Higher education forfeit cost savings of e-recrutiment

A report published today reveals that 72% of UK Higher Education (HE) institutions do not measure their recruitment budgets whilst 48% do not measure the effectiveness of their recruitment advertising. Without an investment in IT infrastructure, staff training and a change in attitude, HE institutions will be unable to enjoy the significant savings offered by e-recruitment.

jobs.ac.uk, who commissioned the report for a conference today at The University of Warwick, warn that whilst 68% of institutions surveyed are using some e-recruitment methods, the sector is lacking a long-term strategic view of recruitment both on and offline.

As HE budgets become increasingly tight, this picture could have severe consequences for the sector in the future. In a global HE marketplace, cost-effective and engaging recruitment advertising ñ in print and on the Web - will be essential for recruiting the best staff. These staff go on to secure high research ratings which in turn attract high caliber students especially from the lucrative overseas student markets. As universities come under increasing pressure to improve their competitiveness, their ability to attract star employees will become a key battleground for many institutions.

Andrew Gordon, director at jobs.ac.uk urges the sector to take action: ìHE institutions have responded innovatively to the challenges they face but future progress could be stalled if the sector does not develop a clear recruitment strategy. The sector needs to keep up with new recruitment techniques used in the commercial world or risk missing out on the best candidates. HE institutions must secure the best staff in order to attract students from the UK and from abroad.

ìE-recruitment and online advertising are useful tools to improve efficiencies. We do not recommend using online recruitment advertising methods in isolation, but rather as part of an overall, targeted recruitment strategy that can be measured for its effectiveness. One straightforward thing each institution could do is to start measuring the effectiveness of its advertising. This can simply be done by asking candidates where they saw the job advert and then only advertising in those media that actually attract candidates.î

48% of HE institutions did not monitor the effectiveness and cost of recruitment methods, and a further 9% of the institutions that did, did not analyse the information for strategic purposes.

Attracting the best candidates was the most frequently identified challenge for HE Institutions (31% of those interviewed), and 15% stated keeping up to date with the necessary legislation such as equal opportunities as the biggest challenge.

Eddie Procter, recruitment manager at the University of Bristol who was interviewed for the report says: ìPeople are increasingly using the web for finding all sorts of information, including searching for jobs. To help ensure that we remain able to attract the best candidates for our research vacancies we have moved away from print advertising and developed a recruitment advertising strategy that optimises the latest developments in web based recruitment.

ìThis approach has proved to be a much more cost-effective method to reach our target audience in more innovative ways. It has also enabled us to be more informed and pro-active in how we spend our advertising budget.î

jobs.ac.uk have organised todayís conference at the University of Warwick to demystify online recruitment amongst the HE sector, identify the challenges HE recruiters face in planning their future recruitment and share best practice, ideas and experiences. The conference will advise institutions how they can get more value for money from their advertising and take advantage of the potential cost savings and improved efficiencies of e-recruitment.

jobs.ac.uk, the leading jobs board in research, science and academic related professions commissioned the report with AdsFab - the advertising agency owned by the UAG set up to serve the HE sector. The research was carried out by independent market research company QUAD research and 91 UK HE Institutions answered questionnaires over the telephone, online or through face-to-face interviews.

Electronic and hard copies of the report ëTowards an E-recruitment Strategy for Higher Educationí are available at
www.towardserecruitment.co.uk or by calling 024 7657 4064.