Change to our recruitment advertising approach in Professional Services

12 Oct 2018

Message from Karen Heaton, Director of Human Resources, about a change to recruitment advertising in Professional Services

Dear colleagues

The University of Manchester has more than 12,000 staff and is one of the largest employers in the region.  We want to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is part of everything that we do - and research has shown that the best performing organisations have systematically integrated equality, diversity and inclusion into their culture.

In particular we want to ensure that our job opportunities reach the widest and most diverse group of potential applicants. We want to attract the best possible talent to come and work for us; this is how we will achieve our strategic aims and objectives. 

Currently we advertise internally for grades 3-6 across Professional Services and our Cultural Institutions, before advertising externally. We have identified that this may be impacting on the diversity of our applicants across these grades.  With this in mind, we are making some changes to our recruitment advertising strategy. 

All vacancies will continue to be initially advertised for five working days and ring-fenced to applications from redeployees.  However, should no appointment be made at that stage then we will advertise vacancies internally and externally at the same time. 

This change will take place with immediate effect.  We believe that this change will support our aim to build a more diverse workforce as well as making us an attractive place to work.  We’ll also be reviewing our advertising strategy to ensure that opportunities to work with us reach the widest possible audience. 

We will review the effectiveness of our approach to diversity in recruitment on an ongoing basis. We also recognise the immense talent and commitment of our current staff, and will continue to support learning and development so that all of our people can progress their careers here at The University of Manchester.

Karen Heaton
Director of Human Resources