Our society, and by extension the university, is not yet the ideal work environment where all people are seen. We raise this inequality in the training and want to teach participants to speak out when confronted with behavior that conflicts with the university’s goal of providing a diverse and inclusive work environment.
Brigitte Hertz, director of Hertz training, has been coordinator of a diversity project (EQUAL) at VU for five years and has extensive knowledge and practical experience with this topic.
We weave the discussion of differences in culture regarding authority, communication and feedback and how to deal with them into existing parts of the training ‘Supervising PhD students’. As a separate workshop, the following topics are covered:
- Cultural differences in authority and time management
- Differences in feedback
- Social academic habits
- Hiring new people
During the training we discuss the ways in which you design a good selection procedure. There is also attention to diversity: how do you build a team with complementary competencies, different (cultural) backgrounds and a gender balance? We practice drawing up a profile and conducting an effective selection interview using the STARR method.
We discuss how participants can shape the pursuit of diversity and inclusion themselves in their work situation.