The form of employment of the entire university staff is a contractual employment relationship. When a new employee joins the university, a contract of employment is made for the new employee. The making of the contract of employment is subject to, e.g., the following documents: Rector's general instructions relating to the hiring of new employees and Rector's decision to delegate the authority to hire new employees to the University of Eastern Finland.
The university's teaching and research staff follows the total working time system, which involves 1,600 hours per academic year. Members of the teaching staff make an annual work plan covering their 1,624 hours in cooperation with their supervisor.
The university's administrative and auxiliary staff (often referred to as "the other staff") follow regular working hours, which shall in average not be more than 7 hours and 21 minutes per day and 36 hours and 45 minutes per week. The university has a flexible working hours system and members of the administrative and auxiliary staff use a time card for the monitoring of their working hours.