From 13 January 2025, the Human Resources Division will provide all forms for technical and administrative staff to the Técnico community in a digital format via the Connect platform. This platform centralizes access to functionalities related to the School’s processes. ‘We believe that this measure will allow technical and administrative staff to manage their applications with greater autonomy, at any time, and to be able to monitor their status at the click of a button,’ says the Human Resources Director Cláudia Jacinto. It ‘represents an important step towards a modernised Human Resources Division that is more sustainable, transparent and accessible to all,’ she adds.
This change will apply immediately to the following forms: accumulation of functions, marriage leave, parental leave, early return to work, unpaid leave; working hours; student worker status; overtime work; teleworking; termination of contract; bank account information; declaration of tax situation; application for family allowance; application for retirement and application to count the length of service. ‘The most challenging part was the need to analyse a large number of existing forms and reformulate them in order to streamline their approval circuits,’ summarises Claúdia Jacinto.
The first public presentation of the platform – for technical and administrative staff – will take place on 8 January 2025 – ‘Formulários Digitais da DRH’ webinar (registration).
Dematerialisation underway at Técnico extends to various sectors
With the aim of ‘streamlining and simplifying Técnico’s processes, contributing to greater proximity between users, greater transparency and greater efficiency’ – in the words of Sérgio Guerreiro, professor at Técnico and deputy director for Digital Transition – the digitisation process had already been applied to the hiring forms for specially contracted teaching staff. The idea is to include soon ‘most of the academic forms that have been dematerialised and which have had a positive and significant impact on the academic activities and student requests’. The plan is to dematerialise all Técnico’s administrative processes: ‘By 2025 we plan to dematerialise all the processes of the Human Resources Division and the Postgraduation Unit processes of the Academic Division, including the sub-processes for which other Técnico units are responsible,’ he explains.
According to Sérgio Guerreiro, this process will make it possible to ‘streamline procedures, contributing to both greater speed and greater control’. The platform will allow users to submit forms, know the status of their processes and which ones are awaiting the applicant’s intervention. ‘It will also contribute to greater transparency, a reduction in costs and in the ecological footprint,’ he adds.
The major challenge of the initiative – as it involves surveying and characterising all the processes, moving from a paper-based paradigm to a digital one – is the need for collaboration between all the teams and units at Técnico. ‘Although there is a major effort from an operational and technological point of view, the challenge is essentially cultural and organisational,’ summarises Sérgio Guerreiro.
