A public educational institution strives for an inclusive, safe, and professional learning and working environment. As an ombuds officer, you play an independent and visible role in this. You offer employees and students an accessible point of contact for complex situations and help the organization by making patterns visible, discussing dilemmas, and advising the Executive Board, solicited and unsolicited, on structural improvements.
You independently shape the way complaints are handled, investigations are set up, and signals are translated into organization-wide recommendations.
What you do
- Identifying and advising on recurring patterns, structural bottlenecks, and systematic shortcomings in regulations, processes, organizational structure, or internal relationships.
- Advising employees and students on reported signals, dilemmas, problems, reports, or complaints.
- Acting as a point of contact for reports of misconduct in accordance with the whistleblower scheme, insofar as it fits within the independent role.
- Adequately referring or redirecting to the correct instances, primarily within the organization, but externally where necessary.
- Mediating and bringing parties back into conversation within appropriate organizational structures, possibly through mediation.
- Drawing up an annual report on activities, signals, patterns, and recommendations.
- Contributing to the annual report on social safety and well-being of the organization.
- Listening, identifying, advising, mediating, referring, investigating, reporting, and making recommendations at the request of an employee or student or on your own initiative about structural problems and improvement opportunities.
Profile
- Every employee and student can contact you informally and confidentially to discuss a signal, dilemma, problem, report, or complaint related to the organization or one of its employees.
- You work independently, impartially, and confidentially.
- You listen and advise on the approach to a specific issue, refer to the appropriate instance where necessary (e.g., a confidential advisor, complaints committee, manager, or HR department), support those involved in exploring possible routes, and can play a mediating role if appropriate.
- You can, solicited or unsolicited, investigate situations, report on them, and make recommendations aimed at recovery, preventing undesirable consequences, and preventing recurrence in the future.
- You work closely with other officials within the reporting, assistance, and complaints structures of the organization.
- You have direct access to the Executive Board and are independently accountable for the implementation and development of the function.
- You are aware of developments in the field of ombuds work and are willing to continuously invest in professionalization.
- To guarantee the independence of the function, you do not hold any other position within the organization and have not had any current or recent responsibilities within the organization that could influence an independent position.
What they ask
- University master's level of work and thinking.
- Extensive and demonstrable experience in an independent advisory, investigative, or mediating role within a complex administrative organization, preferably as an ombuds officer in higher education.
- A completed education in conflict mediation or mediation, or demonstrably comparable level through work experience in this field.
- A strong legal basis; a legal education is not a requirement.
- Up-to-date knowledge of social safety, reporting, assistance, and complaints structures, organizational culture, codes of conduct, and relevant social developments that may influence the functioning of employees and students in higher education.
- Ability to translate signals from individual reports into organization-wide insights, trends, and improvement opportunities.
How to apply
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