First Workload Reduction Fund projects begin
To tackle the high workload at our university, and at the insistence of the University Council, the Executive Board launched the Workload Reduction Fund last year. The first fund-financed projects have since begun. Two staff members explain how their ideas can help others.
Antoinette van Laarhoven is an associate professor at the Institute of Psychology. As chair of the SSH Patient Recruitment Working Group, she is working on an efficient new ICT system for finding research participants.
‘Within the social and behavioural sciences, the amount of research involving human participants is increasing, which means the demand for participants is increasing too. The problem is that our ICT systems do not lend themselves to recruiting people. We don’t have a central website with all the ongoing research studies, which makes it difficult for people outside the university to sign up. Our researchers consequently find themselves reinventing the wheel when recruiting participants: making appeals on WhatsApp, posting on Facebook, distributing flyers – you’re constantly wondering how to find enough participants. This is a real headache for PhD candidates in particular and causes a load of stress and can even result in delays. Nor does it help that we have different systems for everything, which means researchers have to enter the same data in different places, for example scheduling an appointment with a participant, booking lab space or paying participants. That is exhausting and inefficient, and it makes extra work for the researchers.
‘A diverse group of participants will increase the quality of our research’
Extra time and energy
Our working group therefore wants to professionalise our recruitment and develop a well-functioning ICT system that brings everything together: a website that is accessible to the outside world and lists all the current studies, and a user-friendly registration system in which participants can schedule an appointment and lab space is automatically booked and a GDPR-compliant database with participant data created. We hope researchers will be able to invest the extra time and energy it currently takes to recruit people in the quality of their research instead. And that a diverse group of participants will increase the quality.
Interfaculty project
I’m glad we’ve started this as an interfaculty project. Everyone is really enthusiastic and that is motivating. But developing such a system does take time. We’re currently making an inventory of people’s wishes and are talking to developers and institute boards. We hope to have a working version by the end of the year that we’ll be able to pilot. Best of all would be if staff across the entire university could use this system.’
Marlon van Leeuwen is a team leader at the Service Centre International Staff. Through the Workload Reduction Fund, she started a series of workshops on how AI tools can help you work smarter and faster – and how to use them safely.
‘Our team emails back and forth with internationals, often about repeat questions. When I suggested exploring whether AI might help us here, our director thought it was an idea the whole organisation might benefit from. That suspicion proved right: the first pilot workshops were full within an afternoon. A follow-up series has since been planned, with sessions for academic and support staff.
AI literacy
I think it’s great that people are so enthusiastic about the workshops. Some said afterwards that a whole world had opened up for them. AI provides so many different opportunities. As well as for writing emails, you can also use it to edit texts and help with brainstorming. There are also tools that can help academics with data analysis and references. An important side-effect of this project is that it also increases our staff’s AI literacy. It turned out that many staff were already working with tools like ChatGPT, which highlights the ongoing importance of considering the practical and ethical sides of AI. The workshops focus a lot on this. What information should you avoid putting in an AI prompt, for instance?
‘These tools can definitely improve job satisfaction’
A concern I often hear is that we will make ourselves obsolete with these tools. I myself see AI as a helpful intern: it offers handy input but you still need your expertise to ensure the content is as it should be. It’s mainly about speeding up, improving or automating the boring repeat tasks. In that sense, these tools can definitely improve job satisfaction.
Co-creation labs
Another good thing is that this project will have a follow-up in the form of co-creation labs. The idea is that you and your team write a proposal for an AI solution that would make your everyday work more simple, fun and efficient. If the proposal is honoured, the teams will set to work on building a product that will reduce the workload. The co-creation labs will start before the summer. In the labs, we will also look to work with colleagues with AI expertise. Watch this space!’
What can you do to reduce your workload?
To help you reduce your workload, we have developed a toolkit with practical steps at the central, faculty and individual levels. If your workload is too high, talk to your colleagues and manager. They will be able to help you find a solution. How do you raise the topic? And what can you do to stop your workload from becoming unmanageable? Find tips on our work pressure pages.
Banner image: Edu Lauton via Unsplash