Dear colleagues,
Looking back at my previous messages, I just realised that this is only my second message this year. Back from a wonderful, but cold, cross-country skiing trip in Norway, I am (literally) refreshed!
But it also means getting back to the reality of the financial situation at the UT. Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods yet. CES does not have many material costs that we can cut (which other service departments and faculties can), so for us, the main savings are made in personnel costs. Needless to say, this is very difficult, and always painful. Over the past years as an MT we have built up CES so we can meet the (future) demands of the organisation and having to stop that, is not what we want. But it is necessary; we cannot spend money that is not there. The process for extensions and replacements is a multistep process: from MT to Service Department Directors to the Executive Board. At each stage, careful considerations are made and this takes time. At the same time, the financial situation is closely monitored to determine what is possible. A similar process is taking place in the Faculties and there are regular meetings to discuss general measures and directions for savings, so we work with, not against each other. Several CES colleagues are involved in university-wide projects to increase student numbers or work more efficiently in educational or administrative processes. It is good that our expertise is included in these projects.
I can fully imagine that the current situation is difficult for many of you. For some of you, there is uncertainty about a contract extension, others may not be sure (yet) if they will be replaced when they retire, and of course, also those of you who are dealing with the same workload but fewer people to do the work. The CES Management Team and I want to stress that the difficult decisions we have to take, are not related to the colleagues who fulfil those tasks. If someone cannot be replaced, that does not mean he or she did not have a valuable, and valued, contribution to CES and UT. We know that we are talking about people, not numbers in spreadsheets, and we take a holistic approach to CES as a whole, rather than eight individual departments. CES is also fortunate to have a constructive and helpful Service Council, who think along and ask critical questions.
Does this mean that nothing is possible anymore? Of course not. We will continue to invest in the long term. For example in training and staff development so we continue to be ready for future developments. It is great to see how many of you are thinking about your own development, what you want to learn, and which next steps you want to take. Like any other year, it may not be possible to grant every wish or plan, but here as well we are taking a holistic approach working together to use these budgets as optimally as possible. As MT we are now working on the Strategic Staff Planning, looking at what will be asked of CES in the future and how to prepare for that.
In the next months, the internal move in the Vrijhof will take place. We will invest in furniture and good meeting rooms to help us to do our work well. Staff get-togethers and outings are important, especially now, and there will be a spring/summer get-together again.
This year will be challenging, but together we can do this. We are CES after all.
Best wishes
Lieke
