New staff checklist
The Faculty Early Career Mentoring Programme complied the following checklist of things to do and learn about. This list is intended as a guide, rather than a checklist of things all new staff must do. Some items may not be applicable to your role.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2u7y8a7312k08m5/Checklist%20for%20new%20staff.pdf?dl=0
How to do stuff guide
The Schools of Chemical Sciences, Environment, and Psychology have released this “How to do stuff” guide for staff. This includes info on various things from getting set up with access keys and office space, to processes and resources you may need throughout your time at UoA, such as academic processes, finance, services, and health and safety.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0hwwq2xnhxwywuk/how-to-do-stuff-guide-v9-16Mar2021.pdf?dl=0
Who do I ask?
Each School/Department has their own document about who to approach for help with things like academic information, HR, finances (e.g., travel, employee reimbursement), and services (e.g., room booking, access cards and keys).
- Biological Sciences
- Chemical Sciences
- Computer Science
- Environment
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Psychology
- Statistics
FoS Research Fellow Society Grants
Starting in 2021, the Society receives annual funding to award grants for seed-funding ($2000 per applicant), publication ($1000 per applicant), and travel ($500 per applicant). See applications below for details.
Please email any enquires to fos-res-fellows@auckland.ac.nz.
Parenting and Parental Leave
Supporting staff with children
These policies and guidelines explain how the University works to support you as a staff member as you meet the challenges of combining parenting and a career. The linked page includes information regarding Work-life balance and recognition, Parental leave, Childcare, Breastfeeding and working, and the Expecting and new parents network
Other useful links
Information and resources for staff members with parenting responsibilities
CPChttps://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/auckland/about-us/equity-at-the-university/CPC%20Toolkit%20June%202019.pdf(CombiningParenting and Career) Toolkit. Information on pregnancy and work, preparing for parental leave, keeping in touch and HR matters while on parental leave, and returning to work.
Other useful information
Working while pregnant
There are multiple parent spaces around the university, where you can take a break during your workday.
Finding support
- Women in Science network
- Women in Leadership program
- Parents network. Run by SBS lecturer Nick Matzke. Contact Nick for more information (matzke@auckland.ac.nz)
Return to Work grant
The Faculty of Science has a ‘return to work’ grant, offering up to $10,000 over two years to academic staff returning to work after an extended period of parental leave. Applicants must have been on leave for at least 6 months and return to work at least 0.3FTE. See here for more information.
Conference travel with children
The UoA Travel policy prevents staff from using Research Grants or Operating Accounts to pay for family/partner to accompany staff on conference travel to care for the baby (even if breastfeeding) or pay for childcare at the conference. It is possible to pay for partner/family member’s flight through Orbit using our own own credit card, but they charge a fee for each traveler (which can be ~70 domestic, ~$140 international).
Permission can be got to not book with Orbit in ‘exceptional circumstances’. This may be a good option to allow for booking an extra ticket for partner, without paying the extra fees.
Describing your achievements and documenting your leave
Some tips from the Achievement Relative to Opportunity guidelines
- For promotion applications mention how parental leave, caring for kids etc. has affected research productivity.
- Focus on quality of outputs, rather than quantity.
- Explain how much time you were away and calculate your average productivity minus that period (e.g. if you have been a researcher for 4yrs and then took 12 months off, divide your total outputs by 4yrs, not 5.)