‘Looking out for each other’: a program about social safety at WUR

The pillars

The ‘Looking out for each other’ programme focuses on four pillars that are necessary for a culture change aimed at strengthening social safety at WUR. An open culture is essential for social safety in organisations.

These are the four pillars:

1. Managers must be able to create a safe environment, take preventive measures, adequately respond to signals and correctly deal with signals and reports.
2. Reporters and signallers must be able to (openly or anonymously) file a report, and the procedure to follow such a report must be transparent. Reporters must also have tools at their disposal for preventive actions.
3. Bystanders should know how to respond and take responsibility. Together, we can create a safe work environment by openly talking about what we see and by taking our responsibility in this. This applies to colleagues, fellow students, lecturers and study advisers.
4. The support structure is being strengthened with the above-mentioned measures, and, where necessary, with more and different types of staffing, such as the deployment of confidential counsellors and structural meetings between relevant actors in the support structure, who can learn from each other.

Completed and current actions

Over the past couple of years (2022-2024), the following actions have been worked on:

• At the end of 2022, over 2,000 staff members and PhD candidates attended one of the 20 Mindlab theatre performances that were organised on Wageningen Campus. Afterwards, participants continued discussing the topic in small groups. The performance was based on practical stories from academia. It centred on the dynamics of the academic research world that are recognisable to both WU and WR staff members: leadership, social safety, integrity and scientific integrity and the balance between research and education. View the Social Safety/Mindlab infographic
• As a follow-up on the Mindlab theatre performances, in 2023 the WUR science groups used various methods to work on interventions in the form of (short) training sessions and workshops in the field of social safety. Most science groups now organise regular bystander training sessions for staff members. Most science groups now also dedicate space for social safety and the support structure at WUR during onboarding programmes for new staff members. In the past year, regular workshops around integrity and social safety for teams and departments have also been offered. In these workshops, dilemmas are also discussed and some of the workshops are specifically aimed at managers and management boards.
• In 2022, the ‘Oog voor elkaar’ (’Looking out for each other’) poster campaign was launched. The aim of this long-term campaign is to make staff members and students more aware of undesirable behaviour, the effect that certain behaviour can have and the options that are available to staff and students if they wish to address undesirable behaviour. The questions on the poster prompt the viewer to reflect and the call to action refers to the recently launched Social Safety Contact Point at WUR and to help and tips on how to approach it. The poster campaign consists of six different poster images focusing on three questions: Do you know what you can do to prevent undesirable behaviour? Do you know what to do when you see undesirable behaviour? Do you know what you can do if you experience undesirable behaviour?
• In 2022, a Social Safety Contact Point was established. The Contact Point provides an additional opportunity to talk about undesirable behaviour or report something at WUR in an easily accessible way, in addition to the existing WUR facilities, such as the confidential counsellors, the occupational social workers, the student psychologists and the ombudsperson.
• More transparent support structure at WUR: The support structure has been made more transparent and easier to find. For example, ‘signposts’ have been created for different groups, such as students, staff members and PhD candidates. The number of confidential counsellors for students has increased, also with an eye to (cultural) diversity.
• Social Safety Code of Conduct: In 2023, a new Social Safety Code of Conduct was drawn up. This sets out what is and is not permissible and what the consequences are for transgressive behaviour. A separate code has also been drafted on how to deal with relationships at work. Upon the introduction of these codes, a campaign to raise awareness of the Code of Conduct (with implicit attention to social safety) among staff and students was launched in 2023.
• Overview of workshops & training sessions: An overview of training sessions and workshops on social safety for the various internal target groups (e.g. students, researchers and managers) has been made, so that it is easier to seek out training for yourself or your team/department on all kinds of matters related to social safety. The overview can be viewed on the Intranetvia the Social Safety Intranet group. A protocol/handbook for complex cases has been drafted for management boards, managers and HR business partners.
• Focus on PhD candidates: For international PhD candidates, additional capacity was deployed for occupational social workers in 2023 to get better insight into specific requests for help. In the 2023 edition of the biennial PhD survey, explicit attention was paid to social safety. Based on the outcomes, an action plan was drawn up by the Wageningen Graduate Schools and several working groups were formed to address the well-being of PhD candidates. In 2024, a special workshop was organised on social safety for supervisors.

Next steps

Of course, a poster campaign and/or a few workshops alone are not enough to improve social safety; they are all building blocks that gradually contribute to a sustainable socially safe working environment. Activities and workshops for both students and staff members will be offered throughout the year, such as bystander training for staff and special training for managers. Explicit attention for social safety, among other topics, will also be stimulated among students. Social Safety for Students.

In the spring of 2024, a new work plan will be developed within the Social Safety programme outlining the priorities to be achieved by the end of 2025. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for the follow-up campaign or for improving social safety at WUR? Please send an email to socialsafety@wur.nl or to joyce.vandervelde@wur.nl.

Members of the Social Safety project group

Joyce van der Velde (manager of the ‘Looking out for each other’ programme on social safety), Brigitte van Heerde, Astrid Mars, Jacqueline Schoone, Barbara Veltrop, Nicole Rodenburg and Sjef Moling.