All Schools and Departments are equally affected, including our European sites.

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1 Last updated: RESOURCING / Strategic Review of Vacant and Replacement Posts Information for Managers 1. Introduction With effect from 1 st July 2018 the recruitment authorisation process is set to be revised for a fixed 9 month period to allow for a temporary and deliberate slowdown of all recruitment operations across the University. From 1 st July 2018 for the duration of the review period, new vacancies will be put on hold and managers are being asked to re-evaluate and re-assess their needs and consider alternative arrangements to ensure that essential processes and services can continue. The reason for the temporary pause in recruitment is due to our current financial context. The inability to increase student fees and increases in our own cost base mean that the University will need to make sustainable savings over the next 3 years. It is clear that Schools and Departments cannot deliver the required savings this year from recurrent activities and we therefore need to take considered look at how we can balance our ongoing fixed costs and/or increase our level of net income over the next years. This will include reviewing our major areas of spend including embedded organisational costs. In order to do this in a measured way, and to engage with stakeholders, the University is implementing this temporary slowdown in recruitment. This will enable us to balance our finances over the next year and enable the University to continue to make important strategic investments. During this temporary period, there is an opportunity for managers and senior managers to better understand key drivers for recruitment and any particular recruitment patterns that need to be taken into account in reviewing how we might reduce our embedded costs into the future. When a vacancy arises, managers should take the opportunity to re-evaluate and re-assess their needs and consider alternatives to managing the work without having to recruit. This may mean making alternative arrangements to either continue to deliver the services in question, or lowering service standards where this is attainable. This period of temporary slowdown is also an opportunity for managers to trial new ways of working with a view to delivering sustainable savings into the future. 2. Scope of the Review With the exception of the posts listed in section 2.1, and from 1 st July 2018 ALL newly vacant and replacement posts are within scope of the Review process. This includes all open ended, fixed term (including extensions) and temporary posts/vacancies (including HPLs and timesheet staff 1 ). The review also applies to recruitment via the Direct Hire and Single Person Appointment processes. All Schools and Departments are equally affected, including our European sites. 1 If a School or Department has a specific budget and budget line for the use of temporary agency staff, these will not be affected by the review. The School or Department will however not be able to exceed spend on the budget line. If there is no explicit budgetary line, the School or Department will not be able to hire temporary agency staff. Page 1 of 6

2 2.1. Exceptions The only vacancies that are out of scope and can continue to be recruited to during the Review period without having to be considered by the relevant Review Group are as follows: Roles specifically ring fenced for students (i.e. Student Ambassadors, GTAs, GSTSS and internships); Externally funded positions (i.e. Research and KTPs) Posts funded from Internal Faculty Research Funds Posts funded from the 2018/19 Strategic Investment Fund that have already been authorised. This includes vacant posts arising from STEERS. Commercial Services Cleaners 2 Maternity Leave cover - only where the cover requested is for no longer than the maternity leave period and it can be funded by the budget for the post. Any backfill resulting from internal recruitment into a KentVision vacancy (including along the chain where necessary) In-budget contract extensions with a cost of less than 1,000 Recruitment to these roles can continue as normal. Managers can submit a request for a particular vacancy to be exempted from the Review process (see Management Led Exception Request process below). Such requests should only be considered after an evaluation has taken place of alternative ways to deliver the service and it is found that not recruiting to a vacancy will result in the failure of a major business process or essential service that would have a significant and detrimental impact on the University s ability to operate and expose it to serious risks. 3. Review Process 3.1 Vacancy Review Groups and Membership Two Vacancy Review Groups will operate from 1 st July 2018 to review all vacancies within their remit. One group will focus on academic vacancies and one on Professional Services vacancies. Academic Vacancy Review Group members: Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, David Nightingale (Chair) Dean of Humanities, Simon Kirchin Dean of Social Sciences, John Wightman Dean of Sciences, Mark Burchell Professional Services Vacancy Review Group members: Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer, Denise Everitt (Chair) Director of Finance, Jane Higham Mark Ellis, Assistant Director, University Operations Support 3.2 Operation Both groups will review all current vacancies in their remit. In order to do so, any new vacancy (including HPL and timesheet vacancies) which under normal circumstances would have been recruited for needs to be registered. This should be done by the completion of the Exemption Request Form and submitting it to the relevant Resourcing Adviser / Commercial Services HR / Estates HR. 2 This is due to volume, turnover and impact factors. Commercial Services are also subject to an additional savings target. Page 2 of 6

