Well-being Jamk
The name of our workplace development program is Well-being Jamk. This already shows that employee well-being is important to us as an employer. Well-being is the cornerstone of work and consists of many different aspects that we want to support and develop together with the entire Jamk community.
Universities are undergoing many changes: hybrid work and digitalization are changing the ways we work, workload and the need for skills development are challenging. These themes are very familiar and concrete to us at Jamk as well.
Coaching Leadership
The starting points for well-being at work and productive work are good leadership and quality supervisory work. We follow a coaching leadership model based on trust. Our coaching leadership approach includes managing tasks, managing people, coaching, and helping people find insights in their own work. Our supervisors regularly participate in leadership training and coaching.
Multi-location Hybrid Work is Here to Stay
Multi-location hybrid work has become a permanent feature after the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of our staff work partly remotely and partly on campus. Remote work is voluntary for us. In-person teaching is provided for first- and second-year daytime students, which defines the presence of some of our teaching staff on campus.
Even in remote work, it is important to stay in touch with your own team and supervisor. Each team agrees on practices for in-person meetings and internal communication.
Mutual trust between employee and employer is an important value for us. Especially in remote work, strengthening trust and community is emphasized.
Our wonderful and much-anticipated all-staff celebration, Liljanpäivät, is held at the end of spring and is the highlight of our sense of community. The responsibility and theme of Liljanpäivät change every year.
Grow and Develop in Your Work
We encourage growth and development at work. At the same time, we promote quality work and improve our operations and results. Developing one’s own skills is an essential part of our work. Continuous learning includes both individual and community skills development.
The nature of knowledge work is changing more and more towards creative problem-solving and learning new things. This change requires our employees to continuously develop their skills. We support our employees’ innovativeness, time and stress management, and abilities to recognize their own skills.
In needs discussions between supervisor and employee, we map out each person’s skill needs and career paths. Job rotation and substituting for a colleague are ways to develop our skills. As a large employer with over 900 employees, you can find new career paths and interesting tasks within our organization. We are also a high-quality and diverse educator in both degree and continuing education. We encourage our staff to take advantage of, for example, our open university of applied sciences and vocational teacher education programs. RDI projects also offer excellent targeted training for developing one’s own skills.
Coaching Mentoring Program
In 2025, we launched a coaching mentoring program to support skills development, knowledge sharing, create a Jamk-like visiting culture, and strengthen community. By learning together, we use mentoring to create an even better, learning, and skilled work community.
Sustainable Development and Responsibility
Kestävä kehitys läpileikkaa opetuksemme, TKI-toimintamme ja palveluliiketoimintamme. Meillä on kestävän kehityksen työryhmä, joka edistää Sustainable development cuts across our teaching, RDI activities, and service business. We have a sustainable development working group that promotes themes of responsibility, carbon neutrality, green transition, and biodiversity.
We promote sustainable mobility by choosing environmentally friendly modes of transport and reducing travel. Sustainable development is considered in our recycling and waste management, procurement, and dining.
Promoting Physical Activity
For us, an active everyday life is crucial. We spend about half of our waking hours at work. Therefore, it matters how we act during the workday. Physical activity and exercise during free time play a significant role in recovery and coping.
We encourage small everyday actions: commuting to work using muscle power and increasing activity during the workday. We use the Cuckoo break exercise app and modern workstations that allow for easy switching between standing and sitting positions. Walking meetings and functional teaching are examples of everyday opportunities for activity.
Our employees have access to Epassi’s well-being, culture, and sports benefits, as well as the comprehensive offerings of University Sports.
Good Mood – Better Everyday Life
Life moves forward and everyday situations vary for each of us. Both at work and in private life, one may encounter various challenges that cannot always be overcome alone. We take into account the needs of employees in different life situations. One of our investments in employee well-being is low-threshold mental health services. In cooperation with occupational health care, we support mental well-being both preventively and in treatment. Our services include, among others, occupational psychologist services, concern chat, mood and sleep coach digital mental well-being programs, and short-term therapy.
Recovery is an Important Part of Coping
Recovery both at work and during free time is an essential part of well-being. Knowledge workers, in particular, should pay attention to cognitive recovery: you cannot create or learn something new if your brain is constantly running at full speed. We encourage taking breaks, changing work positions, and even small movements during the workday, which promote both mental and physical recovery.
We make sure that workdays do not get longer and that the workload remains reasonable. We strongly recommend taking a lunch break every day.
