My Dialogue for Academics – Goals and Workplan
Work plan gives an overview of your goals and tasks, and how your worktime will be allocated between them
The work plan is an important tool in planning the work of the teaching and research staff under the the total-working-hours system. The work plan is primarily an agreement of how you will use your working time. The collective agreement requires that each employee under the total-working-hours system draw up a work plan before the start of the academic year.
The work plan is also an important tool in self-management. It allows you to plan in advance how to allocate your work time into different goals and tasks, and which goals and tasks will not fit into your work plan for the coming academic year. By planning your own work in advance and actively discussing it with your supervisor, you can help keep your workload reasonable and realistic, helping you cope better with your work.
When considering how your work time should be allocated, use the categories below as a guide. You can choose these categories when creating your work plan goals in the Workday system.
Category | Tasks included in the category | Workday tips |
---|---|---|
1a Teaching |
Task and goals related to:
|
Write Teaching as a Goal. → Divide the goal into smaller tasks by marking each course separately in the "Milestones" section. |
1b Supervising |
Task and goals related to:
|
Write Supervising as a Goal → If you like, divide the goal into smaller tasks, for example by marking the students to be supervised or different task types in the "Milestones" section. |
1c Other duties related to teaching |
Task and goals related to:
|
Write Other duties related to teaching as a Goal. → If you like, divide the goal into smaller tasks, for example by marking different task types (see example at the left-hand column) in the "Milestones" section. |
2 Research and artistic work |
Task and goals related to:
|
Write Research and artistic work as a goal. → If you like, divide the goal into smaller tasks, for example by marking different task types in the "Milestones" section. |
3 Impact and service |
Task and goals related to:
|
Write Impact and service as a goal. → If you like, divide the goal into smaller tasks, for example by marking different task types (see example at the left-hand column) in the "Milestones" section. |
Work plan goals as part of My Dialogue Discussion
The work plan is prepared for and is part of the My Dialogue discussion. Alongside development and wellbeing, in the My Dialogue discussion the supervisor and the employee agree together on what goals and tasks the employee will have in the coming academic year. When determining these goals and tasks, the allocation of total working hours toward them is reviewed, where the working time allocated must not exceed the employee's total working hours.
More information on total-working-hours system can be found here.
How to make a work plan in the Workday system
See the My Dialogues -page for detailed instructions on how to add and edit your goals in Workday.
How to fill in the fields for your work plan:
- Goal: Write here the work category, i.e. 1a=teaching, 1b=supervising, 1c=other duties related to teaching, 2=research and artistic work, 3=impact ans service. See the table above for more details.
- Description: In this field, you should describe the goals and objectives of that area in more detail so that you can better understand and plan your work as a whole.
- Gategory: Select the correct category from the drop-down menu (i.e. the same work category you wrote under the Goal).
- Status: Indicate in what stage you are at in relation to that goal/task.
- Weight: Here you should write the percentage of your working time that you will spend on that goal / task.
- Due date: Indicate the deadline for the goal.
- Milestones: If you wish, you could divide the goal/tasks into smaller milestones.

Work time allocation in academic positions
- An indicative work time allocation for tenure track professors can be found here under the subtitle Professor's work profile.
- An indicative work time allocation for lecturers can be found here under the heading Lecturers' work profile.
- For other academic positions, the work time allocation is specified in Other Academic Positions Policies and Procedures -document.
- Most of the working time of postdoctoral researchers is devoted to research and / or artistic work. The work time allocation of Assistant Professor, term 1, can be considered as an indicative rule.
- For academic positions other than those mentioned above, the work profile will be defined to meet the strategic needs of the school and the hiring unit. In Professor of Practice and Adjunct Professor positions focus on teaching.
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