HR STRATEGY 2021-2025

Abstract This document outlines the strategy of the HR Department in the context of the new Directorate (mandate 2021-2025) across three core strands: internal HR, Internal CERN and external.

Author: Anna Cook. Reviewed & approved by Geneviève Guinot, HR-DHO GL. Validated by James Purvis, HR DH. HR-DHO-CRA 16 April 2021

Contents HR communications strategy: context and scope ...... 2 The HR communications landscape: the three pillars ...... 3 HR Internal ...... 3 Internal CERN ...... 5 External CERN ...... 6 Monitoring ...... 7 Process, channels and messaging ...... 8 Key projects for 2021 ...... 8 Tentative first priorities for 2021 ...... 9

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HR communications strategy: context and scope “The right information for the right people at the right time”

This document outlines the CERN HR Department’s communications strategy for the current Directorate mandate, 2021-2025. To quote the IR-ECO CERN communication strategy document: “Through communications, an organisation manages and sustains relationships with key audiences and takes responsibility for its reputation. Communications consists of the dissemination of information by a variety of specialists and generalists in an organisation.”

The aim of this document is to set out the main aspirations and goals of the HR department in terms of communications to best support CERN as an , its people and external stakeholders in all matters pertaining to the HR function. Having a well-defined, yet flexible HR communications strategy aims to ensure the mission, mandate and associated objectives and projects of the HR Department are clearly and appropriately disseminated to the right people in the right place at the right time. Further, while the HR function is well embedded within the Organization, its communications focus has to evolve to a more balanced perspective, privileging both internal and external audiences equally. In this context, employee experience and engagement (internal) take on as much importance as candidate experience (external) and requires as much attention and dedication, to be complementary to what internal communications are disseminated by the central ECO group on more general organisational matters.

This document is intended to present the HR communications foundation, that will naturally adapt over the period to accommodate the evolution of the Organization’s, the community’s and all stakeholders’ needs.

The HR Mission

Enabling CERN to push the frontiers of science through the attraction and engagement of a diverse and talented community, in the spirit of growth and collaboration, by designing and delivering tailored HR services and policies to support our people to perform at their best.

Broadly speaking, the HR department’s mission is to enable the effective management of the Organization’s human resources to allow the successful implementation of the Organization’s strategic goals.

In this respect, a tailored communications strategy is key, in all corners of the Organization, leveraging applicable channels with tailored messaging depending on target audiences: this aims to ensure the activities and impact of CERN HR are clearly understood and integrated for the benefit of Management and all Members of Personnel (MPs).

In this vein, engagement of current and future members of personnel through pro-active and consistent information about their work environment is key: this implies, internally, building their satisfaction and engagement, giving them a voice (e.g. through surveys); helping them better understand their conditions of employment; improving understanding of processes and procedures; and fostering the adherence to and dissemination of the Organization’s values. An aligned external strategy complements the focus to ensure CERN’s visibility to the outside as an attractive employer, at the cutting edge not only of science, but also of HR best practice.

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This strategy encompasses the three key pillars of HR communication: internal to the Department itself (HR Internal), to have the HR workforce best informed to in turn inform CERN’s MPs; internal to CERN (CERN Internal), to help MPs better understand their work environment; and external communication towards inter alia Member States and delegates, prospective candidates and imminent newcomers to the Organization (CERN External), to position CERN as an employer of choice.

CERN HR external Internal

CERN Internal

Each strand cross-fertilises and informs the others, in a virtuous cycle. Identification of the appropriate channels, tools and messaging is dependent on the subject matter and target audience. These channels span mainly digital solutions, from website to channels, newsletters such as the CERN Bulletin, and other online communications platforms provided by CERN.

The strategy is broadly informed and driven by:

 the evolving needs of CERN as a dynamic organisation, with constantly evolving needs to meet its strategic objectives requiring agile practices to best support the workforce;  the HR priorities as defined at the start of each year in the Programme of Work;  the activities, projects and services of the Department;  and the continuous, adaptive of the Organization externally as an employer of choice.

It is naturally consistent with and embedded within the overall CERN communications strategy.

