VUB Chair on Career Twists

Activity report 2015-2016

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Table of Contents

1. Why a VUB Chair on Career Twists? .............................................................................. 5

2. The VUB Chair on Career Twists multidisciplinary team ................................................. 6

3. The VUB Chair on Career Twists partners ...................................................................... 7

4. The aim and scope of the VUB Chair on Career Twists ................................................. 10

5. The output of the VUB Chair on Career Twists 2015-2016 ............................................ 12

6. The meetings of the VUB Chair on Career Twists ......................................................... 14

7. Media presence ............................................................................................................ 16

Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 18

Contact information ........................................................................................................ 19

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“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

Barack Obama ―

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1. Why a VUB Chair on Career Twists?

We live in a fast changing society which confronts companies continuously with challenges such as sustainable work and prolonged careers. To be able to respond to these changes our workplace, as we know it, needs fundamental changes too. To put the right person in the right place within the organization our careers need to be mobile. Career twists become as such an integral part of our careers. These twists can be upward, lateral or downward.

Promotions, demotions and lateral twists are important practices in the strategic HR-policy of an organization and can provide a positive answer to the actual challenges. Unfortunately, these career twists are too often a taboo. Little is known on the practice of career twists. The changes in society, in the workplace and in our careers underline the importance of studying career twists.

A chair is an academic platform that the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) enables to address a social issue and to deepen and valorise the relevant technical knowledge.

The VUB Chair on Career Twists aims to break the taboo on career twists by expanding and deepen the knowledge on these kind of twists. In addition, the chair emphasizes the positive features so career twists can be seen and be engaged as a supportive tool within a progressive, balanced and forward-looking human resources policy. The final goal of our Chair is to develop a blueprint so that companies can introduce proactive and successful career twists.

Thanks to a lot of support from our partners and a multidisciplinary VUB team of specialists we are able to realise our goals.

The activities of the VUB Chair on Career Twists take place from the 1st of February 2015 to the 31st of January 2017.

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2. The VUB Chair on Career Twists multidisciplinary team

Prof. Marie-Anne Guerry (doctor in Sciences, 1991), academic coordinator of the Chair, is member of the research group Career Studies and the department of Business Technology and Operations. She teaches mathematics for business engineers and economists and quantitative methods for manpower planning. Her research domains are mathematical modeling, Markov Chain Models, Manpower planning, quantitative Human Resources planning.

Drs. Tanja Verheyen, chair holder, studied Communciation Sciences at the University of Brussels (VUB). She works as a research associate at the Chair on Career Twists. Tanja also conducts research on demotion in the context of obtaining her PhD at the research group Career Studies of the department of Business Technology and Operations. The defense of her PhD is planned early 2017.

Prof. Peter Theuns (doctor in psychology, 1992) is a member of the steering committee of the Chair. He is associated at the department of experimental and applied psychology at the VUB. He teaches research methods, multivariate data- analysis and survey research. His research interests are cross cultural comparability of subjective qualitiy of life experience, applications of functional measurement to quality of life ratings and ACSA.

Prof. Christophe Vanroelen (doctor in sociology, 2009) is a member of the steering committee of the Chair. He is associated at the department of sociology at the VUB. He teaches sociology, “beleid en voorzieningen van de welvaartstaat, inleiding tot de sociologie van arbeid en arbeidsverhoudingen”. His expertise: health sociology, sustainable employment, quality of work, precarious employment, psychosocial working conditions, social inequality in health.

Prof. Kurt Debaene (Marketing and Corporate Communication) is a member of the steering committtee of the Chair. He is associated at the department of communication sciences at the VUB. He teaches current case studies: media, strategic communication and marketing. He is also Director Business Development at EY Advisory.

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3. The VUB Chair on Career Twists partners

Ronnie Leten

CEO and President Atlas Copco

Jeanette Livijn

VP HR and Organizational Development

Nathalie Geentjens

Internal Communications

Karl Bolle

Head of Human Resources Securitas Belgium

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Veerle Van Asbroeck

Marketing and Communications Manager

Sylvie Fornaroli

HR Business Partner

Dirk Stienaers

Human Resources Director België

Raf Devos

Directeur personeel VUB

Nico Reeskens

CEO Adecco

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Prof. Em. Silvain Loccufier

Voorzitter, VUB-Wetenschappelijk Steunfonds

Roel Vanderpoort

HR Director, Ericsson

Prof. Dr. Dirk Devroey, adviseur Minister van Sociale Zaken en Volksgezondheid, Maggie de Block

An Goovaerts

Hoofdredactrice, De Morgen

Frederik Descamps

Chef Economie, De Morgen

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4. The aim and scope of the VUB Chair on Career Twists

1. General research scope – research question

In consultation with the partners of the Chair the following research question was determined:

"How can we facilitate career twists proactively and successfully and how can we make career twists acceptable and discussable?”

