Seminar on Human Resources Management 19-20 November 2009, EPR Office, Rue de Spa 15, B-1000 Brussels, Begium 1. Background During the last decade we had to deal with important changes in our sector due to national and international movements on many levels of the service provision, mainly as a consequence of the breakdown/reduction of the welfare state. Besides, the introduction of the ICF with a strong emphasis on participation and the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities were major and visible steps towards full citizenship of this group in our societies. That means in many cases a complete other more autonomous - role for our clients and another way of service provision as well: from offer- to demand-driven. Throughout the last years, EPR has paid a lot of attention to those developments and their consequences for the service provision by organising a whole range of activities (public events, workshops for directors, seminars, discussion and learning groups for management and professionals etc.) on various topics related to this changing environment. One fundamental approach of EPR is to anticipate the future by accepting new realities and by learning from each other in the process of change. In December 2008 EPR launched in Brussels during his annual public event a Charter on Modernisation of disability-related Health and Social Services a description of the fundamental and irreversible developments in our sector, the challenges of those changes for the service providers and possible answers; in a certain way a culmination of the debate and activities we had before (http://www.epr.eu/images/epr/documents/policy_documents/charter.pdf). 2. Human Resources Management It s obvious that the above described developments have already had, still have and will have a huge impact on the strategies and operations of the service providers in general and on the staff as the most important capital of these organisations in particular. De-institutionalisation, decentralisation of service provision, continuity and quality of services, cooperation with other providers and mainstream organisations, financial reductions, stronger position of clients all those issues mean challenges for our staff: management on all levels and the professionals. Waiting for the future is not an option anymore. Service providers must develop an adequate Human Resources Management to find appropriate answers by preparing their staff for new roles. 1
As mentioned the staff is the most important capital. The quality of services to people with disabilities highly depends on the professionals working for the providers. Appropriate investments in staff and staff development are investments in the future of organisations, which is an important reason to set up adequate HR policies. Besides, about 70% of service providers budget is directly linked to the staff (salaries, recruitment, staff development etc.). Another crucial development is the expected shortage on professionals in the (very) near future in the disability field, especially in the care sector. In addition, we are confronted now with the most serious economic crisis of the recent history. It is the first time in the EPR history that an activity is organised specifically for HR managers as a response to the demands expressed during the last centre visits (autumn 2008). 3. Content, Objectives and Outcomes The meeting will deal with the following issues: Development and use of competence frameworks Recruitment and selection strategies Staff/management development including career/succession planning and retention strategies Performance management Impact of the economic crisis on HR policies Evaluation/benchmarking of HR approaches in the participating centres. The outcomes will be: Better understanding of the various aspects of HR management in the disability sector Acquiring knowledge and get familiar with (new) tools, trends and background information in the above mentioned issues Insight in how other centres deal in practice with HR management. 4. Format Location: EPR Office in Brussels Duration: from 19 November at 09.00 until 20 November at 15.30 Evaluation: An evaluation form will be distributed at the end of the meeting Facilitation: The meeting will be facilitated by Jan Albers with the support of Nadège Jibassia EPR will structure the meeting as a strong interactive event using the knowledge and the experiences of the participating centres as an important input for the exchange of information. EPR count therefore on your input not only during the meeting but also in advance (see annex). An open-minded attitude and a focus on successes and failures are a very good starting point for the mutual learning process. In this respect EPR can be seen as an excellent forum to learn from colleagues with the support of an external consultant. The seminar is planned as a once-off event. Depending on the outcomes and in accordance with the wishes of the participants EPR will evaluate the interest for the continuation of this activity. 2
5. External Input The external expert will be Ria Mooren, psychologist in the field of work&organisation and partner of Intalent Consultancy / The Netherlands. Among her important clients, one can quote Dutch Railways, Legal Authorities in The Netherlands, KLM, Adelante (formerly SRL). 6. Participating Centres Following the approved CAP s of the members 5 centres will participate in this seminar: 1. CRPG / Portugal 2. Luovi / Finland 3. Heliomare / The Netherlands 4. NLN/ RehabCare / Ireland In order to finalise the programme and to organise a proper preparation we kindly ask the centre coordinators to give us as soon as possible a short feedback about the participation of the centre with the contact details of the participant(s) by 1 October 2009. 3
