A great year together

After a busy first year at JHU, the vice president for human resources, Pierre Joanis, took a moment to reflect on some of his unique interactions with students, faculty, and staff since his first day in March 2022.

In an email to university colleagues, he recapped recent accomplishments, including enhancements aimed to support JHU's workforce—such as the increased tuition benefit and expanded benefits for gender-affirming care—and summarized upcoming HR programs and initiatives.

The Career Architecture project, designed to create more transparency related to job responsibility and compensation, is well underway, and plans to launch an Internal Career Services office, modeled on JHU's student Life Design and Integrated Learning supports, are in the works. Additionally, the planning group developing an infrastructure for the universitywide Staff Advisory Council is making good progress.

Regarding the university's Future of Work model, Joanis shared, "I am thrilled to see so many of you embrace our dynamic campus culture—grabbing lunch with colleagues, opting for outdoor meetings, and registering for symposiums and keynote addresses. Such experiences reinforce our commitment as a university: to be the best place in the world to grow, discover, and achieve."

Read Joanis' full email message below:

Dear Colleagues,

My first year as the vice president for human resources passed by at lightning speed. I recall one of my earliest days at Johns Hopkins when I had the good fortune to spend the day working at Peabody Institute—one of the jewels of our university, located in the heart of Baltimore on a campus flanked by museums, monuments, and urban green space. To my great joy, the soundtrack of my workday was a pop-up student concert.

Witnessing this kind of creative spontaneity, not to mention the immense talent of our student musicians, confirmed what I knew to be true when I accepted this position at Johns Hopkins; this is a place where talent meets opportunity. This has been affirmed time and again as I have gotten to know colleagues from Eastern to East Baltimore, working and learning alongside them and even enjoying some downtime with their families at our employee recognition event at the Maryland Zoo.

I am thrilled to be a part of this extraordinary place and to work with all of you.

Over the past year, our Human Resources team has worked with colleagues across the institution to develop new and enhanced programs and policies to raise the caliber of our employee experience. As I begin my second year, I want to reflect on that progress as we look forward together.

National Employer of Choice

I've had the opportunity over the past year to participate in a number of President Daniels' listening sessions designed to hear employee feedback and input on our strategic priorities. One of them is Johns Hopkins' renewed commitment to move our university from a good to a best-in-class employer that welcomes and supports exceptional and diverse talent in a workplace where all employees can grow, develop, and thrive in their careers. We are making a number of exciting moves to advance this aim, including:

• Advancing career opportunity: The Career Architecture Project is well underway with the goal of creating more transparency related to job responsibility and compensation. We have also committed to launching an Internal Career Services Office, modeled on our highly successful student Life Design and Integrated Learning supports, that will help staff navigate professional and personal advancement at JHU.

• Expanding employee benefits and services: This year, HR's Benefits team introduced new offerings that positively impact employees and their families, such as expansion of gender affirming care benefits and enhanced tuition benefits

• Renewing our commitment to economic inclusion: HopkinsLocal 3.0 kicked off on Feb. 17, and thanks to the ideas and contributions of JHU staff, the program achieved its goal of hiring 50% of targeted positions with residents from focus areas in Baltimore City and is now increasing that goal with a focus on higher-paid positions.

• Developing our new Staff Advisory Council: The council's Planning Committee, made up of 35 individuals from across the institution, has been working diligently this year to develop the structure and guidelines for the permanent Staff Advisory Council, a key goal of the Second Roadmap on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We anticipate their work will be complete this spring, and the full council will launch in the fall.

We are proud that the broader community is taking notice of our collective efforts, as evidenced by recent recognitions from Insight into Diversity magazine (2022 Top Colleges for Diversity) Newsweek (America's Greatest Workplaces 2023 for Diversity), and Forbes (America's Best Large Employers 2023).

The Future of Work at JHU

We appreciate your continued efforts to meet this pivotal moment in our collective experience as a university. In approximately 150 meetings and town halls and 9,000 survey responses, we heard your perspectives on how best to protect and nurture the essential in-person character of our education, research, and service mission while also making long-term plans to incorporate flexible workplace practices that we experienced during the pandemic.

I am thrilled to see so many of you embrace our dynamic campus culture— grabbing lunch with colleagues, opting for outdoor meetings, and registering for symposiums and keynote addresses. Such experiences reinforce our commitment as a university: to be the best place in the world to grow, discover, and achieve.

As we continue to settle into our work arrangements, I hope you will take advantage of the various in-person and online trainings and resources available for staff and managers. JHU also offers a number of supports and programs, including expanded child dependent care benefits, to help employees who have transitioned to working in person more often. HR leaders in each school and division are ready to assist you on a broad range of employee matters.

In the months ahead, I look forward to connecting with many more of you in person, whether during a listening session, town hall discussion, or a walk across campus. I also encourage you to regularly visit JHU's HR website for information and resources designed to support you throughout your journey at Hopkins.

I will continue to find ways to champion all those who work at JHU so that you, our employees, know that you are heard and that you matter. And if you see me at a pop-up concert or in the halls, please say hello. I'd love to meet you in person.

Sincerely,

Pierre Joanis
Vice President for Human Resources