Organization and employees

At the end of 2016 BI had a total of 834 employees. The total figures broke down to 432 administrative employees and 402 academic staff.

The numbers correspond to 756.7 FTEs, a decrease of 7.6 FTEs from 2015. The reduction is mainly due to a decrease in the number of employees in the administration. Total academic FTEs was 336.3. The number of professors on campus total 122, of which 33 held positions as adjunct professor. The proportion of academic staff with international backgrounds increased from 29% to 30%. In addition to BI’s academic employees, 408 part-time teachers were connected to BI in 2016.

Organization and organizational development

Strengthened collaboration across organizational boundaries was an important part of efforts to develop organizational and management capacity to realize BI’s strategic ambitions and ensure efficient operation. Measures have included both cultural and structural changes.

The "Code of Conduct" initiative has clarified common expectations for interaction at BI based on workshops throughout the organization. The aim was to further develop the internal culture of collaboration and strengthen an inclusive work environment. New internal meeting places – the annual meeting and the annual celebration, as well as Academic Year Kick-Off - were established in 2016, and two new internal prices were launched. These are the interaction award, and the award for best lecturer.

To reduce organizational complexity and increase organizational effectiveness, the focus on developing and clarifying uniform work processes and digitizing continued. Key business processes related to course development, examination- and diploma production have been prioritized.

Organizational approaches have included coordination of work with student recruitment and admission to exploit synergies across business areas in the Executive division. Likewise, Bachelor Executive is reorganized to strengthen sales, operations and digitization of the department.

To strengthen transparency in relation to the external appointments and external work, the Board decided to support a tightening of procedures for reporting and disclosure of such activities.

Equality, discrimination and availability

BI’s plan for diversity and equality affirms that all employees should have the same rights, obligations and opportunities regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religion or sexual orientation. BI’s equality work has had a particular focus on increasing the proportion of female professors, directors, and management and governing bodies, as well as increasing the number of men in administrative positions.

By the end of the year BI had 26 female professors in full-time position, an increase of 7 professors from 2015. This represents a proportion of female professors of 29% of those in full-time positions. The female share of academic full-time positions has increased from 28% to 31%. Women accounted for 33% of top management, 38% of head of departments and 50% of Deans were women. The proportion of women directors at BI was 63%. On BI’s board there were 50% women, and 27% in the Senate. The percentage of men in administrative positions was 34%.

In 2016, 15% of all BI employees had another citizenship than Norwegian. The proportion was 4% for administrative staff and 30% of all academic positions. Besides Norway, BI had 40 nationalities among its employees in 2016. BI is a business with international ambitions and an international scope. Internationalisation is at the core of our business. Equality, regardless of ethnicity, religion or belief is a prerequisite for this. As a consequence of the diversity among students and staff and to further facilitate this, BI opened a "Room for Faith and thought” in 2009. The Board decided that all board documents should be available in English. BI strives to ensure that all internal documents are available in English.

BI Norwegian Business School’s buildings are universally designed. Modern buildings and an active approach to adaptation mean that there are no reported deviations due to lack of facilitation.

Work environment and HSE

BI shall facilitate an inspiring working environment that promotes well being, health, education and development of each individual. The environment will be characterized by diversity, equality, care and respectful and open communication.

BI’s work environment survey is conducted every two years, the last time in 2016. For the organization as a whole, the survey showed consistently better results than in 2014. For the first time since 2010, measures of management were included in the survey.

Sick leave

The primary occupational health risks at BI are factors related to stress and interaction, as well as strain on muscle and bone. An offer of psychosocial counselling to all employees has helped to prevent sick leave and conflicts, better conflict management and increased stress management. The psychosocial counselling combined with a close cooperation with the occupational health service has meant that employees return to work quicker after illness. Total sick leave at BI rose from 2.09 in 2015 to 2.15 in 2016.

Civil protection and emergency

A key part of the HSE work is to safeguard people's lives and health. BI has an overall contingency plan that defines responsibility and risk factors, preventing serious incidents and ensures action if these occur. Each year, a risk and vulnerability analysis (ROS) is conducted. The ROS-analysis for 2016 showed few changes from previous years. The analysis showed a somewhat greater likelihood, still a moderate risk, that serious incidents could occur with employees and / or students abroad, and risk mitigation measures were considered. Exercises where the theme was serious incident involving staff and students abroad, school shooting and bomb threat was completed in 2015/16. An evaluation of the exercises showed that BI’s emergency plans and procedures were a great help in dealing with such situations and few improvements were required.

Moreover, BI has robust systems for fire protection and emergency preparedness at all campuses, with systematic training and exercises. Supervision by the authorities in 2016 has not led to demands for further action. 

In 2016 BI established an information security policy and thus started the introduction of an information security management system that will comply with EU’s regulation, which will become functional in May 2018. Information includes measures that contribute to preserving the values, information and ability to solve priority tasks through ensuring confidentiality, integrity and controlled availability.

Environment

BI has had Eco-Lighthouse certification since 2010. A materiality analysis identified the biggest environmental challenges for BI, like greenhouse gas emissions associated with business travel and waste management. BI does a climate account every two years, and accounts for 2016 showed that BI’s carbon footprint is increasing. This must be countered both with internal measures and initiatives that engage students, alumni, staff and partners. The ambition is that BI shall take its share of responsibility by influencing practices in society and the economy and the individuals' habits in a positive direction. Up to 2018, the main objective is to reduce CO2 emissions through own measures at BI Oslo by 30% compared to figures from 2011 (5463t CO2). More information about BI’s reporting on sustainability is found in BI’s PRME Sharing information on progress report 2016, see www.unprme.org/reports/BIPRMESIP2016.pdf

* numbers of employees may differ from statistics contained in DBH. This is because the reporting to DBH is 1 October, while the figures in BI's annual report are from 31 December.