7. Draft Programme Thursday 19 November 2009 09.00-13.00 Session 1 1. Welcome and getting to know each other 2. Introduction and objectives of the seminar by Jan Albers 3. Competence framework as backbone of a sound HR policy by Ria Mooren 4. Own experiences with competence frameworks 13.00-14.00 Lunch 14.00 17.30 Session 2 Recruitment and selection strategies Staff/management development including career/succession planning and retention strategies. Friday 20 November 2009 09.00 13.00 Session 3 Performance management Practical evaluation/benchmarking of HR policies used in the centres Impact of the economic crisis on your HR strategies 13.00 14.00 Lunch 14.00 15.30 Session 4 Conclusions and recommendations Agreements about next steps Evaluation of the seminar Note: as already mentioned before the input of the participants is crucial for the succes of the meeting. For that reason we developed an annex to support you by preparing that input. You will find this annex in the end of this briefing document. 4
8. Logistics A list of hotel suggestions is available on EPR website at http://www.epr.eu/images/epr/documents/hotels2008.pdf. You are invited to choose a hotel from the list according to your preferences and book directly. 9. Confirmation We kindly ask you to confirm the participation of your centre by sending an email to Nadège Jibassia as soon as possible including the contact details of the participant(s). Deadline: 1 October 2009. After having received that information EPR will contact the nominated participants to finalise the programme and discuss the input of the participants in further details. The feedback of the participants is a crucial element to tailor the seminar according to the up-to-date needs of the participants. 10. Contacts Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information: Jan Albers, for programme or content questions Email: albers.jan@home.nl Nadège Jibassia, responsible person in the EPR secretariat Email: nadege.jibassia@epr.eu Brussels, 7 September 2009 // Jan Albers 5
Annex 1. Interactive seminar why? In order to maximise the outcomes of the meeting for all participants and to design the final programme as much as possible in accordance with the needs of the centres, the participants will be requested to do some preparatory work in advance. The participants input is crucial for the process of mutual learning, as presenting realities, best practices and failures is an far a more efficient and effective approach to improve your own operations than passive listening to experts or gurus. In this seminar the participants are themselves the experts sharing their knowledge, exchanging experiences and concrete practices, trying to work out appropriate solutions for their own specific situation. It s also an effort within the existing EPR approaches to go a step further than in the past with discussion groups and seminars. This effort follows the demands of the members to intensify and deepen this type of learning actions. 2. Preparation 1. The seminar starts with a welcome and an activity to get to know each other by organising short bilateral interviews. The participants will be asked to interview a colleague and vice versa. After that we ask you to present shortly your colleague, not your self. The participants will receive a template for that interview before the meeting together with the final programme. 2. After the presentation of Ria Mooren in the morning session of the first day about competence framework, the participants will be requested to present some information about the use of such a framework in your centre. For that purpose the trainers will develop a short list of questions that you could use for your input. The participants will receive that list with the final programme as well. 3. For the rest of the seminar, each participant is invited to make one short introduction/presentation of about 10-15 minutes on one theme tackled in the programme. This presentation will be followed by thourough discussions within the group. Ria Mooren will act as interlocutor during those sessions. If appropriate we can have more presentations per theme depending on the expertise that each participant will choose. The participants can choose one or several items among the following: a. Recruitment and selection strategies b. Staff/management development c. Career/succession planning and retention strategies d. Performance management e. Impact of the economic crisis on your HR policy. Note: after having received the participants choice, they will be contacted to finalise the programme including the details of the presentations and to send you a template for the presentations. 6
4. An evaluation of the HR policies in the centres is foreseen in the morning session at the second day. For this session all participants are requested to present a short overview of their HRM practice. A template for this presentation will be sent together with the other documents as well. Deadlines: 1. Confirmation of participation and nomination of the participant(s) 1 October 2. Sending the participants choice of topic as mentioned in point 3 1 October 3. EPR sends the supporting documents for the participants presentations 9 October More information: Jan Albers - email: albers.jan@home.nl 7