Valuing and Supporting Our People

Laurentian will focus on becoming a trusted employer that values, empowers and grows its people.

This strategic direction was inspired by the following insights from the consultation and research process:

• There is a need to better cultivate a learning and supportive working environment for Laurentian’s dedicated and passionate faculty and staff, equipping them with the resources and support they need to transform the university to elevated new heights of connection, innovation and impact. There is a need to enhance internal communication and collaboration at Laurentian University to break down silos and foster an environment of interdepartmental and interfaculty collaboration and academic interdisciplinarity to differentiate Laurentian from its competitors.
   
• Make Laurentian an employer of choice in a competitive local, regional, national and international market for faculty and staff.

To advance Connection, Innovation, and Impact with its people, Laurentian will:

Cultivate a Supportive and Inclusive Team Culture

• Value the Excellence of Our People: Enhance initiatives at Laurentian to recognize and celebrate teaching, research, and community engagement excellence among faculty, staff, students, and administrators.
• Deliver Proactive and Strategic Communications: Develop an annual institutional strategic communication and stakeholder engagement plan to enhance the quality and reach of communications and engagements with internal and external stakeholder audiences to build connection.
• Build Internal Relationships: Invest in continuous training and knowledge exchange programs / events to build intra-and inter-departmental relationships, strategy alignment, and tricultural understanding and competencies in all Laurentian staff, faculty, and administrators, including bringing the University community together to review the progress of the strategic plan and to share/align on go forward priority initiatives.

Take Care in Developing Our People

• Take a Talent Focused Approach to Developing People: Develop a talent management model that integrates policies, programs, and processes for strategically developing, engaging, and retaining faculty and staff talent across the employee career span (from recruitment to succession).
• Strengthen Competitiveness for Talent: Conduct, and implement the recommendations of a strategic review of the alignment of Laurentian’s human resources/talent policies, processes, and compensation and incentive structures with its bilingual and tricultural mandate and the need to competitively attract, recruit, and retain an equitable, inclusive and high-quality workforce.

Support Laurentian Leaders in Driving and Sustaining Transformation

• Operational Transformation: Prioritize the implementation, and annual reporting on progress measures, of the Laurentian Operational Transformation Plan and develop a continuous improvement plan to support University leaders and staff in sustaining and enhancing the benefits of the transformation over time.

Drive Excellence in University Governance

• Improved Bicameralism: Board of Governors and Senate to develop an improved bicameralism that enables information flows between bodies, reasserts the Board as the governance body accountable for financial and business outcomes and the Senate as the governance body responsible for academic policies, regulations and standards for degree programs.
• Execution of the Strategic Plan: The Board of Governors and Senate to make oversight of the execution of the Strategic Plan a regular focus of their deliberations.

Through specific Indicative Progress Measures, including metrics to measure staff and faculty engagement, Laurentian will support and measure the impact of the goals and initiatives for Valuing and Supporting Our People.