As junior project officer, you will be an active member of the Recognition & Rewards project team. The project team currently consists of an academic lead, a project lead, a senior HR-policy officer and a junior policy officer. In addition, colleagues from HR and Academic Affairs are structurally involved in the project team and the team will be expanded with two medior project officers. The project team is responsible for initiating, setting up and (further) developing the policy and the implementation of the culture change around 'Recognition & Rewards' on different levels in the organisation (e.g., centrally and within the faculties).

Recognition & Rewards

Recognition & Rewards is a theme that has been high on the agenda since all Dutch knowledge institutions and research funders (VSNU, NFU, KNAW, NWO and ZonMw) published a joint position paper 'Room for everyone's talent: towards a new balance in recognising and appreciating scientists' in November 2019. The aim of the Recognition & Rewards movement is to work towards a modernised system for recognising and rewarding academic staff, whereby, among other things, there will be more room for differentiation in career paths and for focusing on the talents of individual staff members. As part of this national movement, a project team was formed at Erasmus University Rotterdam which, over the past two years, has worked on developing its own vision on Recognition & Rewards (EUR Framework 'Impact through Recognition & Rewards') and has taken the first steps towards further implementation at the organisational, faculty and service levels: https://www.eur.nl/over-de-eur/visie/erkennen-waarderen.

Current phase

Currently, the project is in the phase in which the implementation is taking shape and is actually starting. In the Framework, implementation steps have been taken at three different levels within the organisation

• At the project level (e.g., by developing the website, widely organising events and collecting good practices)
• At the faculty level (including organising information sessions and focus groups for scientific staff, drawing up a plan of approach for further implementation of the EUR Framework and running pilots)
• At the EUR level (e.g. implementing changes in the R&O cycle, recruitment & selection procedures, professor policy and promotion criteria)

Your tasks

Together with the other members of the project team and many internal stakeholders, as you will contribute to the implementation of the EUR Framework for Recognition & Rewards at the different levels within the organization.

You will contribute to:

• implementing steps within the faculties, including organising focus/dialogue groups, thinking along with and advising on the design of pilots/experiments around, for example, differentiation of career paths, for which you will work closely with the project manager and the junior project staff;
• organising and recording (e.g. minutes, news items etc.) meetings, events and workshops;
• designing communication expressions about Recognition & Rewards for the EUR community and external partners (e.g. on the national online community platform of Recognition & Rewards);
• the further development of the website of Recognition & Rewards (internally and externally) and the creation and collection of relevant content;
• developing and filling an online toolbox with tools, templates, good practices etc. that can be used by our stakeholders to implement Erkennen & Waarderen. You will do this in close cooperation with the other project members.

• At least a higher professional education (HBO+) work and thinking level;
• Experience in higher education is an advantage;
• Affinity with the target group academic staff and the cultural change related to Recognition & Rewards;
• Experience with supporting and organising (project) work;
• Team-focused personality;
• Being able to adapt quickly;
• Flexible, accurate and able to work independently;
• Experience with the development of communication expressions is a requirement;
• Excellent verbal and written communication in Dutch and/or English

An internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with good terms of employment in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU). The employment contract is for a period of 1 year. The salary depends on your knowledge and experience and with a full-time appointment amounts to between €2960,- and €4670,- gross per month (scale 10). The EUR has attractive employment conditions, including 8% holiday pay, a year-end bonus of 8.3% and a very generous leave scheme. Furthermore, the EUR is affiliated with the ABP pension scheme and we offer partially paid parental leave. Employees can also make use of EUR facilities, such as the Erasmus sports centre and the university library.

The EUR offers a Dual Career Program (DCP) to help partners of new scientific staff find work in the Netherlands. The programme is offered in close cooperation with the nearby universities of Delft and Leiden.

We value diversity and believe that a diversity of talents contributes to our vision and strategy to excel as a university in research and education. Therefore, we are looking for a person who can complement our team from a diversity perspective.

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 3.700 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

The Recognition & Rewards project

The Recognition & Rewards project has a central position within the EUR and is embedded in the current strategy (Strategy 2024). As project officer you will be assigned to the Strategy Office (SO), which is part of the General Management Directorate (ABD).

The Strategy Office (SO)
The Strategy Office guides the EUR in its transition to an impact-driven university and works with the entire organisation to achieve the strategic objectives.

The Strategy Office (SO) is a policy department that, on the one hand, focuses on (supporting) the integral implementation of the strategy (both in terms of content and process) and, on the other hand, provides the management and the organisation with the capacity to provide strategic advice on a wide range of issues. Obviously, this is done in close cooperation with other central policy departments, the faculties and institutes and support services (that embed and help implement the EUR strategy) and the project leaders and academic leads who lead the strategic projects. The team consists of both programme management functions and strategic advisors, and is supplemented with colleagues from support services, who contribute ideas on strategic and implementation issues. The SO functions as a spider in the web, in order to realise the strategic ambitions in cooperation with the entire community.

The General Management Directorate (ABD)

As a central staff organisation, the General Management Directorate (ABD) is responsible for organising policy support at the institutional level. The ABD supports the Executive Board (CvB) in exercising its responsibility for the quality, accessibility and financing of education and research. The ABD takes care of the joint design of integral policy, the timely submission of this policy for decision-making, ensures (partly) that the policy is implemented and carries out continuous monitoring and evaluation with a view to improvements. The department is formed by the Academic Affairs departments, the Chief Information Officer Office, Corporate Planning & Control, Administrative Affairs, Legal Affairs and Strategy Office. The independent Erasmus Magazine is also part of the ABD. The administration department is headed by the Director of General Administration (also Secretary of the Executive Board).