Off to a promising start: the new Office of Personnel Development and Leadership

“The VPPL staff unit has only been in existence for a short while. Despite that – or maybe even because of it – there's been an incredible amount going on since day one,” says Maximilian Buyken. Since this past December, he has served as Chief of Staff to Julia Dannath-Schuh and acts as the main go-to person for the 13 other team members of the Office of Personnel Development and Leadership. This newly created staff unit is home to the following sub-units:

• Faculty Services
• Equal! Equal Opportunities & Diversity Office
• Conflict management reporting office

These units were already in existence beforehand, but they have now been assigned to VPPL. The team behind the new Faculty Services unit was previously part of the Office for Faculty Affairs (see below), the Equal! Office was part of the Office of the President, and the conflict management office has now switched over from the General Secretariat. This reorganisation brings deep knowledge of ETH Zurich and a great deal of experience to the newly launched Office of Personnel Development and Leadership.

While the HR Department falls under Dannath-Schuh's remit as Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, it is not part of the VPPL staff unit. HR and VPPL still enjoy a very close working relationship, however.

Roles and duties at VPPL

What is the VPPL staff unit responsible for in concrete terms? There are of course the usual tasks that come with running a staff unit: preparing internal consultations and Executive Board proposals, preparatory work for the Vice President’s appointments, participation on committees and in projects such as rETHink, and budget controlling.

Then there are jobs that are unique to VPPL, for instance:

• Designing, setting up and holding workshops like the VPPL's internal strategy meeting to discuss the Executive Board domain’s focal point themes.
• Working closely with HR and the Personnel and Organisational Development team to advance staff development and life-long learning at ETH.
• Handling topics and issues that are specific to the units that belong to VPPL.

Faculty Services: new central point of contact for professors

The newly created Faculty Services unit emerged from the Office for Faculty Affairs, which is part of the Office of the President. As of 1 February 2021, the two units are divided up as follows:

• The Office for Faculty Affairs will remain responsible for all strategic and academic issues surrounding professorships such as professorial planning, new appointments, the tenure process, promotions and individual aspects of retirement planning.
• The Faculty Services team deals with all the issues that professors face during their time at ETH Zurich. This includes onboarding, dual careers (supporting professors’ partners with finding a job in Switzerland), sabbaticals, outside employment, employment contract questions, and transitioning into retirement. Faculty Services will also handle professors’ queries around professional development, such as how to develop within their current role and how to manage their supervisory responsibilities. Until now, professional development for faculty had not been systematically addressed on an organisational level.

Starting while working from home

Madeleine Lüthy heads up this new unit. She is moving to VPPL together with her five-woman team to take on the new challenge. “After spending 26 years working in the Office of the President, switching to a new Executive Board domain was something quite special. Particularly the part where I started my new position while working from home,” says Lüthy.

“Our relationship with the Office for Faculty Affairs remains very close,” explains Lüthy. “Both of our teams touch base regularly. This is especially important during the current set-up phase for VPPL because it's not always immediately clear who should be responsible for a particular project.” Madeleine Lüthy and Birgit Kessler, who heads up the Office for Faculty Affairs, deputise for one another in order to keep their respective teams up to date. “And the Faculty Services team is still invited to take part in the Faculty Affairs coffee break on Zoom,” says Lüthy with a smile.

Insights from rETHink

Much of the work of the Faculty Services team revolves around how to further improve support services for professors. Findings from the rETHink project – chiefly from Workstream 3 – will be used to refine the Faculty Services remit in the future. Workstream 3 is dedicated to developing ways to support professors in their personal development and in improving their understanding of their leadership role.

A question of culture

But what exactly are the objectives of the Office of Personnel Development and Leadership? One of VPPL’s overarching goals is to ensure that ETH’s excellence in research, teaching and central administration is matched by excellence in people management, staff development and leadership. Providing high-quality advisory and support services is also part of this mission.

Or in the words of Chief of Staff Maximilian Buyken: “In general, we would like to help ETH continue doing what it does on a very high level and to help the university be prepared for things that you can't actually prepare for.” Buyken explains further: “Corona is a good example. No one saw it coming. No one was really prepared. In situations like these, issues like ownership, leadership and culture become especially important. They serve as guidepoints that everyone can turn to in situations where there aren't yet any clear rules, agreements or insights regarding how to act. Building up this kind of culture and helping ETH become fit for the future is our big-picture vision.”