The report compiles a checklist that will help to maintain contacts with the individuals taking family breaks and for employees returning to regular working conditions afterwards. Binding procedures will be recommended to guarantee a successful career continuation with continuous institutional support

Kutser, Tiit

Toming, Kaire

OceanRep

    February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 1 / 14     Report on the checklist for maintaining contact with individuals taking family breaks            Document    Deliverable /Milestone No.: D2.3. Checklist for maintaining contact with individuals taking family breaks Due Date: 2019-02-28 Month 30 Issued by Partner:  UT-EMI Actual Date: 2019-02-28 WP / Task: WP2 / 2.2 Pages:  14  Authors Name Organization / Unit Main Authors Kaire Toming, Tiit Kutser UT-EMI Contributing Author(s) All Baltic Gender partners All Baltic Gender partners    Objective   To compile a checklist that will help to maintain contacts with the individuals taking family breaks and for employees returning to regular working conditions afterwards. Binding procedures will be recommended to guarantee a successful career continuation with continuous institutional support.    Audience   Leaders among partners and other linked institutions, human resource departments, employees.    File D_2_3_2019-02-28.docx.          February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 2 / 14  Checklist for maintaining contact with employees taking career breaks to guarantee the continuation of successful careers of employees Introduction A career break is a leave period from work because of a certain reason, e.g. parental leave, sick leave, military service, etc. To support careers on a continuous level despite career breaks it is important to maintain contact with employees while they are on leave and support them when they are returning to work. This checklist is compiled to provide employers with practical and essential information to support the continuation of successful careers of employees taking career breaks.  The checklist is based on the experiences of 55 employees of the partner institutions of the Horizon 2020 project Baltic Gender who all have had a recent career break. The employee’s experiences were collected through an online survey, "Sharing career break related experiences" in November 2018. The questions of the online survey are presented in an appendix. They might give inspiration to other institutions that plan to evaluate and/or improve their current structures and procedures. Answers to the survey clearly indicated room for improvement in career break related issues in the partner institutions. Expectations of employees and employers have to be determined in advance in order to avoid misunderstandings. It depends on whether an employee continues to work part-time or not and on the legal background of the country. Normally the employees have no duties during a break and employers cannot expect their employees to fulfill work-related tasks. Nevertheless, there might be the mutual interest to stay in contact. There are employers who do not have officially work part-time during the career break, but expressed their interest in keeping contact and continue working on (re)writing manuscripts, preparing conference presentations, etc. If this is in line with the employee’s personal wish, full access to the infrastructure and communication is necessary. It is the employer’s responsibility to provide appropriate structures and flexible arrangements in consultation with the employee. Finding individual, feasible solutions that fit to the needs will allow a smoother re-entry to work. A situation in which the employee feels obliged to work during her/his career break should be avoided. The goal of the compiled checklist is to provide support for employers to make the career break and return as smooth as possible and to give the employees continuous support for their career advancement. Nevertheless, the situations differ from institution to institution because of legislations, established structures and practiced cultures. Therefore this checklist is a guide and has to be adopted to the institute-specific needs. The checklist includes three parts, one part to be used before the career break, the second part concerning the period of the career break and the third when the employee returns back to work.     February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 3 / 14  Checklist I Before the career break 1. Conduct a meeting with the employee who plans to take a career break. • Agree with the employee on the time and participants (e.g., human resource specialist, equal opportunity officer etc.) of the meeting. • Be supportive and encouraging. Things to discuss: - Expected start and duration of the career break. - Make sure the employee is aware of the leave policy of your institution and her/his legal rights. - Inform about the work contract - will it be extended by the time of the career break? If not, explain why and what other possibilities are there after the break? - Is there a need to adjust the work and/or the workplace conditions before the career break? Is part-time work an option? - Unfinished work: discuss all items (including field and lab works) that need to be finalized during the career break. Decide on when they need to be finished and who shall finish them. - Ask whether the employer wants to be in contact with the institution during the break or not. - Possibility and need for a substitute (stand-in). When should the substitute start (to allow enough time to transfer the knowledge)? - Discuss tasks after career break/future plans. - Inform about institutions work time models. - Discuss the employee’s preferred methods and form to keep in touch with workplace during the break and what information does the employee like to receive during the break. - Discuss the possibilities to perform small and temporary tasks (short-term recruitment) and possibilities to work from home during the career break if the employee is interested in it.  - Inform about the legal obligations and rights to use work facilities (library, laboratories) and participate in field works (marine expeditions) during the break. - If agreed upon assign a mentor/coach/contact person during the break (see point 2). - Discuss if the employee’s contact details (e-mail, phone) should stay active on the webpage.      February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 4 / 14   2. Offer (psychological) counselling. Introduce the counselling possibilities of your institution such as ombudsperson, mentoring, coaching, etc. A career break was often associated with different kinds of insecurities in our online survey and it would be helpful to provide employees support to discuss any career related issues.   3. Hire a substitute (stand-in), if appropriate. II During the career break 1. Keep in contact with the employee during the career break as agreed in the meeting.  If the employee would like to stay in contact, make a written agreement on the kind of information to share and possibilities to participate. You can for instance share minutes of team meetings; share information about new and revised policies and procedures; provide information about relevant conferences, seminars, training and development opportunities; share major social events invitations; offer possibility to be a co-author and participate in field works or perform some other temporary task, if appropriate.  The written agreement should be binding for the employer. 2. Allow the employee to keep a computer and a mobile phone. Keeping the business notebook and/or cell phone is useful to make the arrangement work as smooth as possible.  This allows also, to perform small and temporal tasks, if wished by the employee. 3. Allow your employee to maintain her/his email account active. 4. Preserve the employee’s email address visible on your institutional webpage. 5. Preserve of employee’s benefits (sports club card, etc.), if appropriate. 6. Inform your employee about re-entry grants and application deadlines if such possibilities exist in the institution and in case the employees contract runs out during the career break.     February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 5 / 14  III After the career break 1. Return to work meeting.  • Agree with the employee on the time and participants (e.g. human resource specialist, equal opportunity officer etc.) of the interview. • Be supportive and encouraging.  Things to discuss: - Is there a need to adjust the work, work time and/or the workplace conditions? - A development plan with appropriate measures for the coming year (or career?). - Possibilities and needs for a mentor or coach after the break. - Introduce new or revised arrangements of work, including administrative or organizational changes.  - Inform about new team members or employee departures. - Possibilities to continue the work if the contract was not extended by the time of the career break, e.g. inform the employee about internal and external funding possibilities. 2. Meet regularly with the employee after the career break to discuss how the return is progressing and to ensure that support is set up, if reasonable. 3. Be supportive of part-time work (if appropriate) and ensure that the workload is in accordance with the work time. 4. Allow to work partially or fully from home, if appropriate. 5. Adjust the workplace (taking into account the physical needs of the returning employee), ensure parent-child office and baby care facilities for nursing and diaper change, if appropriate. 6. Provide, arrange or support the childcare, if appropriate. 7. Offer (psychological) counseling, if appropriate.     February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 6 / 14  Appendix. The questions of the online survey "Sharing career break related experiences":       February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 7 / 14         February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 8 / 14         February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 9 / 14       February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 10 / 14         February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 11 / 14         February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 12 / 14       February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 13 / 14       February 2019   This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 710363 14 / 14   

Report on the checklist for maintaining contact with individuals taking family breaks

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Report on the checklist for maintaining contact with individuals taking family breaks

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