for junior research leaders (YFL).
Work package 2 - Measures aimed at recruitment and employment processes
Internal routines have been made to guide both HR, managers and others involved in the recruitment processes to ensure that consideration is given to gender balance and diversity. The work includes, among other things, the preparation of templates for expert assessment, guide for trial lecture and interview, recommendation, and case papers to the board at the Department of Psychology as well as the Faculty's employment committee. In order to increase the visibility of the Department of Psychology, a larger image bank has been created in the applicant portal Jobbnorge. New templates for advertising have been developed which inform applicants about the equality work that is done at the department, and new letter templates in the portal to keep applicants well informed about the process.
The aim is that responsible parties in employment matters are sufficiently informed and aware of UiO's equality regulations, and made aware of their responsibility to ensure that the equality regulations are followed at all stages of the process.
Work package 3 - Communication and experience sharing
Through close communication with the social sciences faculty at UiO, the project will contribute actively to the exchange of experience with the other units at the faculty. In connection with work package 2, a collaboration has begun with the FRONT project at the The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Department for Personnel Support, so that we can share experiences and documents prepared by the various project groups with a view to sharing experiences at UiO as a whole.
In addition to the exchange of experience internally at UiO, we will use existing national networks to discuss and promote relevant issues and measures.
BalanseHub project group
The project group is made up of managers from the various departments in the administration and includes the Head of Department and Head of Administration, as well as two advisers from HR. In this way, the group will cover all areas where there is a need to put gender balance on the agenda and where you have to work actively to improve the gender balance. Input from the various members will influence the decisions that are made. This is important in order to obtain routines and information that are easily understandable for everyone involved in process that can affect the gender balance at the institute.
The management group consisting of the Section leaders will act as a reference group for the project group, and their feedback will be important in relation with the preparation of new routines.
The project group consists of:
- Project manager and Head of Department: Bjørn Lau
- Head of Administration: Joakim Dyrnes
- Head of Education: Vibeke Moe
- Head of Research: Lars Tjelta Westlye
- Administrative Manager: Elisabeth Gråbøl-Undersrud
- HR adviser: Kristine Jacobsen