2. Objectives

The chair's overall aim based on scientific research, is:

1. to break the taboo on career twists in order to be able to discuss the broader context of career twists

a) networking opportunities;

b) development of a career twists center of expertise through among others the cooperation with departments such as, Business Technology and Operations, sociology, experimental and applied psychology and communication sciences;

c) internal and external exposure, among others the visibility to customers, personnel and society at large;

d) exchange of experience between the partners of the Chair;

e) knowledge sharing among the partners of the Chair.

2. encourage public debate about career twists

a) qualitative and socially relevant research on career twists; b) building eminence and a knowledge network; c) establishing press operations and communicate about research results and the

partners of the Chair to the press (preferred media partner).

3. to develop a blueprint so that organisations proactively and successfully can implement career twists for all target groups (including over-45s) with recommendations about how to communicate internally and externally, in particular:

a) to assess the readiness to change of employees towards career twists;

b) to understand the needs and desires of employees towards career twists;

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c) to understand the needs and desires of employees on the communication about career twists;

d) identify the critical success factors of career twists;

e) provide support in how the HR department can help facilitate the needs and desires of the employees;

f) develop effective communication strategies for employees that provide insight into the opportunities of career twists and/or can persuade employees to proactively getting started with career twists.

Implicit objectives:

o input of young researchers, including students

o sense of reality and check theoretical insights with practice

o validation of data and cases

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5. The output of the VUB Chair on Career Twists 2015-2016

Over the past year, the Chair on Career Twists has delivered different types of output, as there were:

- In consultation with Securitas, master students of communication sciences investigated Securitas’ internal communication in the context of the course “Current Case Studies: Media, Strategic Communication and Marketing” from January untill June 2015. The aim of this course is to study and discuss a real life case, with regard to media, strategic communication and marketing, from both a professional and critical-reflective perspective. Initially, all case studies are presented in the beginning of the semester by different clients from various sectors: profit, not-for-profit and public sectors. Next, teams of 5 students are formed. Each team studies and analyzes the case in terms of the specific problem setting, which is formulated by the client. In the next phase, each team prepares a plan of approach (which includes problem, objectives, methods...), which, after consultation with the supervisors, is pitched to the client. After approval, students start implementing their project plan. After completing the field research, the student teams write a research report. Subsequently, the conclusions and recommendations of the investigation are presented in an oral presentation to the client. At the end of the semester, the students hand in two work pieces: a presentation (powerpoint) and a research report with recommendations (paper).

o On 10/02/2015 Securitas presented their case to the students o On 08/06/2015 the master students presented their report to Securitas

- In consultation with Adecco Tanja Verheyen gave a lecture on career twists at the “off-site

meeting” of HR business partners and colleagues of L&D of Adecco at Namen on 17/03/2015 The content of the lecture:

o Introduction of the Chair o The meaning of downward career twists o The different phases of downward career twists o The importance of a mind switch on career twists o How could Adecco implement a positive mindset on career twists

- A Chair research plan on what the partners and the VUB research team want to realize in the

two years of the Chair. (see Appendix). The meetings with the individual partners of the Chair gave insights into their needs towards career twists. Based on these insights and with the goal of a blueprint, the VUB team worked out a phased research plan which was presented at the Kick-off meeting on 27/04/2015.

- The elaboration of the first phase of the research plan: a questionnaire on “readiness to change” (see Appendix). In collaboration with the Chair partners and the VUB team a questionnaire on readiness to change was drawn up. The questions were clustered on “insights into the need to change”, “insights into the trust of employees in their supervisor

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and organization when it comes to twist careers”, “insights into the self-efficacy of the employees” and insights in their general readiness to change”. The questionnaire was scientifically based and aimed to all kinds of companies as the questionnaire is an integral part of the blue print. The questionnaire was set up through Limesurvey (an online survey tool) and mailed to 1084 VUB-ATP-personnel in December 2015. There was a response rate of 23.25%. The results of the analysis will be presented at the meeting on the occasion of one year Chair on Career Twists.

