July 16, 1997
Dear Colleagues:
As one of the most vigorous research universities in the world, MIT's continued success will depend on its ability to attract and retain not only the brightest faculty and students but also the best staff. A number of forces -- changing demographics, rapidly evolving advances in technology, an increasingly competitive labor market, and difficulties in juggling personal and professional commitments -- have contributed to making our work lives more complex. For that reason, in June of last year we convened the Human Resource Practices Design (HRPD) Team to look into the issues and challenges of our changing work environment. The team's sponsor is Vice President for Human Resources Joan Rice.
Last summer, the team identified areas of common concern across the Institute through broad outreach to many in the community, including faculty, support staff, administrative staff, and senior management. The report that follows outlines team's findings and presents important concerns in areas such as staff training and development, hiring practices, job classification, performance assessment, and compensation.
This spring, the team began working with a number of academic and administrative departments to identify ways to enhance our practices in these areas and explore new approaches appropriate for the times. This work will continue during the coming year and will benefit from your involvement and ideas. In all these endeavors, we remain committed to maintaining the diversity, flexibility, and fairness that make MIT a good place to work. These tenets are at the heart of the Human Resource Principles adopted in 1994, which are included in the report.
I strongly support these efforts, and I encourage all of you to read and discuss the HRPD team report and participate in the development of appropriate changes to MIT's human resource practices. If you have questions or comments about the report, you may contact the team at <people@mit.edu>.
Sincerely yours, [signed] Charles M. Vest
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