Long-term Employability
By assigning and using long-term employability (LE) hours, employers and employees ensure that everyone can continue to do their job effectively, in good health and with satisfaction, also in the long term.
Are you a supervisor/manager or HR officer? More information can be found under Information for HR and supervisors/managers.
ACCUMULATED LE HOURS VALID LONGER OR CAN BE PARTIALLY PAID OUT
The options for using your long-term employability hours (LE hours) have been expanded with immediate effect. This was agreed by parties involved in AUAS’s collective labour agreement (CAO) in February 2023.
The changes
- Until now, you were required to use your accumulated hours by 31 December 2023. That will now become before 31 December 2025. This concerns hours saved up before 2021.
- Also new is that you can choose to have the saved hours partially paid out with your salary, with a maximum of 45 hours per year in the years 2023, 2024, 2025.
- Finally, it will be possible to use all or part of the saved LE hours at the end of your employment contract. Colleagues who retire, or are at the end of their employment contract, can use their saved LE hours prior to their last contractday of work.
Some employees have already asked their manager or HR contact person about the new arrangements. We request your patience while processing these changes in our systems. As soon as the changes have been implemented in the systems and the DI Regulations and DI Guidelines have been revised in line with the above changes, this page will be updated and the current documents will be published here.
Below you will find more information about:
*The information below will be updated
The CAO-HBO contains arrangements about the long-term employability of staff, and AUAS has drawn up LE regulations . Chapter M of the CAO-HBO sets out the main features of the LE Scheme long-term employability while the AUAS regulations contain the implementing arrangements, which have been tailored to the situation at AUAS in consultation with the representative advisory body.
The Long-Term Employability Scheme (LE Scheme) is intended for employees employed by AUAS:
- who have an employment contract of at least 0.4 FTE, and
- have been employed by a university of applied sciences as meant in the present CLA for at least 3 years over the previous 5-year period (this period need not be consecutive, but must be demonstrable).
Student assistants and staff not employed by AUAS (such as temporary workers and self-employed persons) cannot make use of the LE Scheme.
If you have been working via AUAS JobService, the period in which you were employed by AUAS Jobservice will count towards the ‘employed by a university of applied sciences as meant in the present CLA for at least 3 years over the previous 5-year period’ condition for eligibility for the LE hours.
What will you do to ensure that you are employable in the long term? That you can continue to do your job effectively, in good health and with satisfaction? That you keep your work-life balance healthy? Why not discuss this with your supervisor and your fellow team members. Perhaps you temporarily need more time for informal care, or want to take additional study leave, or explore a career switch.
Each year, you are provided with long-term employability hours (LE hours). Ensure you use them! Please read the LE guideline for employees (pdf) for further practical information and tips.
If you meet the conditions, you will be assigned a number of LE hours each calendar year as a basic LE budget. Older employees may also be eligible for the additional LE budget.
For more information and the conditions, please refer to the Summary of entitlements to LE hours (pdf).
You can use your LE hours for three different purposes:
- Making arrangements which help you continue to do your job effectively, in good health and with satisfaction also in the longer term, which includes restoring the work-life balance during a limited period.
- Maintaining and reinforcing your employability in the sense of being versatile and retaining your labour market appeal, both internally and externally.
- Using hours for keeping up your professional competency and development.
Once you have decided for what purpose you want to use your LE hours, you can discuss this with your supervisor.
Actively using your annual allocation of LE hours during the same calendar year will now be standard practice. Any unused LE hours will lapse at the end of the calendar year. Where teaching staff are concerned, the time allocated for LE (45 hours on a full-time basis and 90 hours from a particular age) will be offset against the standard annual assignment of 1,659 hours. The incorporation of the LE hours into the annual assignment will therefore reduce a lecturer’s availability.
Obviously, you will not lose the LE hours saved up to and including 31 December 2020. You will keep these LE hours, which must then be used before 31 December 2025. You need to discuss using these hours with your supervisor at an early stage and record these arrangements in writing.
Long-term employability is important: not only for you, but also for your team’s results and those of AUAS as a whole. We recommend that you make written arrangements with your supervisor at the earliest possible stage on how you will spend your LE hours. Your supervisor will need this information in order to provide you with the best possible support, because he is responsible for the proper planning of your activities and those of the team.
The subject of ‘long-term employability’ has become a staple element in the annual performance reviews. This means that it is a standard topic during this review. As your activities need to be planned in advance, your supervisor may bring forward this part of the review so as to make arrangements with you at an earlier stage.
The arrangements (including amended arrangements) which you make with your supervisor about how your LE hours will be spent (when, how many, purpose), or about not using your LE hours, will always be laid down in writing and added to your personnel file.
Teaching staff
If you are part of the teaching staff (OP: onderwijspersoneel), you only need to register in DSPE the hours withdrawn from your savings balance (if any) and the purposes for which you are using them. There is no need to register the LE hours annually obtained, because these have already been incorporated into your annual assignment. You do have to make written arrangements with your supervisor about how your annual LE hours will be spent (when, how many, purpose) or if you decide not to use your LE hours.
Support staff
If you are part of the support staff (OBP), you need to register in DSPE the hours withdrawn both from your annual LE budget and from your savings balance (if any), and the purposes for which you are using them. You have to make written arrangements with your supervisor about how your annual LE hours will be spent (when, how many, purpose) or if you decide not to use your LE hours.
AUAS promotes the long-term employability of its employees in other ways as well, for instance by providing:
- Online training courses – Improve your own wellbeing anytime, anywhere with GoodHabitz, an online learning platform. You have a choice of more than 100 free training sessions and courses, such as Vitality, I Feel Good, Mind over Matter, Mindfulness and many others. Get started with GoodHabitz today.
- Sports for Staff – Sports activities throughout the academic year.
- Vitality and Working from Home – Stay fit and healthy while working from home; you can read all about it at thuiswerken.mijnhva.nl.
- Work-Related Care (pdf) in collaboration with the AMC Occupational Health and Safety Service. This care can be used to enhance your long-term employability, to prevent sickness absence or to further your rehabilitation if you are ill.
- WS Scheme (Decrease in Working Hours for Older Staff)
- The HR department of your own faculty, service or department will be able to provide further information.
- See also the LE guideline for employees for further practical information.