Institute day by day

The results of the annual survey summed up at JINR

The results of a survey that has already become traditional to determine the social satisfaction of staff have been processed. At the end of 2023, more than six hundred employees of the Institute took part in the survey and its results have showed that over the past year the overall staff satisfaction index has increased: from 63.9% according to the results of the 2022 survey to 65.35% in 2023.

Social satisfaction of an organization's personnel is a multifactorial indicator that includes satisfaction with various components of the organization's social environment. This is one of the most important components of people's quality of life, an indicator of their social well-being which the Institute has always focused on. Knowledge of the "problem areas" of staff satisfaction allows directorate to build effective short- and long-term social policies within the organization.

In 2023, 630 JINR employees took part in the survey, more than in previous years of the survey (572 people in 2022, 524 people in 2021). Employees from all JINR laboratories and departments participated in the survey. Among the participants in the 2023 survey are representatives of various services and departments of the Institute, including the Sports Complex, the Cultural Centre "Mir" and the Blokhintsev Universal Library.

"It's encouraging to see an increase in the number of employees taking the time to complete a fairly large questionnaire. I would, of course, like to get closer to 100% coverage in the future. But here it is important to understand that, after all, a sociological survey is not a "book of complaints and suggestions", it is a serious sociological "survey" of the staff, a comprehensive identification of aspects of job satisfaction. The questionnaire does not consist of random questions with answer options from 1 to 10. The research is based on the scientific methodology of implementing sociological surveys of workers that was developed back in the last century by famous Soviet sociologists such as V.A.Yadov, T.I.Zaslavskaya (founder RPORC - editor's note), Yu.A.Levada and many others. It is necessary that employees understand this aspect of the survey and do not refuse to participate, guided by the consideration "why should I answer, I already answered last year and nothing has changed..." leading analyst of the Department of Scientific and Organizational Activities Olga Krupa explains.

The trend of previous years continues: employees under the age of 35 participate more enthusiastically in the survey (the share of "young" respondents was 36%). The average age of respondents is 43, the median is 39. A third of the respondents were women, 64% were men. 90% of respondents are citizens of the Russian Federation; 8.5% of respondents are citizens of other countries: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Belarus, India, Romania, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Tajikistan and a number of other countries.

"It's no surprise that younger employees participate. After all, it was through the efforts of the AYSS that in 2018, the tradition of conducting an annual survey was born at the Institute. Afterwards, Head of AYSS Alexander Verkheev turned to the Dubna University with a request to help to conduct a survey of young scientists and specialists at JINR in order to identify their aspirations and hopes. Senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at Dubna University Tatyana Balueva developed a methodology for conducting a full-fledged, competent sociological survey that has remained virtually unchanged since then," Olga Krupa comments.

The staff social satisfaction index in 2023 increased slightly as compared to the results of last year and amounted to 65.35% (for comparison: 63.9% in 2022; 64.1% in 2021).

The most important things are the conditions and organization of work activity

As in the surveys of previous years, the most important for the Institute's employees in general are the conditions and organization of work activity, as well as the content of work. These two indicators rank first in importance for most categories of employees. Based on the entire set of indicators of satisfaction with the organization and working conditions, the share of those that are completely or rather satisfied is 75.4%.

93% of the surveyed employees were satisfied with the working hours and schedule and 80% were satisfied with the logistics. Despite such high indicators, respondents expressed a number of comments and suggestions in open-ended questions. Just like a year ago, the topic of formalizing the possibility of remote work is highlighted for the employees whose work tasks "do not require direct presence at the workplace" or "permanent presence in Dubna". Respondents also talk about the possibility of introducing a flexible work schedule for researchers.

A significant part of the answers concerns the quality of workplaces and premises. The employees of VBLHEP, DLNP and MLIT say that there is an urgent need for repairs. Employees of BLTP, FLNR, and VBLHEP are concerned about problems with the quality of the ventilation and heating systems, as well as the lack of air conditioners.

As for the social climate, in general, the majority of respondents (88.4%) estimate the relations in their work staff as good or rather good (85.6% of respondents in 2022). 89% of respondents are completely or rather satisfied with the social climate that has developed in the staff (86% in 2022).

Possible forms of "establishing informal relationships between employees" include "interest clubs (board or computer games, yoga or running, treasure hunting, etc.)", development of a volunteer movement and even the organization of cleanup days. As respondents have noted, the Institute can create a platform for communication and also periodically encourage such hobbies with various bonuses such as, giving tickets to theaters or excursions to exhibitions.

As for the cooperation between employees and Directorate at the Institute, it can be described as well-established. Thus, 76.6% of respondents are satisfied with the possibility of feedback from Directorate (73% in 2022). The relationship between employees and their immediate Directorate is characterized by a high degree of openness and trust: 89.5% of respondents have noted that they can turn to their immediate head officer with issues of a professional nature, 90% claim that they can openly express their ideas and suggestions. 72% of respondents have indicated that if necessary, they could contact their head officer with personal issues.

Also, an important indicator for estimating job satisfaction is the extent to which work provides opportunities for self-realization and self-development. According to the results obtained, 68% of respondents are completely or somewhat satisfied with the situation. In general, respondents agree that "career growth motivates employees, prevents professional burnout and allows them to maintain interest in the profession", however, this career growth should not be "just on paper," but should be accompanied by real improvements, including in material terms.