- In the run-up to the questionnaire a scientific paper was written on readiness to change. The aim of the paper is to construct an instrument that measures readiness to change on an individual, a team as well as an organizational level towards career twists validated in a Belgian organization. The paper has yet to be finalized and presented for international publication.

- The doctoral thesis of Tanja Verheyen also contributes to the knowledge of career twists. The doctoral thesis theme is: “Demotion in the workplace: the end of a taboo?” Demotion is a downward transition which may result in a lower job level, in a decrease in salary, in a decrease in job authority and a loss of status. Demotion is a practice towards career development, as it possibly helps putting the right man in the right place within the company. Many researchers have pointed out that there is very little empirical research on demotion. One reason is the taboo surrounding demotion that i.a. results in less collaboration of respondents in scientific research regarding this topic. The dissertation consists of 4 scientific papers on 4 main research questions:

o What is demotion? o How often does it occur (in Belgium)? o How is demotion operationalized within different policies of organizations? o Why do we apply demotions?

To be able to answer these questions Tanja conducted qualitative and quantitative research among Belgian HR professionals.

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6. The meetings of the VUB Chair on Career Twists

There have been meetings with the individual partners to define the scope of the Chair and to give information on how we wanted to organise the Chair.

Overview of individual meetings:

Chair partner Date Content Securitas 02/02/2015 Introduction Chair 30/03/2015 Collaboration Scom 22/04/2015 Collaboration Scom 28/08/2015 Introduction new HR Manager 14/12/2015 Outcome meeting 11/12/15 Atlas Copco 17/02/2015 Introduction Chair Adecco 03/02/2015 Introduction Chair 12/02/2015 Intro Chair to HR Manager De Morgen 30/01/2015 Introduction Chair 18/06/2015 Overview possible topics VUB 19/03/2015 Introduction Chair 21/05/2015 Introduction survey 31/08/2015 Progress of the survey Ericsson 06/10/2015 Introduction Chair

Next to the individual meetings there were general meetings open to all Chair partners aiming to knowledge sharing and networking, and reporting on the progress of the project plan of the Chair. We also introduced short lectures on themes that could interest our partners.

Overview of the meetings:

Date Scope Extra lecture 27/04/2015 Kick-off meeting: introduction of

the project plan of the Chair By Mark Verheyden and Kurt Debaene on internal communication during change (see Appendix)

22/06/2015 Discussion and input partners on the questionnaire on “readiness to change”

(Questionnaire - see Appendix)

11/12/2015 Presentation of the final questionnaire and the plan to introduce the survey to the ATP personnel of the VUB

By Raf Devos on the change project of the VUB (see Appendix)

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Kick-off meeting in April 2015 in presence of VUB Rector Prof. Dr. Paul De Knop and the Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and Solvay Business School, Prof. Dr. Joël Branson.

Presentation of Prof. Kurt Debaene and Drs. Mark Verheyden on Internal Communication during change. Kick-off meeting in April 2015.

Fotographs: Marc Goldchstein

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7. Media presence

Over the past year, the Chair on Career Twists had several media precenses, as there were:

The website: http://www.vub.ac.be/leerstoel/carrierewendingen

Opinion Column in Newspaper De Morgen, 6/3/2015

“Werken op de toppen van je tenen, tot je valt”, Perspectief, Delta Lloyd Bank, April, 2015.

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“Schoolwijzer”, COV Basis, 25/4/2015, www.cov.be

Press Release on the launch of the VUB Chair on Career Twists, 4/6/2015.

Internal press release VUB, on the questionnaire for the ATP personnel, December 2015.

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Appendix

Overview:

1. Research plan in Dutch/English 2. Presentation of Prof. Kurt Debaene and Drs. Mark Verheyden on Internal Communication

during change. Kick-off meeting 27/04/2015 3. Presentation of Raf Devos, VUB personnel Director on the change project at the VUB, at the

Chair meeting of 11/12/2015 4. Questionnaire readiness to change in Dutch

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Contact information

VUB Chair on Career Twists

Academic coordinator

Prof. Dr. Marie-Anne Guerry │marie-anne.guerry@vub.ac.be

Office B 2.07

Tel + 32 2 629 20 49

Chair holder

Drs. Tanja Verheyen│tanja.verheyen@vub.ac.be

Office B 2.06

Tel +32 472 90 46 21

http://www.vub.ac.be/leerstoel/carrierewendingen