While the Recognition and Rewards project (see box) likely sounds familiar to most academic staff, for support staff, it is almost entirely unexplored terrain. A good reason for a committee of the University Council to have a brainstorm session last Wednesday afternoon with members of the various faculty boards, as well as Vice-president of the Executive Board Jan-Tjitte Meindersma, and HR Director Nieke Guillory.
One thing was soon clear to the eleven people present: the career path for academics is very clear, from PhD researcher to professor – although not everybody will necessarily ultimately earn the title of professor. The situation is very different for support staff: there are myriad different positions (like catering, IT, receptionist, management assistant, director, or policy officer) which all differ too much from each other to neatly allow for a one-size-fits-all approach.
Not to mention, said some of the council members, that not everyone wants to change jobs. “I just want to do my job well, I don’t need to progress”, is something they hear frequently.
Recognition and Reward is more than just bonuses and the path to a ‘higher’ position, it’s also about the little things, said one of board members for the Faculty of Law. “There are Law Talks for researchers to help them keep up to date on each other’s work. We would like the same for support staff, so that they can see what their colleagues in the same building are working on.”
Take it seriously
There is still a lot of work to be done, he realised, but “the most important thing is that the staff are heard, that their points are taken seriously”. One member for the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life sciences agreed: “There is a lot of knowledge and experience among the support staff, it takes years to build up that sort of thing. But people often don’t recognise it. People retire and all that experience is lost.” One U-Council member responded: “Why don’t we make the replacement shadow the experienced retiree for a while, just like the current vice-president shadowed the previous vice-president, Nick Bos, for a few months? Surely that should be possible for support staff, too?” Now it can sometimes take months for the replacement to be appointed, so that the remaining staff have to shoulder the extra work, with all the consequences for workload that entails.
And another thing: “As a member of the support staff, you don’t always feel included in the academic community – we work hard, this place wouldn’t function without us, but still. Sometimes we set ourselves apart from it, why did so few support staff go to the demonstration in The Hague, for example? But we’re also not always treated as if we’re part of the community.”
No idea
Whoever does want to progress professionally often has no idea what the possibilities are. Everybody agreed that more transparency is needed. The conversation will be part of the courses needed to progress. What is your boss says no? The HR director said that since November 2024, an employee can apply to take part in a course; permission from the supervisor is not required, although it should be discussed up front. And then there are the annual appraisals – or Personal Development Plans (POP) – where someone can express their desire to progress professionally. Guillory added that they are also not implemented everywhere. “There is a policy, but not everybody sticks to it.”
In two years
Then, Vice-president Meindersma, who stated at the start of the meeting that he considers Recognition and Reward of support staff one of his top priorities – in addition to cybersecurity, for example – asked, “what should we have achieved on this issue in two years?”
Make clear what the responsibilities of a particular job are, what the opportunities for promotion are, and what you have to do to achieve that new position, said one of the participants. And make sure that it’s supported by management, added another. It’s not the first this afternoon that the critical role of the supervisor was mentioned. Meindersma also mentioned it in his closing remarks: “E&W should be part of the DNA of a supervisor. Personal Development Plans are important, and we have to help them have those conversations. They’re important for the employees.”