People & Culture: What Human Resources strategy for a University promoting a sustainable world?

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People & Culture: What Human Resources strategy for a University promoting a sustainable world?

GALLIOT, Brigitte, ZOSSOU, Liliane

Abstract

Universities are higher education institutions whose mission is to generate and transmit knowledge to the society through their research and teaching activities. An important question facing universities today is how they can evolve into institutions where excellence is not only focused on scientific results but also on the development of human capital and on the promotion of diversity, equality, inclusiveness. This requires a major change in the governance of universities, which, in terms of human resources (HR), must define their strategic directions and implement evidence-based management. The HR strategy is translated into policies that must be well identified and validated by community members.

Action plans are based on three essential pillars: (i) a high-performing HR team that guarantees equal rules and best practices for each member of the University; (ii) an information system adapted to HR performance management with appropriate indicators; (iii) a strong managerial culture aimed at giving all managers, whether academic or administrative, the means to face cultural gap, to foster the development of everyone's [...]

GALLIOT, Brigitte, ZOSSOU, Liliane. People & Culture: What Human Resources strategy for a University promoting a sustainable world? Social Science Research Network , 2020, no.

3730829

Available at:

http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:147488

People & Culture: What Human Resources strategy for a University promoting a sustainable world?

Brigitte Galliot* and Liliane Zossou

University of Geneva, Rue du General Dufour, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland.

* Corresponding author: brigitte.galliot@unige.ch

ABSTRACT

Universities are higher education institutions whose mission is to generate and transmit knowledge to the society through their research and teaching activities. An important question facing universities today is how they can evolve into institutions where excellence is not only focused on scientific results but also on the development of human capital and on the promotion of diversity, equality, inclusiveness. This requires a major change in the governance of universities, which, in terms of human resources (HR), must define their strategic directions and implement evidence-based management. The HR strategy is translated into policies that must be well identified and validated by community members. Action plans are based on three essential pillars:

(i) a high-performing HR team that guarantees equal rules and best practices for each member of the University; (ii) an information system adapted to HR performance management with appropriate indicators; (iii) a strong managerial culture aimed at giving all managers, whether academic or administrative, the means to face cultural gap, to foster the development of everyone's skills and to identify talent. Sustainable implementation of these ambitions relies on iterative evaluations to progressively adjust these processes, for the benefit of the well-being of community members, the effectiveness of the various structures to which they belong, and the attractiveness of the University. The inclusion of women and representative members of minorities in the leadership of universities undoubtedly favors this transition, towards a working environment strongly imbued with the values of the University, enabling the shaping and dissemination of a similar corpus of good practices, based on the fundamental principles of work centered on respect, trust, a strong sense of public interest, collaboration and initiative.

Keywords:

Human capital in universities; Equality, diversity and inclusiveness in HR management; Evidence- based HR management, University managerial culture, teaching and research staff, administrative and technical staff

Introduction

From Middle Ages to large Humboldtian Universities

The first European universities were created in the Middle Ages with the aim of promoting higher education for the elite of society. In 1810, the Humboldtian model appeared in Germany, a new concept of higher education based on a holistic combination of teaching and research, designed to make scientific thinking available to society (Hohendahl, 2011). Even challenged by the neo-liberal model, this university model is still widely valid today in European state universities, which aim to achieve excellence in both research and teaching. However, public and private funders are calling for universities to operate more ethically in their research and teaching activities as well as in their administrative rules (Buitendijk et al., 2019). Initially designed to train men from high social classes, universities gradually admitted women at the end of the 19th century, first in London in 1868 (Carter, 2018). In the 1960s, universities became very popular, a success that necessitated a political reform of their status. Yet these reforms did little to address the issue of working conditions in universities. The sexism and discrimination that many women had to face during their training and careers, as shown in the excellent film

"Portrait a Scientist" (Cheney and Shattuck, 2020), illustrate this situation.

Reinforcing human capital, improving working conditions and promoting equality, diversity and inclusiveness are objectives that are now a must for most Universities. To achieve these goals, Universities must develop a series of competencies to be made available to their collaborators, among which the promotion of Human Resources (HR) and Equality/Diversity functions are of crucial importance (Figure 1). Universities are large, usually quite heterogenous communities formed of distinct structures, the Faculties, the Institutes and Administration, each of them with their own specificities. Their respective activities rely on a highly diverse set of professional competencies linked to teaching, research, administration, communication, logistics and building management to cite the main ones. Despite this heterogeneity, the Human Resources Department (HRD) is the independent guarantor of the legal and administrative rules that apply to everyone within the institution. The core tasks of human resources (e.g. recruitment, Figure 1 : To improve working conditions implementation of the HR strategy is based on the activities of the various departments of the University coordinated by the HR department. Some competencies may be located outside the University such as medical support.