The Communications, reporting and Analytics (CRA) section of the Department Head Office of HR will take the lead on the development , execution monitoring & evolution of the strategy, in close collaboration with CERN HR Groups, CERN IR-ECO, CERN Management and departments and other relevant internal and external stakeholders. The HR communications landscape: the three pillars HR Internal The overarching goal of the HR Internal communications strategy is to ensure all members of the HR Department are best informed, equipped and ready to support and engage with MPs. This entails providing HR members with timely and proactive information, insights and resources with regards to the department’s dynamic progress, the services in HR, their ongoing activities, projects and priorities, to best communicate in turn to internal stakeholders. This will also contribute to maintaining and developing HR competencies, ensuring knowledge sharing and engaging the HR teams for the benefit of the rest of MPs.

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HR Internal communication is driven by:

 Informing about and understanding the Organization’s framework and priorities, from which derive associated HR priorities, policies, projects and initiatives,  Providing clear up to date information for understanding of the whole department’s scope, services, activities, projects,  Meeting needs of MPs,  Analytics, monitoring reporting & indicators, across the main HR priorities and on a more granular level, service/group-specific information.

The current main channels for HR Internal communication are:

 The HR website, https://cern.ch/hr: this hosts all HR Department information, presented in such a way as to be intuitive and accessible to those in need of guidance and information where applicable. o This is necessarily a constant work-in-progress, and is the responsibility of all HR groups and services to ensure the information is up-to-date and clear for the benefit of direct colleagues and more importantly those requiring the information (Members of Personnel, administrative services).  Associated HR websites: https://diversity-and-inclusion.web.cern.ch/, https://chis.cern  Dedicated email communications, such as: o The monthly HR Insights providing summary news from the Department Head; monthly ‘D&I next dimensions’; o Updates from key relevant forums such as ACCU, KT, Safety; o Updates from ongoing projects to inform/gather information from colleagues.  Online tools such as Mattermost to foster internal discussion and exchanges (e.g. Work Well Feel Well), Discourse e.g. for Learning and Development news form the DTO or publication of internal short assignment opportunities.  Regular debriefs on key meetings and committees (e.g. ED, CCP, TREF, Council).  Seminars and department meetings, on dedicated subjects such as OC11, Pension Fund etc. to give everyone in HR an opportunity to learn more in-depth on a given subject of concern for HR.

Finding the right communication method to suit and please everyone is nigh on impossible, so suitable compromises have to be chosen. Flexibility in trying out new channels/ideas is key to ensure communication remains engaging and dynamic, and relies on the proactive contributions and innovative ideas of colleagues, and the monitoring of their impact.

This pillar aims at engaging each and every member of the department in the spirit of timely and transparent internal communication to ensure no important HR news or development is overlooked. It will foster the collaborative spirit necessary for its impact within and beyond the department.

The main challenge of internal communication lies in it being timely, useful and tangible. It relies on finding the balance between: what is necessary to know, what is useful to know but optional, what is simply interesting, etc.; not multiplying too many channels; and avoiding information overload.

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Further, an internal communications strategy for the HR Department also relies on keeping abreast of the ideas and needs of the HR department members themselves, through e.g. surveys and opinion polls, World Cafés, etc.

Such a streamlined, accessible internal communication within the department is key to, in turn successfully disseminate information and resources to those who need it within the Organization: internal CERN communication. Internal CERN With a suitably informed and equipped HR Department, the objective of internal CERN communication is to ensure timely and appropriate information for our key audiences: our MPs, with a focus on employee engagement and experience, and collaborating stakeholders, including the Staff Association and Management.

The baseline is clarity of the role and scope of each HR service and support structure. The HR website, the CHIS and D&I websites (all external facing), and HR pages of the Admin e-guide (internal-access only) are central points to help the audience navigate the complexity of the different groups, activities, applicable legal framework, and the multiple projects that arise over time. This requires providing clear understanding of the framework, specific to CERN as an Inter-Governmental Organisation with its own independent rules and regulations. Further, and most importantly, acknowledging that MPs will have varying periods of employment or association with the Organization, some short, some very long-term and personal situations that evolve over time. All deserve the same level of commitment, communication and guidance, to keep them informed and equipped throughout, and thus foster the highest levels of engagement. In turn, clarity of information to our MPs serves to equip them equitably to be ambassadors of CERN as an employer, which supports the external communication pillar.

Internal CERN communication is driven by:

 The HR priorities defined at the start of each year, in line with Management objectives,  The ongoing main projects (e.g. currently the 5-Yearly Review, Diversity & Inclusion, Work Well Feel Well and the graduate programme review),  The HR legal framework (Staff Rules and regulations, Administrative Circulars, Operational Circulars and associated procedures) and associated information requiring timely dissemination,  Results from surveys of MPs,  Reports and relevant data,  The activities and support provided by each group and service in HR.

