THE COORDINATOR
FLAIR FOR
ORGANISING AND
GATHERING KNOWLEDGE
THE COORDINATOR
As a working environment and emergency and
security coordinator Henriette Lerche no longer
works in the laboratory. Her workplace is the
long corridors and offices at the Niels Bohr
Institute at Copenhagen University on Blegdamsvej in Copenhagen. Since the autumn of
2012 she has worked full-time in the institute's
administration.
Henriette Lerche started as a laboratory technologist at the Niels Bohr Institute and was
then employed in a research department at the
same place. She was there for four years where
she became a part of the working environment
organization and was elected employee representative. Management chose to abolish her
position and offered her instead a position
where she would be working full-time with the
working environment, which she already knew
something about.
I have also been a shop steward, so the management had already seen that side of me. It is
important in my job to have integrity and to
remain objective at all times. I am neither on
management nor the employees' side. My function is to create a bridge to get things to play
along together.
The management was of the opinion that I, as
shop steward, could manage this. And I have
had the position of working environment coordinator since the autumn of 2012, says Henriette Lerche.
She believes the best thing about the job is that
she is an integral part of the many processes.
The management or the working environment
10
organization often have an idea that they want
something being investigated.
Has influence
My function is to collect and find the necessary
information, which I present to them. We then
find out together how the plans can be realized.
And often I am also involved in putting them
into practice. My work also has something to do
with influence. Management can be in doubt
about how something has to be managed. Then
I can come along with input and tell them how I
think we shall proceed. Here I draw on my long
experience. I have a greater insight as to how
things function practically in a laboratory if you
want to make changes. The management do
not have the same insight. Then I can come
along with my proposals, so that in some areas
I am my colleagues' representative in relation
to change, says Henriette Lerche.
Her skills as a working environment coordinator are first and foremost organizational flair
and a sense of where she can find the necessary knowledge. But also, an ability to get these
things linked to the visions and strategies of
the organization.
Intricate executive orders
We would all like to see our employees healthy
and well. But at the same time, I also know that
we cannot just decide what people are to do,
whether they have to go on a diet or something.
It s more about communicating health related
issues.
At other times it can be an intricate executive
order in the legislation I have had a look at. It
can be written in a nonsensical language and
it is necessary to translate it, so I work with
it until it is meaningful, says Henriette Lerche.
She is also a security and emergency coordinator. In this job she is responsible for coordinating the Niels Bohr Institute's emergency
response at the workplace in case of accidents
or something as extreme as a school shooting.
At the present time the institute is in the process of getting a new building in which the
employees will be moving to in a year's time.
There Henriette Lerche will via her coordinator's role in some of the working groups come
with input regarding the working environment.
What do you have to take into consideration
about the working environment when you are
building something new? It is also her work to
ensure a good working environment and, in this
way, stamp a mark on the new building.
denly become very personal. That is why we
have got somebody like me, who without the
employer's prerogative can go in and investigate and look on things with fresh eyes as to
how we can solve the problem and move on,
says Henriette Lerche.
She emphasises that her task is to move the
workplace forward and help make it better all
the time. n
My function is
to create a bridge
to get things to
work together
The framework for performance
Henriette Lerche's job is important because
the working environment is what creates a
framework for what one can undertake at the
workplace.
I believe that in my coordinating role I have a
different overview in relation to the working
environment representative. I am a little more
in the forefront and plan working environment
meetings together with management and draw
up agendas. In my case my leader leans on me
quite a lot because he has not so much time
and resources for this work even though he
would like to. So, in this way I have rather a lot
of influence and I believe it is a good thing for
the workplace. It often happens that my leader
openly admits that there are things he does not
know. But then we sort it out. For myself it is all
about having a network, so I have people I can
discuss things with. Especially psychological
working environment problems can be very
complex and difficult. Many in management
can be afraid of them because they can sud11
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