Eq ua lity &

Div ers ity

University collaborators

Jurid ic Se ctor

Vio lenc e Mi scon

duc t

Human Resources

IT & Lo gis tic s Continuing

Education

Communication

He al th Se rv ic es Financ e

Graduate

Campus

onboarding, contracts, salaries, outboarding) must be guaranteed, in particular through digitization and a modern, high-performance IT system. In addition to these legal and administrative roles, the HR department must provide the necessary support at every stage of the employee life cycle to ensure that the activity of each sector is based on competent and motivated employees who feel good at work, take pride in their institution and contribute to its performance. As Universities compete to attract and retain the best and most various talents, the simple addition of a high-quality Equality/Diversity office does not suffice, the need for an evidence-based HR management is unescapable, a goal that requires a major shift in mindset.

An HR strategy for developing an evidence-based HR management in Universities

This transformation of HR management within universities needs to be based on an ambitious HR strategy resulting from an iterative process between five parties, (1) the Presidency of the University responsible for designing it, (2) the advisory boards of the University to bring their expertise, (3) the academic and administrative leaders to become sensitized and involved in the approach, (4) the members of the community to provide a regular co-constructive feedback, (5) the Human Resources Department (HRD) responsible for refining and implementing human resources policies (Figure 2). In this context, the HR strategy is designed in relation to the institutional strategies and existing charters (about ethics and deontology, doctorate, scientific integrity, ...), then forwarded for discussion to advisory boards and representative bodies of the different members of the academic community, adapted through iterative processes between these bodies, and once finalized and validated, the approved version must be widely communicated to all University members.

The HR strategy designed here is rather generic, defined at four distinct levels (Figure 3) starting from the HR missions in terms of HR management, i.e. recruiting and retaining the human capital responsible for fulfilling and developing the missions of the University, but also in terms of enhancing the diversity within the institution and contributing to social innovations as well as career development of graduates inside and outside the institution. From these missions, HR policies are elaborated with the aim to revitalize the HR management within the University.

Implementation of these policies is the responsibility of the HR Department with the concerted support of the other administrative departments, faculties and institutes. These policies are broken down into action plans in which the Presidency is committed to impressing a strong managerial culture and supporting the development of talent within academic, administrative or technical careers.

With this in mind, the HRD is committed to setting up objectives to establish a fluid, transparent and equal administrative management for all users, to ensure efficient and caring management

Figure 2 : Parties involved in the elaboration and validation of the University HR strategy

University

HR strategy & HR policies Presidency

Communi

ty me mbe rs Ad viso

ry b oar ds HR De pa rtm en t

Unive rsity m

anag ers

of human capital, and to regularly evaluate its performance. The HRD also contributes to enhancing the managerial skills of managers at all levels and is committed to supporting the development of employees' skills and their mobility.

It is important to note that the missions of universities are carried out by staff members with a wide range of expertise in about 80 different fields of activity. In many places, the administrative situation is particularly complex since this staff, whether on fixed-term or open-ended contracts, is attached to two statuses, that of the Administrative and Technical Staff (ATS) and that of the Teaching and Research Staff (TRS), often governed by distinct regulations. As an additional level of complexity, the financing of salaries is based on public or private funds, in particular research funds obtained by researchers from non-profit funding institutions as well as foundations (Figure 4). In the face of this complexity, a high-performance HR management information system is essential to promote an efficient and fluid administrative functioning.

The definition of HR strategic axes and HR policies also implies that the financial and human means necessary for their implementation are duly evaluated and allocated. In addition, the effectiveness, quality and compliance of the activities implemented within the framework of HR management must be evaluated and steered in the same way as any other key processes of an organization. This performance management framework must provide the Presidency of the University with the assurance that the objectives set for HR have been achieved and that the resources of the HR function are used appropriately. To do this, management must define objectives and then indicators with target values. These indicators must be constructed in such a way as to guarantee their reliability and be able to be fed in efficiently. They must be communicated regularly to management for steering purposes within dashboards. In summary, to be efficient, the HR performance management system must be based on high-performance information systems that provide the means for evidence-based HR management (Lawler, 2007;

Rynes et al., 2007).