Young employees of the Institute are more optimistic about career development: 36% of respondents under the age of 35 estimate their career prospects as high or very high; among employees over 35, only 28% of respondents give such estimations.

Financial situation and living conditions

The second most important group of indicators includes financial situation and living conditions. Despite the increase in real average incomes, only 43% of respondents are satisfied with their current financial situation, of which 9% are completely satisfied. 40% of respondents note a deterioration in their financial situation over the past year and a decrease in consumer opportunities.

There is still a significant gap between real and desired incomes. This discrepancy is more noticeable among workers and specialists, among women compared to men and among respondents under the age of 35.

The structure of material incentives, according to respondents, requires significant changes. Since bonuses and other types of allowances are an unstable thing (both the size and frequency of payments vary), employees actually do not have the opportunity to plan their budget. In a "turbulent" environment, respondents would like greater stability in their income. It can only be achieved by increasing the base salary for all categories of workers. In addition, respondents believe that salaries should be "brought to a single salary scale" depending on the position and not on the division of the Institute.

According to the data obtained, almost 68% of respondents live in their own housing; 9.8% - in rented housing (with or without partial compensation at the expense of the Institute), 12% - in service housing. 5% live in JINR dormitories. At the same time, 76% of respondents are somewhat or completely satisfied with the current housing situation (74% in the 2022 survey). Half of the survey participants have expressed a need to improve their living conditions. Respondents talk about the need of expanding the range of housing programmes of the Institute and making them accessible to all categories of employees.

Social infrastructure of JINR and Dubna

The social infrastructure of JINR and the city traditionally occupies the third place in the overall ranking of importance. Compared to 2022, the share of those satisfied with the social infrastructure of JINR has increased - up to 77%. Those surveyed have positively estimated the changes taking place; in particular, many have noted the new entrance gate at the DLNP site.

At the same time, there remain areas of the Institute's social infrastructure in which respondents record a lack of change despite all the complaints they express. First of all, this is the area of catering on site and a number of issues related to the improvement of sites.

Compared to the results of the 2022 survey, the share of those satisfied with school education has increased (from 45% in 2022 to 49% in 2023), the share of those satisfied with the service sector has increased (from 66.4% in 2022 to almost 69% in 2023), the share of those satisfied with the situation in the healthcare sector has decreased (from 50.5% in 2022 to 48.3% in 2023) and the share of those satisfied with the work of public transport (from 41.1% in 2022 to 39.3% in 2023), as well as the share of those satisfied with social and cultural facilities and institutions (from 72% in 2022 to 70% in 2023).

As last year, the least satisfaction among social infrastructure sectors is recorded in the field of public transport. Traditionally, these problems are associated with two areas: the state of public transport within the city and the organization of intercity communication (primarily, Dubna - Moscow - Dubna).

Another sector of urban social infrastructure in which respondents demonstrate a high level of dissatisfaction is healthcare. In 2023, like two years ago, respondents return to the problem of a shortage of specialized specialists in city clinics - both adults and children.

In 2023, healthcare and public transport had a worthy competitor: the issue of infill urban development. Despite the well-recognized problem of a shortage of new housing stock, respondents fear the consequences of "haphazard development" without developing of social infrastructure in the form of kindergartens, schools and clinics.

A number of comments touch on issues in the field of road maintenance and urban improvement: there are many complaints about the quality of cleaning, especially in the autumn-winter period; it is noted that there are practically no bicycle paths within the city and it reduces the accessibility of facilities; there are no public toilets.

The citizens would like to see more equipped walking park areas "with a modern design", recreational areas and places for family leisure in the city. Current parks and public gardens should to be kept clean and monitored.

Organization of scientific activities

On average, 84.8% of respondents are satisfied with the organization of scientific activities. Satisfaction has increased with respect to such indicators as the possibility of publication activity (90.4%), the work of the Institute's dissertation councils (91%) and the material and technical base for defending theses (88.5%), as well as the organization of scientific conferences and events (90.8%). A slight decrease is recorded in the indicator "competitive funding and scientific grants": the share of those satisfied is 68.6%. In the comments to the survey, respondents' concerns about the scientific future of the Institute, the preservation and development of scientific cooperation with the world's leading scientific centres and the preservation of the international status and prestige of JINR are noticeable.

Feedback and information

According to the survey results, 72.5% of survey participants are satisfied with the information system within the organization. However, it is noted that the Institute does not have a system of "complaints and suggestions" on current issues and problems. Respondents believe that other than personal feedback, the organization has no feedback tools. The Institute faces an acute issue of developing a resource where employees could leave their questions, suggestions, wishes on economic, production and other issues, as well as receive feedback from the relevant services.

That is why the annual survey is considered as a tool through which one can convey his problems to Directorate, a kind of analogue of a "hotline". It is important to widely inform employees about the results of this survey, about the scheduled work and the changes that occur at the Institute based on the data obtained from the survey results, even if these changes are insignificant, this is the only way to increase the loyalty and involvement of JINR employees in further surveys.

The article has been prepared on the basis of an analytical report on the results of a sociological survey
of the social satisfaction of JINR personnel in 2023,
Head of the survey is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Humanities at Dubna University
Tatyana Balueva