The main channels for Internal CERN communication are:

 The HR website, https://cern.ch/hr,  Associated HR websites: https://diversity-and-inclusion.web.cern.ch/, https://chis.cern,  The relevant HR pages of the Administrative e-guide, a rich source of information that requires being kept simple and accessible. It is continuously updated and developed with the subject matter experts as a tool to support the Departments in their support to MPs,  The Bulletin for the CERN Community (including “Official news”),

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 HR Public presentations, service-specific presentations and other direct communication and exchange with MPs where feasible (e.g. open chat, Q&A),  Conferences and seminars (e.g. in the context of the Work Well Feel Well project or OC11),  Email to the wider CERN community for prompt dissemination of information where decided in agreement with the DG, for example for telework measures impacting MPs during COVID- 19.

This requires appropriate content production, notably for the webpages in making them intuitive and accessible; brochures; leaflets; videos; animations and other supports.

A clear HR brand defined with IR-ECO’s design team, with sub-identities defined for each group and different projects, serves as a harmonised presentation of HR to its stakeholders.

HR will, on occasion, put out joint communications with other services where applicable and take part in wider collaborative communication initiatives, such as COVID-19 or OC11.

The main challenges for HR communication within the Organization are to provide timely, clear and tangible information to the right audience at the right time, and in:

 Selecting the appropriate channel for given messages depending on audiences,  Ensuring the content is clear and accessible, mindful of people’s needs for information at all stages of life and career,  Applying principles of clarity and transparency while remaining in line with the applicable legal and procedural frameworks,  And as for any communication, avoiding information overload. External CERN Promoting and safeguarding CERN’s reputation as an employer of choice, developing and evolving the CERN brand (“Employee Value Proposition” or EVP1), attractive to candidates across all Member and Associate Member States, welcoming and informative for its newcomers and at the forefront of HR best practice with regards to the Public and other organisations and companies is the third core strand of the HR communication strategy. It further encompasses providing timely information to Member States of the impact and returns in terms of personnel, and acting as a reference in the field of best practices in employee engagement and development.

This strand is reliant on working in synergy with HR groups, notably Talent Acquisition and Diversity & Inclusion, as well as with the central IR-ECO CERN communications team, to ensure alignment and consistency of messaging and to leverage their wider channels where the content requires greater diffusion. Further, also in the IR sector, synergies with the Alumni relations and Member State relations are key, and on a wider scale, engaging with CERN Departments to ensure further dissemination and support is crucial.

Regular benchmarking studies, with respect to CERN’s brand impact and best practices are an important informative input to ensure alignment with expectations on the employment market across our Member State base. Monitoring and ad hoc benchmarking with companies such as

1 https://cds.cern.ch/record/2759174

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PotentialPark, Universum, Glassdoor or others such as the local Bilan journal in Switzerland, also allow showcasing of our employer value proposition.

External CERN communication by HR is driven by:

 Positioning CERN as an attractive employer through its EVP, and as informed by the 5 Yearly Review cycle and analysis of main recruitment markets and recruitment and retention issues,  Analytics, monitoring reporting & indicators, in particular of Member State returns in terms of Personnel, with key focus on under-represented Member States,  The monitoring of CERN’s diversity barometers in terms of all Diversity & Inclusion dimensions, notably gender and other demographics.

The main channels for External CERN communication are:

 The CERN Careers Website, https://careers.cern,  The CERN HR website, https://cern.ch/hr,  The diversity & inclusion website, https://diversity-and-inclusion.web.cern.ch/,  CHIS: https://chis.cern, Chis’Bull,  CERN and CERNJobs Social and Professional Media channels, Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube,  Online publications, journals, job portals and online solutions targeting the candidate audiences in all STEM disciplines, at all levels: student, graduate and professionals, as well as reaching the Public at large to put CERN on the employment market map across all Member and Associate Member States,  Networks and forums, such as CERN Alumni or discipline-specific channels through colleagues in Departments for a domino effect.