Figure 4: Administrative complexity of the human resources in academic environment.

Note that members of both the ATS and the TRS can be on public law or private law contracts, which can be fixed-term or open-ended.

Private Law contract

Administrative

& Technical Staff (ATS) ATS regulations

Teaching &

Research Staff (TRS) TRS regulations

Public Law contract

Figure 3 : The four-level structure of a University HR strategy

VISION

HR Missions HR Policies Action Plans Objectives

Ins tit uti on al str ate gy

HR str ateg y Kn ow led ge pr od uc tio n

& tra ns mi ssi on

HR MISSIONS

1. The HR missions of the institution

Through the missions entrusted to it, namely the production and transmission of knowledge, as well as service to the City, the University is responsible for training, particularly intellectually, the next generation of citizens that society needs to ensure its development and meet the social, environmental and scientific requirements to which it is subject. In order to fulfill these missions, the University must attract, provide and retain valuable collaborators with the know-how and interpersonal skills needed to carry its missions.

Through an inclusive approach, the University must promote excellence in the field of human resources, whether it is a question of supervising the training of its doctoral and post-doctoral fellows, fostering the constant development of skills related to its missions, or supporting the career development of those who carry out academic, technical or administrative activities.

Special attention should be given to doctoral and post-doctoral fellows who need specific support to develop their careers in academic and non-academic fields, this mission must be achieved in collaboration with the Graduate Campus, a structure designed to offer services and networking to young researchers.

More generally, the progress of Universities in the field of human resources must contribute to digital, technological and social innovations, and foster open collaborations between the different players in the institution, between the academic community and the society.

2. HR missions in favor of the University’s collaborators

The University’s staff must benefit from a quality, ergonomic working environment that guarantees safety as well as physical and mental health. This environment must promote the professional development of employees, and the emergence and recognition of talent. The Human Resources Department (HRD) must implement a modern and dynamic administrative management of HR processes, independently guarantee the proper functioning of HR processes and ensure the security of information concerning staff members. The HRD, in synergy with the different structures of the University, must actively promote the development of skills, business skills of course, but also management and leadership skills of the team leaders and managers of its different entities. This last point includes the management of new working environments such as home working.

HR POLICIES

1. Implementation of HR missions

In the implementation of its HR missions, the University ensures that each manager feels fully responsible for the fulfillment of its employees and the development of their skills. The University’s staff members must embody, both internally and externally, the values of the University, namely respect for human rights, sensitivity to different cultures, a spirit of openness, the tradition of scientific research, and the academic freedom of its members. The staff members are committed to following the fundamental principles of work enacted at the University, namely respect and trust, a sense of general interest, collaboration and initiative.

The heads of the various working groups identify the evolution of the professions that concern them and the new skills to be developed in synergy with the managers of the HR Department.

They actively support employee training and mobility in order to maintain their employability both internally and externally. The HRD members help to ensure quality recruitment that

promotes the company’s performance and sense of belonging. The HRD is responsible for anticipating changes in the field of human resources.

2. Transforming and energizing the management of human resources

The central HRD is committed to simplifying and lightening the administrative burden for itself, for the HR relays within the various entities and of course for users. It is HRD's responsibility to communicate effectively the information and resources available to employees in HR matters, and to promote measures to prevent psycho-social risks. The HR department ensures the continuous training of employees involved in HR processes. HRD creates and facilitates the dissemination of a common managerial culture by contributing to the definition of roles, duties and responsibilities and by developing the training and follow-up of administrative or academic managers. HRD takes the necessary measures to evaluate and advance the results of this policy towards excellence.

ACTION PLANS

1. Define and promote a strong managerial culture

It is the responsibility of the HRD in partnership with other concerned Departments (see Figure 1) to ensure that working conditions within the University not only comply with the rules in force, but that the working environment is stimulating and conducive to the development of skills. To a large extent, the working environment is conditioned by the type of management of the person in charge, and it is up to the Presidency to define a strong managerial culture, which, supported by a solid training of the managers, supports the motivation of the staff, whether teacher, researchers, administrative or technical. The Presidency demands exemplary behavior from the managers, in accordance with the values and fundamentals of the work at the University (Table-1). It values respectful and efficient management regardless of the size of the work group, as well as the encouragement of employee initiative.

