Initial Phase
Dokuz Eylül University follows national and institutional legislation and practices regarding human resources management with C&C principles. The HRS4R process was started by DEU Rectorate on 20.12.2021, the HRS4R Implementing Committee was formed and the Endorsement Letter for obtaining the HRS4R Logo was submitted to the EC on 20.01.2022. Afterwards; Dokuz Eylül University started an initiative to achieve HR Excellence in Research. To reach this objective, the university formed a working group (WG) composed of experts who could analyze its human capital structure along with its resources and opportunities for researchers. The members of the WG were either volunteered or assigned from a variety of disciplines and units to get a correct situation analysis and develop an action plan. In the light of these WG’s efforts and the guidance of Charter and Code principles acknowledged by the European Commission, the WG followed the steps below:
Step 1. Internal gap analysis
Step 2: Institutional Human Resources Strategy for Researchers/Action Plan
Step 3: Acknowledgement by the European Commission – HR Excellence in Research.
Step 4: Implementation phase and self-assessment
Step 5: External assessment and renewal of acknowledgement
The appointment of the working group has been decided during the Quality Commission’s meeting considering the most convenient academicians who have the capacity of making research, implementing surveys and further analysis. The personnel are chosen from different departments such as statistics, technology transfer offices etc. Following the appointment of the working group the Gap Analysis has been initiated. The director of the commission and relevant members were also present in all the process of initiation and implementation of the HRS4R.
The HRS4R working group, in its initial face to face meeting on February 2, 2023, examined the evaluation criteria and developed a work program for the activities to be carried out within this scope. The program was then presented to the steering committee for approval. Existing processes that would contribute to the gap analysis were reviewed, and a survey was created for criteria requiring feedback for the researchers ranging from R1 to R4. Upon approval by the steering committee, the questionnaire was published. For the upcoming phases, the HRS4R working group has had a work plan for its conducted activities and has coordinated the management of the process by providing reports and feedback to the steering committee for each milestone identified within this work plan.
Main input for the gap analysis has been provided by the survey. The application of the survey, as presented in the report details, was prepared in a digital format and distributed through the cloud service within our institutional resources. The data was collected and stored in the cloud system with the help of the Department of Computer Engineering. The organization of questions in survey format and subsequent analysis of responses were carried out by our researchers representing the Statistics and Risk Analysis Research and Application Center and the Department of Statistics within the HRS4R working group.
Expert researchers in the field of HR at DEU have further deepened the Gap Analysis by evaluating survey findings and other inputs. They have developed recommendations for the necessary measures and actions to be taken. The Quality Department and the committee, serving as the steering group, have collectively reviewed this preliminary study conducted on gap analysis and made joint decisions regarding preventive measures, actions, and strategies.
Once questions were developed in Turkish, an online survey was prepared. The online survey was conducted anonymously, and it started with a brief introduction explaining the objective of the survey. Then three profiling questions were asked to understand the sample characteristics, they were researcher’s unit, job title and gender. Then 26 questions were asked to participants to understand the current status.
This survey was emailed to researchers between 14-20 of March 2023, and in total 826 participants joined the study. 57% of the participants were female. The overall response rate was 27% and the response rate was even higher (35%) for associate and full professors. Based on research unit-wise, we collected data from 35 research units which lead to a high response rate, that is 92%. Thus, coverage and diversity of participation in the study could be considered good and representative.
When we analyzed the sample characteristics, most of the participants belonged to Faculties. In many faculty positions females took part in study, which reflects employee gender composition for faculties. We also detected that we collected data from all titles, units and gender types. Therefore, sample characteristics showed that we gathered opinions from many subgroups, which was one of the main intentions of the survey.
Once we analyzed the agreement levels for each aspect, 50% of each aspect were above the 50% agreement mark. We noticed that ethical and professional aspects were better on average than other aspects. For three aspects (training and development, recruitment and selection, and ethical and professional), half of the participants agreed that those aspects met the criteria at a level greater than or equal to 75%. It could be also noted that the spread for the three aspects (working conditions, training and development, and recruitment and selection) were high when compared to ethical and professional aspects.
GAP Analysis
The fourth stage is to locate the gaps. We calculated the average score of each topic by adding up all the scores and then divide it into the number of responses given. After calculating averages, we turned them into percentage format by using the following formula: (AVERAGE SCORE – 1) / (NUMBER OF RESPONSE CATEGORIES – 1). For example, if average score of a topic was 3.50, we converted it percentage: (3.5 – 1) / (5 -1) = 62.50%. If the average score of a topic was 1, we converted it percentage: (1 – 1) / (5 -1) = 0%. If the average score of a topic was 5, we converted it percentage: (5 – 1) / (5 -1) = 100%.
We compared current levels of topics with the implementation levels that we put forward at stage 2. The status column at the following table indicated that the gaps were either acceptable or good at all topics. By the standards of HRS4R, some topics were already fully implemented or many topics needed to be improved gradually. There was no topic that fell below 50% mark.
In March and April of 2023, the Action Plan and OTM-R Document (OTM-R Check List) drafts were prepared and finalized with the meetings held with the participation of internal stakeholders.
The application for the ‘Human Resources Excellence in Research Award’ (HR Excellence in Research Award) was sent to the European Commission on 28/07/2023.