Gossip and unfair evaluations: 20% of TU Delft employees sometimes experience exclusion

A total of 1,582 employees participated in the survey, conducted by researchers from Leiden University of Applied Sciences, between September and November 2022. The researchers and the TU Delft D&I Office took a year to process the data and make recommendations: they presented the results to the executive board in early October 2023.

Eighty-seven per cent of them say that diversity enriches the academic environment. A majority (70% to 76%) of the respondents are satisfied about the degree of inclusion that they experience.

Bullying
In contrast, around one quarter of the respondents (24% to 30%) are dissatisfied about the level of inclusion. Academic staff who feel that they are a minority experience less inclusiveness. Additionally, 20% of participants reported that colleagues in their immediate working environment are sometimes excluded because they are different.

This feeling of exclusion is caused by gossip, not being invited to social activities, not being awarded PhDs, unfair evaluations, and exclusion from projects. ‘The bullying that I experience and see is largely caused by the hierarchy in the academic world’, one respondent stated.

Recommendations
Drawing on these and other outcomes, the researchers are compiling a series of recommendations to make TU Delft a more diverse and inclusive place. The managers will have to take the lead in this. ‘If they stress the importance of diversity and are open to seeing differences, the staff members will feel more involved and connected to TU Delft than if they do not do this’, write the researchers.

They also advise: encouraging employees to report incidents; improving the complaints procedure; designing a D&I (Diversity & Inclusion) strategy for TU Delft as a whole; monitoring the goals set; and, planning follow-up meetings in line with the research outcomes.

Local
The Executive Board is accepting the recommendations, it states in an email to all employees. The team of confidential advisors will be enlarged, the communications about the complaints and reporting procedures will be improved, the D&I Office will design a new strategy and the research outcomes, and there is now a learning hub that makes training available for all employees.

The follow-up meetings that the researchers recommended will be held at faculty and management level. In one case, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) had an external party look into how its staff members experience its culture and social safety, while, in another case, the Faculty of Applied Sciences (AS) will soon present a multi-year plan of action.