Employment and secondment

The landscape of ERICs is diverse ranging from small distributed ERICs with no more than 10 employees, to large single-sited ERICs with more than 200 employees. Most of the ERICs in operation are distributed research infrastructures with a central hub/office and distributed nodes/partners in the respective member countries. ERICs are mostly relatively small in size, with no more than 20 employees on average working at the country seat of the ERIC.

Since most ERICs historically have been spin-offs from national research institutes and organizations funded by countries, ERICs face completely different employment challenges than, for example, newly founded companies in the private sector. Some common employment challenges include

• Especially in the start-up phase, staff from the host institute is seconded to the ERIC or made available as so-called “in-kind contributions” from the member countries or institutions
• Many ERICs are relatively new and small organisations and do not have their own HR departments
• Many align their HR policies with the practices of the former hosting institutions or adopt them entirely.

The special legal form of the ERIC can lead to difficulties in day-to-day implementation: on the one hand, ERICs are recognized as international organisations, and on the other hand, they have to follow national law in regards to employment, for example. The legal form, which is still little known, can lead to major time and bureaucratic delays in the establishment of the ERIC. New ERICs can therefore benefit substantially from the existing specific country expertise and knowledge of existing ERICs.

The in-depth interviews for conducted for an ERIC Forum survey have confirmed that many ERICs have been able to overcome difficulties in employment-related matters by taking appropriate measures and creating corresponding procedures, such as hiring external experts or establishing their own structures. This applies in particular to the administrative areas for payroll, contracting and tax issues. In the area of secondment, too, all ERICs have developed corresponding contractual regulations.

Watch an ERIC Forum webinar “Personnel of ERICs: Challenges and best practices” below. 

Some best practices from ERICs have been put together in a series of case studies so that all ERICs, especially those in the process of being established, can benefit from the experience already gained by others. Click on the title below to expand and follow the link to read the whole case study.

Most of the personnel working at the ERIC are directly employed, but there are different employment situations where seconded personnel are used. During the founding phase of an ERIC, personnel are often seconded by the local hosting institution. In the operational phase of ERICs secondments can be part of, or in addition to,

• the membership contribution
• across borders or inside borders
• in-kind contributions or not
• full-time or part-time depending on the secondment situation

All secondment situations have three parties involved: the employee, their original employer, and the host employer. This can lead to a variety of problems, including

• tax and legal issues
• different working conditions at the sending and hosting institution such as holidays and working hours
• authority and control of the secondee’s work
• work recognition and career prospects of secondees after returning to their host organization

All ERICs surveyed in the ERIC Forum Survey stated that they have secondment policies and contracts in place. These contracts and policies vary according to the specific secondment situation.

Handling of employment of personnel in other countries than the ERIC seat is specific and needs to be addressed on a case-by-case and country-by-country basis. ERICs have used expert advice for this topic. Some have individual solutions in collaboration with local experts, while others employ large consulting companies which can handle requests across countries. (See case study 3)

Administrative and legal issues such as employment contracts, payroll and insurance can be a hurdle, especially for smaller ERICs which cannot afford a fully-fledged HR department. Since employment laws and social security and tax laws vary significantly inside Europe, country-specific knowledge is required. Therefore, advice can only be given on a per country basis and not provided as a general template.

Currently, ERICs use external expertise, be it from smaller tax and payroll offices or larger consulting firms operating throughout Europe, which can also serve several countries. In the future, a solution such as a European contract for ERIC employees may be envisaged to potentially facilitate personnel management.

Many ERICs have already established processes and policies such as employee handbooks (see Case Study 5 EU-OS), HR policies and performance appraisals such as bonus schemes (see Case Study 1: CERIC) in place. Other ERICs can benefit from these already existing solutions in the form of best practices examples.

Attracting and retaining qualified personnel is a major issue for many ERICs. Many ERICs are small with flat hierarchies and therefore cannot offer extensive vertical options for career progression. In addition, salaries may sometimes also be perceived as not being sufficiently competitive especially compared to salaries paid in the private sector, since remuneration in ERICs is often aligned with remuneration levels of the public sector (as many ERICs originated from there).

ERICs may also consider offering other attractive employment benefits as part of employment packages. Fringe benefits such as the following may help ERICs to attract and retain qualified personnel:

• training opportunities
• private pension schemes such as RESAVER
• extra holiday days
• funding support for commuting costs
• funding support for participation in the Executive Masters in Management of Research Infrastructures (EMMRI), offered by BICOCCA University in Italy
• remote working options
• flexible working hours, supporting work-life balance.

Only very few ERICs work with a dedicated remuneration scheme. Some use remuneration schemes from the public sector, while others deliberately benchmark their scheme against practices from the private sector. EATRIS has employed an experienced consultant in that field to work out a competitive salary scheme that includes a bonus system and indexes salaries based on inflation. If ERICs and ERICs-to-be consider implementing such remuneration strategies, they should also ensure that those are reflected in their multi-yearly budget planning.

All ERICs conduct regular performance evaluations mostly once a year in some cases also twice a year. In countries such as France, ECRIN states that it is mandatory to conduct performance evaluations at least once a year. Some ERICs use pre-designed templates for the performance reviews, which are shared below for other ERIC’s to use. EATRIS used the same performance evaluation as its host institution at the beginning of its operations, which was gradually adjusted to its needs as ERIC. In this specific area of remunerations and performance reviews, a common resource for ERICs was seen as particularly beneficial.

HR policies

• ICOS Employment Policy
• Lifewatch ERIC Employment Policy

Gender action plans and policies

• ICOS Gender Equality Plan
• EATRIS Gender Equality Plan 
• SHARE-ERIC Gender Equality Plan

Workplace rules

• Lifewatch ERIC Code of Conduct 
• European Spallation Source Code of Conduct