Table-1: Fundamentals of the work at the University of Geneva

The HRD supports the development of management skills and provides managers with appropriate coaching, enabling them, for example, to adapt to new forms of work such as working from home. In addition to managerial training, the HRD analyzes indicators related to the quality of management of managers and regularly informs the Presidency. The HRD calls on independent bodies to regularly assess the satisfaction of the employees of the University’s various entities. In addition, the HRD communicates on measures taken against misconduct to counter the sense of impunity.

Fundamentals of the work:

(1) Respect and Trust: every employee is respected and considered honest, responsible, committed and motivated;

(2) Sense of Public Interest: everyone’s work is dedicated to students, research, the academic community and/or the city;

(3) Collaboration: everyone works in a collaborative manner, both internally and externally;

(4) Initiative: everyone’s spirit of initiative is encouraged for the benefit of the institution.

2. Promote and value HR management at the service of users.

The HRD ensures transparent and fair administrative management of all HR processes. It communicates regulations and directives ensuring that they are understood by users and keeps a close eye on all HR-related documents, internal or external. The HRD management is committed to streamlining the administrative management of HR processes. This involves the development of information systems adapted to the efficient management of HR processes, allowing in particular the monitoring of indicators that measure the performance of HR management. In addition, the HRD mobilizes the governance bodies around the adequacy and even simplification of regulations and directives to optimize HR processes and ensure their consistency with institutional needs.

The management of the HRD is developing a service- and solution-oriented culture within the department, a culture based on everyone's spirit of collaboration and initiative. Furthermore, it develops the culture of evaluation, particularly with regard to the efficiency of processes and services, and is committed to making them evolve. One key point is the organization of the HR Department itself, designed as such as the support it brings to each unit of the central administration, faculties and institutes, is equally distributed, according to their respective needs.

The HR department management regularly assesses its needs in order to adapt the resources allocated by the Presidency. Finally, the HR department management is committed to promoting transversal links between the different entities of the University, to act as HR business partner who brings the HR point of view to institutional strategies and policies.

3. Develop positive human capital management

The HRD contributes to the development of a safe and caring working environment, improving working conditions, particularly in interaction with the Occupational Health, Environment, Prevention and Safety department, which ensures the ergonomics of the sites. The HRD manages and monitors the life cycle of employees and develops skills and performance evaluation as standard practice. Moreover, it identifies, promotes and develops continuing education to ensure that all employees develop their skills throughout their careers. The HRD encourages and organizes the internal mobility of staff members.

The HRD adopts an inclusive approach and supports the integration of people with disabilities as well as that of foreign employees, especially those who have recently arrived. The HRD ensures the quality and adequacy of the structures that take care of the physical or mental health problems of its employees, especially stress, anxiety, depression. The HRD is attentive and non-partisan; it prevents, detects and fights against unhealthy or even abusive behavior in collaboration with the Equality/Diversity service of the University; it pays particular attention to the protection of the most vulnerable employees such as doctoral and post-doctoral fellows.

The HRD deals with work-related conflicts with confidentiality, neutrality, competence and humanity by relying on the Legal Affairs Department and the appropriate experts selected by the University. In case of abusive behavior, employees must have access to specialized external structures so that experts can assess the situation and propose a course of action to be taken in complete independence. Witnesses and whistle-blowers need to be protected.

4. Supporting talent development

The University identifies the possibilities of career advancement and promotes them, whether academic, technical or administrative careers.

Career Management for Researchers and Teachers

In order to offer quality supervision to researchers in training, the Presidency creates the status of doctoral student and monitors the implementation of the Doctoral Charter. It undertakes to

train thesis directors in the good practices indicated in the Doctoral Charter, and promotes the activity of the Graduate Campus, a platform dedicated to doctoral students. To actively support the progress of post-doctoral students, the Presidency proposes a mentoring program, with the goal to provide a dedicated support in the design and evolution of their career. This program should be established and evaluated with the help of the representative associations.

For all young researchers, the University encourages the possibility of taking additional training, with a view to acquiring professional skills that will enable them to evolve towards non- academic careers. At the end of their university education, they can get the support of the University Career Center in the search for their first job. Those who wish to pursue a research career can benefit from personalized support from the Research Department in order to compete for national or international funds under the best conditions.

For young researchers engaged in an academic career, the Presidency’s Office draws up a reference document describing the criteria for monitoring and evaluating academic careers at the University. This document is intended to inform researchers of the expectations of the institution. It also aims to homogenize the practices of academic career management within the University. The evolution of the careers of assistant and associate professors is monitored annually by the VP in charge of human resources in consultation with the deans of the faculties concerned to evaluate the possibility of their integration or promotion, and to ensure that a dialogue exists between the faculties and these young professors.