The challenges associated with CERN External communications lie in the sheer complexity and size of the job market and job seeking ecosystem, across the 32 Member and Associate Member states where no “one size fits all” solution exists to attract at all levels, disciplines and diversity dimensions, as well as the budget limitations that require creativity and innovation to ensure impactful campaigns. Further, while CERN is well-known as a particle physics research centre, it is to this day still lesser known as being a hub for engineering and technology across a wide variety of disciplines. This misconception is central to the messaging in promoting CERN’s EVP. Monitoring Monitoring the uptake and impact of HR communication activities will be through different means depending on channels and messaging. Across all three pillars, these include but are not limited to:

 Participation rates of HR Public meetings.  Response rates to surveys.  Insights and metrics of social media channel posts.  Analysis of careers and HR website page clicks and views.

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Process, channels and messaging

All major projects and initiatives will systematically go through an internal approval process, including presentation to the HRMB prior to presentation to the ED. This might be followed by presentation to CCP and TREF/Council where applicable. Key projects for 2021 The table below concerns the channels and actions, which the HR Department can leverage to support/transmit its communications. It is not an exhaustive list and foresees the Department adapting to new potential opportunities to best reach audiences through close collaboration with the IR-ECO group through weekly editorial meetings.

Theme Audience Channels Proposed actions/messaging 5 Yearly Review HR internal HR webpages, HR Insights Inform on purpose, scope, content and status/progress Internal HR webpages, Bulletin, Regular status updates, Public Presentations communicate milestones as they are reached, present impact and ‘what’s in it for MPs’. External Presentations Inform on progress, results, (TREF/Council), HR impact, best practices. webpages Graduate HR internal HR webpages (project Inform on status, progress, Programme pages), HR Insights impact and implications. review Internal HR webpages, Bulletin, Disseminate the what, the how HR public presentations, and the why, timescales for Admin e-guide, through implementation, concrete relevant stakeholder impact on departments selection committees External Presentations Through each stage, inform on (TREF/Council), HR progress. At implementation, webpages, Careers clear positioning and impact of webpages, social media changes for stakeholders. Clear (upon implementation) tailored campaigns to attract graduates to apply. D&I 25 by 25 HR HR Insights, D&I next Inform and guide teams on dimensions, HR webpages impact and how they can engage to support and spread the messages of the project, scope, actions and achievements. Internal HR webpages, Bulletin, Disseminate the what, the how HR Public presentations, and the why, timescales for Admin e-guide, through implementation, concrete impact on departments and

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Theme Audience Channels Proposed actions/messaging relevant stakeholder how they will engage in its roll selection committees out; share achievements and data/milestones as it progresses. External Presentations, HR Through each stage, inform on webpages, Careers progress. At implementation, webpages, Social media clear positioning and impact of changes. Work Well Feel HR internal Mattermost, HR Website, Engagement and momentum Well HR innovation campaigns through internal actions to support and grow the project for maximum impact. Internal Onsite campaigns, HR Depending on themes, use website, Mattermost, HR relevant channels to inform, Public presentation engage and gather momentum. External Online journals, social To communicate CERN’s media campaigns, careers practices for visibility to webpages, HR webpages external stakeholders.

Tentative first priorities for 2021 Internal HR

 Objective: to ensure all members of the HR Department are best informed, equipped and ready to support and engage with MPs. o Action 1: Streamline, enhance and enrich communication on key HR subjects for timely information to HR people, with pilot on Mattermost as of April 2021. o Action 2: Consolidate the HR ‘World café’ style exchanges, as well as topical exchanges for dedicated audiences, such as CCP and ED debriefs.

Internal CERN

 Objective: to ensure timely and appropriate information to Members of Personnel, with a focus on employee engagement and experience. o Action 1: Continuous improvement of HR webpages, their content for groups and services. Review structure, information with evolution towards personal touch over process driven content. o Action 2: Be closer to the Internal audience with a series of focused presentations/videos of services/activities, e.g. Graduate Programme Review, CHIS, OC11 HR lead DPCC, AC17 etc. . Different formats, e.g. video interviews/public sessions. . Overarching transparency. “Vulgarisation” and myth-busting to address the question: “What does it mean for me” ? This serves to equip all MPs to be ambassadors of CERN as an attractive employer.

External CERN

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 Objective: Promoting and safeguarding CERN’s reputation as an employer of choice and at the forefront of HR best practice with regards to the Public and other organisations and companies. o Action 1: Ensure continued, creative and impactful promotion of CERN’s as an employer and its brand, highlighting awards and projects, leveraging media to foster exchange in best practices on key topics (e.g. WWFW, D&I 25 by 25) o Action 2: HR staff to use our professional networks to promote what we do and promote discussion/external input/Best practice exchange (e.g. short articles, updates, opinion pieces).

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