Oxford takes on private industry in competition for talent
21 May 2013
The University of Oxford is taking a revitalised approach to recruiting top academics and researchers as it competes with private industry for the best talent, a London audience has heard.
Tue, 21 May 2013The University of Oxford is taking a revitalised approach to recruiting top academics and researchers as it competes with private industry for the best talent, a London audience has heard.
“We can’t rely on reputation only,” said Richard Bunkham (right), an e-recruitment specialist at the elite university.
Part of the new approach involves “peer-to-peer recruitment marketing”, Bunkham said. Line managers at Oxford “have to be out in the market themselves”, contacting qualified peers and colleagues and seeking out fellow specialist talent to join their ranks, Bunkham told in-house recruiters at last week’s SRTech13 gathering.
Further, line managers must be actively involved in recruitment, because “they know the jobs”, Bunkham went on to say.
A key change in how Oxford recruits is the new ease with which candidates can contact line managers during the recruitment process with questions. “It used to be difficult for candidates to contact anyone,” Bunkham said.
Line managers must supply at least their email addresses and sometimes phone numbers so that they can be easily contacted.
Recruitment campaigns are now actively monitored throughout while they are open, so that they can be proactively adapted to meet high or low volumes or otherwise adjusted to deal with other factors arising, Bunkham said.
One challenge is that Oxford has no centralised recruitment budget, Bunkham acknowledged. Instead, the recruitment budgets are devolved to department level. At the same time, the new approach to recruitment has led to a £500k savings for the university.
Attended by Recruiter, the SRTech13 event also saw one recruitment consulting specialist claim that ordering a pizza offers a better user experience than applying for a job.
“We can’t rely on reputation only,” said Richard Bunkham (right), an e-recruitment specialist at the elite university.
Part of the new approach involves “peer-to-peer recruitment marketing”, Bunkham said. Line managers at Oxford “have to be out in the market themselves”, contacting qualified peers and colleagues and seeking out fellow specialist talent to join their ranks, Bunkham told in-house recruiters at last week’s SRTech13 gathering.
Further, line managers must be actively involved in recruitment, because “they know the jobs”, Bunkham went on to say.
A key change in how Oxford recruits is the new ease with which candidates can contact line managers during the recruitment process with questions. “It used to be difficult for candidates to contact anyone,” Bunkham said.
Line managers must supply at least their email addresses and sometimes phone numbers so that they can be easily contacted.
Recruitment campaigns are now actively monitored throughout while they are open, so that they can be proactively adapted to meet high or low volumes or otherwise adjusted to deal with other factors arising, Bunkham said.
One challenge is that Oxford has no centralised recruitment budget, Bunkham acknowledged. Instead, the recruitment budgets are devolved to department level. At the same time, the new approach to recruitment has led to a £500k savings for the university.
Attended by Recruiter, the SRTech13 event also saw one recruitment consulting specialist claim that ordering a pizza offers a better user experience than applying for a job.