The Presidency’s Office meets regularly with the representatives of the staff, the associations representing doctoral students, post-doctoral students and members of the teaching and research staff to hear their expectations and proposals.

Career management for Administrative and Technical Staff (ATS)

The University actively supports the career development of ATS members through continuous training, mentoring, mobility and talent management. The Presidency ensures that practices for managing and promoting administrative and technical careers are homogeneous among its different entities. The Presidency also supports the implementation of an HR development pole, in charge of promoting continuous training and internal mobility of staff members.

The Presidency entrusts the HRD and the Equality/ Diversity service with the development of a mentoring and talent management program adapted to the members of the ATS. The HRD contributes to maintaining the minimum quota of 4% of apprentices trained each year, in all of subdivisions of the University. Presidency members meet regularly with the personnel commission and the associations representing the administrative and technical staff to exchange and hear their grievances, expectations and proposals.

OBJECTIVES on a three-year plan

As the main objectives related to evidence-based HR management, we propose, in the first year, that the University Presidency call on external experts to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively (Iveta, 2012), (1) the evolution of key HR indicators such as turnover and absenteeism rates in each unit over the last few years, (2) the performance of HR processes and the efficiency of HRD, including the workload at each position in the department, (3) the performance and adequacy of the HR management information system, (4) the quality of leadership within the institution's teams, as reflected in the evaluation of managers by their collaborators, (5) the management of psychosocial risks as deduced from case analysis and surveys (Figure 5). Following the conclusions of this diagnostic phase and the recommendations brought by the experts, the Presidency will decide upon the necessary reorganization of the structures in charge of the human resources within the University and launch the elaboration of the HR strategy to have it validated by the different parties at the end of the second year.

In parallel, the HRD will take steps to rethink HR processes as such, so that they become fluid, fair and consistent for all members of the university. These processes must be transparent and well understood by all users, an objective that requires improving communication between the HRD team and employees, i.e. developing the communication skills of HRD employees, providing easy access to information through a highly visible and easy-to-use website, FAQs, forums to regularly collect feedback from HRD relays and users, etc.

The HRD together with the external consultants will define the necessary means and human resources to achieve the deployment of a system management that enables the digital transformation of HR processes, to improve the administrative load and to collect the HR indicators. This digital transition is planned over a two to three-year period.

The well-being of employees must be taken care of by dedicated experts to deal at an early stage with every type of problem that can arise in a community as large as a university. In collaboration with the Equality/Diversity department, the HR Department will define the structures that are best able to offer the best support to employees who suffer from sexism, discrimination, mobbing, harassment or violence. These structures must be independent of the administrative services in order to provide totally independent, confidential and caring support.

Alterations in mental health (anxiety, stress, depression, burn-out) are recognized as a major source of absenteeism (Cooper and Dewe, 2008) and high quality health services dedicated to maintaining employee health must be made available.

The analysis of the indicators should help deduce areas for improvement, implement performance monitoring and evaluation of HR processes. The quality of team management requires the implementation of management training for all managers, academic as well as non- academic, i.e. in charge of research, administrative or technical teams. Feedback, regular survey and continuous training are essential for the implementation of a strong managerial culture.

Finally, the HR developmental pole will develop continuing education and organize a mobility hub for the collaborators.

Figure 5 : During the diagnostic phase that precedes the elaboration of the HR strategy five main dimensions of the HR function needs to be investigated.

