A social balance sheet largely unaffected by the health crisis
The upheavals of 2020 ultimately had little impact on the social balance sheet, with data remaining stable overall. The reason? The institution's unwavering commitment to its public service mission. Bruno Fabre, Vice-President of the Board of Directors, summarizes this document produced by UM's departments and services, foremost among which is the Human Resources Department.
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"2020 was a very unusual year for everyone, yet the University continued to function and fulfill its public service mission even during the most difficult moments of this health crisis," begins Bruno Fabre, Vice-President of the UM Board of Directors. And as if to confirm this observation, he once again runs through the 239 pages of the social report, which ultimately reveals a high degree of consistency in the figures.
The University's total workforce remains at around 4,890 employees, representing 80% of the University's operating budget. "The payroll is our primary resource because the function of a university is to produce intellectual capital from intellectual capital," emphasizes Bruno Fabre. The breakdown of the payroll by staff category also remains extremely stable compared to 2019, with 80.6% of staff being permanent employees, including 57%Professors researchers, and around 17% contract staff across all categories.
New staff
New in this 2020 social report: the inclusion of staff working for the CFA,INSPE, and CSU in the UM workforce. These structures were supported by the COMUE until the new site policy was implemented on January1, 2020. The approximately 3,000 staff members hosted by the UM also appear in the social report for the first time. Although not paid by the UM but hosted in its laboratories, "these staff members are a testament to the strong relationships we have with research organizations," explains Bruno Fabre. " It was therefore logical to include them."
Another new feature is the specific mention of student contracts, which have seen a sharp increase, rising from 628 in 2019 to 862 in 2020. "These jobs were created to support students remotely during the Covid crisis, "particularly through the Connect telephone service, which enabled thousands of first-year students to stay in touch with the university by being contacted by their peers.
A proactive policy
Although budgets for social action and staff training were maintained throughout 2020, lockdowns and remote working sometimes led to the cancellation of training courses or the absence of certain staff members. Actual training expenditure therefore fell from €224,719 in 2019 to €144,183 in 2020, a difference of €80,000 that will be replenished in 2021, as explained by the vice-chairman of the board of directors: "We wanted to pursue this proactive policy not only by maintaining budgets but also by carrying over the remaining funds to 2021."
This proactive policy has been taken even further, as the University has also authorized all structures (faculties, schools, departments, research units, etc.) to reallocate certain unspent operating funds to investment. "We did not want to centralize unused funds to increase the University's financial reserves. We preferred to invest in the future by promoting investment in building renovation, educational and scientific equipment, shared services, etc."
Continuity of public service
The main new development in 2020 is, of course, remote working, which has profoundly transformed the way we work and to which the social report now devotes a section. However, as the 2020 figures are based on the call for applications launched in 2019, they do not yet reflect its widespread adoption in our daily lives. Nevertheless, in 2019, 112 applications were submitted, compared with 98 in 2018. "This is already a significant increase, but it is clear that these figures are still a long way from those we will see in future reports," emphasizes the vice president.
Teleworking is becoming increasingly popular, and would not have been possible for staff without the efforts made by the IT and Digital Systems Department throughout 2020. "We really must commend the work of this department. It is largely thanks to them that we have been able to continue our mission and, in particular, maintain all of our bodies. " These include board and academic meetings, technical committees, health, safety, and working conditions committees, meetings on operational issues with departments, schools, and institutes, meetings with research unit directors, and more. " Even in the midst of lockdown, we maintained close ties with all of our structures," Bruno Fabre recalls, before concluding: "This continuity could never have been ensured without the efforts of the 5,000 staff members who make up our University. That is also part of our achievement! "
The social report also provides a detailed snapshot of the university's workforce distribution by gender. As in previous years, the overall workforce is evenly split between the two sexes, with 50.6% women and 49.4% men at UM. The imbalance becomes more pronounced when looking at the distribution by professional category. Women account for only 40% of Professors men are in the minority among BIATS staff, representing only 38% of the workforce. This proportion rises to 45% in category A (the highest positions). Good news! The percentage of women is increasing in the "researcher" category, as they now represent 49% of this category, compared to 46% in 2019.
In terms of recruitment, 62% of permanent BIATS staff recruits are women. Of Professors 21 Professors in 2020 (single and dual affiliation combined), 14 are women. As for university professors, only 23% of those promoted in 2020 were women. This low rate rises to only 35% among associate professors.