Appeal Process

Faculty and staff members at the university have the right to appeal on their rights and/or pay by submitting grievances against the institution or its employees. This also includes experience concerns related to issues such as unlawful discrimination, salary disputes, work assignments, or other employment matters.

To ensure fair and transparent resolution of grievances, the university has established a structured procedure. Faculty and staff members may choose to submit their grievances either in writing or through a personal meeting, depending on their preference.

Grievance policy is detailed below. In addition, procedures are available for employees if they believe they have experienced discrimination; they can submit a complaint through the provided channels (https://www.lau.edu.lb/about/policies/harassment_policy.pdf ).

GRIEVANCE POLICY

Policy Statement:

The Lebanese American University believes in providing its employees and students with a fair and efficient process to present, and resolve, grievances arising out of the non-compliance or breach of an approved University Policy or Procedure.

All University constituents are encouraged to seek and obtain answers to questions, or concerns, relating to their involvement with the University, through available procedures.

Regular and effective communications between the University constituents reduces the likelihood of misunderstanding and conflict. The University expects and encourages students, staff, and faculty members to communicate openly, and regularly, so that their interests, and the University’s interests, are best served.

Students, staff, and faculty members are entitled to utilize this Policy if the informal discussions did not result in disposing of the complaint to the satisfaction of the complainant, and provided the complained about matter involves a breach of a University Policy or Procedure.

Definition:

A Grievance is defined as an unresolved issue concerning a breach of a University Policy or Procedure that caused the grievant harm or damage.

This Policy does not apply to matters that are governed by alternative University review through applying other policies such as the Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Prevention Policy, the Personnel Policy - Faculty, the Fraud Policy, and the Code of Ethics etc …

This Policy applies whenever the grievance is not covered by any other existing University Policy.

Retaliation Prohibited:

The University, expressly, and unequivocally, prohibits retaliation against any person who files a grievance or assists a grievant in his/her efforts.

However, it is considered to be a serious misconduct if a grievance was filed and found to include deliberate false statements, and/or misleading and inaccurate facts. Such offense will be subject to the full range of disciplinary sanctions, including termination and dismissal for cause, and suspension.

Reporting Harassment, Assault, and/or Discrimination

The following steps should be taken when filing a complaint:

When a student, a staff member, or a faculty member faces any form of harassment, s/he should notify (orally or in writing) the Office of Community Standards at CommunityStandards@lau.edu.lb  or by phone at +961 1 786 456, ext. 1303  for the Beirut Campus or +961 9 547 254, ext. 1303 for the Byblos Campus. Anonymous Reporting: Anyone can make an anonymous report of conduct prohibited under this Policy by contacting the Compliance Hotline at 01.786.456 ext. 4444 or use the Anonymous Reporting Tool. In case of a health or safety emergency, students, staff and faculty should contact +961 1 786 456, ext. 1500  on the Beirut campus or +961 9 547 262, ext. 2500 on the Byblos campus to address the emergency and reports under this policy should be made later.

The Process of Filing a Complaint

1. Initial Review: The director meets with the complainant, explains options, and reviews rights.
2. Referral or Investigation: Depending on the issue, it may be resolved under the Student Code of Conduct, employment policies or a formal investigation.
3. Investigation: An impartial committee gathers evidence and interviews involved parties.
4. Outcome: The president issues a decision, with possible sanctions that can escalate up to expulsion or termination. Both parties receive the outcome at the same time.
5. Appeal: Either party may appeal under LAU’s policy.

 Standard of Evidence: “Preponderance of the evidence” (more likely than not).

Reinventing Performance Management: How to Do it Right

LAU’s Institute for Human Resources at the Adnan Kassar School of Business hosts a forum on effective strategies for engaging talent

Performance management has been undergoing a significant change in prominent organizations, with leaders becoming more aware of the challenge to engage talent more effectively.

This is particularly the case for several international institutions that were able to redesign their performance management systems and adapt them to more focused and individualized performance management.

Such strategies adopted to best evaluate team performance – and more –were addressed at a forum hosted by LAU’s Institute for Human Resources on the Latest Trends in HR: Reinventing Performance Management on April 4.

Moderated by Dr. Silva Karkoulian, associate professor and director of the institute, the forum featured Deloitte’s Rana Ghandour Salhab and Maya Rafii – Partner, Regional Talent and Communications, and Regional HR Director at Deloitte, respectively – as well as Roy Majdalani, VP for human resources and university services at LAU and Rania Al-Jazairi, first social affairs officer at ESCWA.

Kicking off the event, Dr. Karkoulian recalled the concept of performance management that was introduced some 60 years ago to determine an employee’s wage.

“With time, performance management has been transformed greatly and companies have adopted different methods and techniques,” she explained. “Continuous performance management will be the current focus as more companies embrace a more agile and data-driven approach to helping their people succeed.”

LAU’s Interim Dean of the Adnan Kassar School of Business (AKSOB) Wassim Shahin stressed the importance of turning this new HR concept into reality, illustrating how AKSOB had done so both on the academic and executive training sides.

“This year, we launched a master’s degree in Human Resources Management, and so far, it has proven its success. We are one of the few institutions to offer such a noble program along with our five other graduate programs,” he said. “Not only are we doing so, but we have also decided to reactivate the HR institute.”

Dr. Shahin also placed a great emphasis on the third pillar of LAU’s Strategic Plan (SPIII) – a university without borders – which includes executive education, not only nationally, but globally as well. “Internally, the institutes are playing a great role in developing this type of education,” he said, “but what we are also trying to accomplish is the development of programs outside Lebanon in order to achieve the sans-frontière notion.”

Over the course of the event, the panelists reminded the audience that through inclusion, trust and coaching, all three institutions were reinventing the perception of performance management.

To put its teams at ease and win their trust, Deloitte applies the multifaceted ALL IN strategy, said Ghandour Salhab, which “consists of agile work policies, putting goals for our leaders and focusing on mentoring programs such as Mentor ME.”

The strategy entailed conducting a survey which showed that 60 percent of the leaders thought the company’s performance management system was broken. Delving further, the firm found that two million hours were being spent on performance, Raffii said, which led to the ultimate change of “shifting those two million hours from talking about people to talking to people.”

Back at LAU, said Majdalani, a new unit – Staff Relations and Development – was founded within the HR department, empowering “employees by giving them constructive feedback and helping them manage their performance.” In this manner, employees define their own goals while managers engage with the team by spreading the institution’s vision and mission or communicating on an individual basis.

The ESCWA, on the other hand, placed an action plan that allocated huge resources to work on upgrading their employees’ skills, as “the staff sometimes feel like they’re being replaced by new upcomers on short-term contractual basis,” said Al Jazairi.

Just as important as transparency on where employees fit in the organization’s vision, is the question of accountability, she added. “No one wants to work in a place where you have frequent violations of rules, because this leads to injustice.”