HR Policy at Collège Champittet: Security, quality, training, and engagement

Dear Champiteans,

What is the College's HR policy? In a nutshell: safeguarding, quality, professional learning and engagement.

Safeguarding first

The school checks the criminal record of every new recruit and, together with the State of Vaud, checks the criminal record of every colleague in employment every year. Expatriate colleagues are required to present a criminal record as soon as they have spent more than 6 months in another country during the last 10 years.

Quality remains paramount

The school checks the qualifications and experience of each new recruit. A Bachelor's degree is required to teach at primary level, and a Master's degree in the subject taught at secondary level. Compulsory schooling teachers (aged 4 to 15 in the Canton of Vaud - grades 1 to 11) obtain an official teaching license from the Canton. Our HR department carries out reference checks, in-depth interviews, sometimes tests and often work experience observation.

Diversity

The College aims to achieve age diversity (the energy of youth combined with the wisdom of seniors), encourages male applications (the school currently employs 70% women), and wishes to enrich itself with cultural diversity (today: 46% Swiss, 18% French and 36% from 34 other nationalities). Each employee is invited twice a year to determine his or her individual performance.

Professional learning

The school places great emphasis on professional learning, long gone are the days when workers obtained a diploma at the age of 25 and lived on that knowledge for the next 40 years. Knowledge evolves rapidly and we ask all our colleagues to take part in compulsory training, as well as maintaining their individual knowledge. The standard is 40 hours of training per year, but many colleagues do more. Training ranges from special needs, anti-bullying and metacognition to educational technology, leadership and well-being.

This year we will be sending colleagues to train at the Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York, others to the Villars Symposium (sustainable development), and others to leadership courses. Yours truly has just completed training in the art of negotiation at the Centre patronal, as well as in child protection.

Peer-to-peer learning has been shown to work very well in the world of education: a dozen of our colleagues take part in professional improvement forums within Nord Anglia (e.g. the Heads of Secondary Group or the University Guidance Counsellors’ Group). Our pedagogical days bring together all teachers.

Staff engagement

The College also measures staff engagement through an annual engagement survey, in partnership with Gallup. Champittet's results are above the group average.

The ‘One Champittet’ concept is applied to avoid the creation of competing groups: e.g. secondary and primary, boarding and academic, teachers and administration, Swiss and IB streams. In a growing number of cases, colleagues are working in a cross-functional capacity.

HR uses a salary benchmark to ensure that our colleagues are paid decently, in line with the market. The College has a special HR policy for young parents with children. There are many opportunities for a rewarding social life.

And finally, I would like to emphasise that all our colleagues cultivate a spirit that is specific to Champittet, one that is both caring and professionally demanding. Effort is valued, and people facing life's inevitable problems are supported.