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My Dialogue for Academics – Goals and Workplan

The work plan is an essential part of teaching and research personnel planning their work under the total-working-hours system (excluding master and bachelor students). It improves work planning and allocation of resources by promoting goal setting and their follow-up, and is a concrete tool for allocating working time for the coming academic year. This page includes information on what work plan is, why we need to do it, and how it is done in the Workday system.

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:

  • teaching at courses in the curriculum or otherwise given at Aalto University (incl. life-wide learning)

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:

  • supervision of bachelor and master students
  • academic advising and tutoring

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:

  • teaching / course preparation
  • assessment of learning (e.g. assessing exercises, study projects, exams)
  • educational leadership and development (e.g. program director duties, memberships of committees and working groups related to teaching)
  • curriculum work (planning and development of teaching, including the development of new teaching offerings)
  • personal development as a teacher and / or program director (e.g. pedagogical training)

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:

  • research and artistic work
  • writing research plans, project reporting and other similar research / artistic assignments
  • supervision of doctoral students

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:

  • reviewing academic publications, expert statements, etc.
  • lectures and other activities in the scientific community outside Aalto
  • teaching given outside Aalto University  (incl. life-wife learning)
  • memberships in committees and steering groups at Aalto (such as tenure track committees, platforms, etc.)
  • acting as (vice) head of the department and other managerial tasks  

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.
kuva add goal -kohdasta workdayssä - ohjeeksi työsuunnitelman täyttämiseen

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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