HR function efficiency Diagnostic phase

HR processes

Tea m m ana gem ent HR ind

ica tors HR IT sys tem

Psyc ho-so

cial r isks

Conclusions & Perspectives

The human capital of the University is a key player in the success of its missions. Beside reflecting the strategic objectives of the institution, the HR strategy seeks to support equality, diversity and inclusion, and develop the human capital in charge of the University's missions, namely teaching, research and service to the City. The design of an HR strategy should be seen as a transversal approach, fed in particular by the knowledge of the people in charge of the Equality/Diversity service. Its implementation requires fruitful interactions with most services within the University, those dealing with the questions of equality/diversity, health, careers, continuous training, infrastructures, buildings, communication, etc.. This strategy aims to create a work environment where values of the University are vibrant, namely humanism and respect for human rights, sensitivity to diverse cultures and international openness, tradition of scientific research and academic freedom. One main aim of this HR strategy is to establish a solid institutional managerial culture based on the fundamental principles of work active at the University, valid for all members of the community whether they belong to the teaching and research staff, or administrative and technical staff. This strategy aims to shape and disseminate a similar corpus of good practice among its different units. The policies implemented will have to be inclusive, supporting the diversity of its members, promoting their training, their mobility as well as the development of their career. The progressive implementation of these ambitions requires a digital transformation of the tools supporting HR processes. The various dimensions of the action plans will have to be regularly evaluated, with regard to the improvement of HR processes, the well-being of community members, the effectiveness of the various structures to which they belong, and the influence of the University.

Regular networking among universities such as those proposed by the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU), the Coimbra Group, the European Women Rectors Association (EWORA), the German U15 group, the Group of Eight in Australia (Go8), the League of European Research Universities (LERU), the RU11 group in Japan, the Russell group of British universities, the U15 group in Canada, the World Women University President Forum (WWUPF), to name but a few, are undoubtedly an effective lever for obtaining external expertise and critical interaction in the design and implementation phases of an HR strategy. There is no more time for procrastination, society needs higher education to promote rationale thinking and to address the urgent and devastating problems it generates!

University governance must be convinced that financial investment in the development of the HR function as well as Equality and Diversity not only preserves public money from outrageous expenses such as the cost of absenteeism, but also significantly improves the development of original research and dedicated teaching by bringing strong self-confidence and daily well- being to university members. Investing in universities' human resources management is an important way to prevent the loss of society's confidence in university values and to fight against obscurantism in the long term.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to all members of the HR Department of the University of Geneva for their valuable comments on the draft HR strategy. We also warmly thank the Equality and Diversity Department of the University of Geneva for the many discussions and actions that developed our awareness and critical thinking. This article would not have been written without the judicious recommendations of Mehdi Guessous and Leila Ksontini of Vicario SA, Alexandre Graf of Shake.Swiss, and Steves Emmenegger of Emmenegger Conseil SA, thanks to all of them!

LINKS to University associations

American Association of Universities (AAU): https://www.aau.edu/

Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU): http://www.aearu.org Coimbra Group Universities: A tradition of innovation. https://www.coimbra-group.eu/

European Women Rectors Association (EWORA): https://www.ewora.org German U15: 15 leading German universities https://www.german-u15.de/

Group of Eight (Go8): Australia’s Best Universities. https://go8.edu.au Russell group: 24 leading UK universities. https://russellgroup.ac.uk U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities. https://u15.ca

World Women University President Forum (WWUPF): https://en.unesco.org/news/8th-world-women- university-presidents-forum; https://en.whu.edu.cn/info/1050/3701.htm

REFERENCES

Buitendijk S., Curry S., Maes K. and contributing authors. (2019). Equality, diversity and inclusion at universities: the power of a systemic approach. LERU publications. URL

Carter P. (2018). The first women at university: remembering ‘the London Nine’. Times Higher Education (THE).www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/first-women-university-remembering-london-nine.

Cheney I. and Shattuck S. (2020). Picture a Scientist, Uprising LLC, movie 95 minutes.

https://www.pictureascientist.com

Cooper C. and Dewe P. (2008). Well-being—absenteeism, presenteeism, costs and challenges. Occupational Medicine, 58, 522–524 DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqn124

Hohendahl P. U. (2011). Humboldt Revisited: Liberal Education, University Reform, and the Opposition to the Neoliberal University. New German Critique, 38 (2(113)): 159-196. Duke University Press. DOI:

10.1215/0094033X-1221812

Iveta G. (2012). Human Resources Key Performance Indicators. Journal of Competitiveness, 4, 117-128. DOI:

10.7441/joc.2012.01.09

Lawler E. (2007). Why HR practices are not evidence-based. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1033- 1036. doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.27155013

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Authors

Brigitte Galliot, born in France, studied medicine and molecular biology. BG is currently Professor of Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Geneva and since 2018, Vice-Rector of Human Resources, Careers and Research.

Liliane Zossou, born in Benin, studied political science in France. She holds a doctorate in international history and politics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. Since 2009, LZ has been deputy to the Rectorate of the University of Geneva, in charge of developing the Graduate Campus since 2017.

This article was written for the 9^th World Women University Presidents Forum (WWUPF), Beijing, China, held on November 7^th, 2020.