3 3.3. Management Led Exemption Requests Directors of PSD Departments and Faculty Deans will assess whether a particular vacancy from their part of the organisation meets the criteria for exemption (i.e. a failure to recruit will result in the failure of a major business process or essential service that would have a significant and detrimental impact on the University s ability to operate and expose it to serious risks). Directors and Faculty Deans will only carry out this assessment on the basis of a request from the relevant hiring manager. The manager will need to have made an initial assessment as to whether alternative arrangements could be made (including temporarily lowering the service standards) and how any risks to the organisation could be mitigated against. The relevant Director or Faculty Dean then has the option to ask the relevant Vacancy Review Group to exempt the vacancy in question from the general review. Vacancies that are supported by Directors or Deans will be considered at the Vacancy Review Group. For a vacancy to be considered, an Exemption Request Form will need to be submitted to HR. This form replaces the current online recruitment authorisation via i-grasp during this period The Exemption Request Form and an up to date, agreed and evaluated Job Description (JD) must be submitted by to the relevant Resourcing Adviser / Estates HR / Commercial Services HR. If the request is for submission to the Professional Services Review Group a departmental organisation chart showing your current admin structure should also be submitted All submissions will be collated by the Resourcing / Estates HR / Commercial Services HR team (as appropriate) and submitted via i-grasp. The system will be used for authorisations (including the usual financial sign off), before going to the Strategic Review panel for final approval In such cases the Review Groups have a number of decision options: Approve the immediate recruitment as proposed; Approve the recruitment with conditions (e.g. recruit at Lecturer level rather than Senior Lecturer level; defer the date of the start of the recruitment process to a later date); Not approved (i.e. the recruitment process cannot commence during the Review period) For exemption requests considered by the Professional Services Review Group, there is no deadline for Strategic Review submissions as requests will be reviewed by the group once they are approved by the Finance Department. Regarding the Academic Review Group; the Resourcing team will collate all roles submitted for review that have been authorised on i-grasp by the Finance Department during the previous week. These will then be circulated to the group every Friday for final approval. The Academic Review Group aims to provide an outcome within 3 weeks of the Exemption Form being submitted. Once a decision has been reached you will be informed via . The Vacancy Review Group s decision in these cases are final and there is no appeal process. Only once agreement has been reached by the Vacancy Review Group, can the recruitment process commence. 4. Monitoring The number of exemption requests made to the Vacancy Review Groups along with the subsequent outcomes will be monitored by HR and Finance on an ongoing basis. This information along with a list of any registered on hold vacancies will be given to the Vacancy Review Groups. Page 3 of 6

4 Appendix 1 RESOURCING/ STRATEGIC REVIEW OF VACANT & REPLACEMENT POST EXEMPTION REQUEST FORM (V3.0) Once completed, the request form along with an up to date, agreed Job Description needs to be ed to your Resourcing Adviser / Estates HR / Commercial Services HR. For submissions to the Professional Services Review Group please also submit a departmental organisation chart showing your current admin structure. SUBMITTED BY Name: School/Dept: Position: Date: SUPPORTED BY (Head of Administration or Head of Department / Faculty Dean) Name: Supporting Comments: Position: Date: Section 1 to be completed by the Department / School POSITION INFORMATION Job Title: School/Dept: Grade and Spine Point: Contract (Fixed Term, Ongoing, temporary timesheet): Location: Salary: If fixed term or temporary, state end date & length of contract: Reason for Fixed Term (ie maternity leave cover, secondment; etc) Full or Part Time: If part time, state FTE and/hours per week and proposed working pattern: Number of Vacancies (FTE): Required start date: Line Manager s name and job title: Impact on School/Dept headcount: Increase No Change Page 4 of 6

5 REASON FOR APPLICATION Extension (DB501) Name of person requesting extension for: Salary of current post holder: Date current contract ends: New position Direct replacement - like for like replacement Name of person replacing and spinal point on grade: Replacement - reclassify a vacant position (within budget) Name of person replacing, job title and spinal point on grade: Fixed Term/Temporary Cover (Long term absence, incl. maternity, secondment, study leave, career break) Name of person covering and spinal point on grade: JUSTIFICATION FOR RECRUITMENT/EXTENSION Please state the basis on which the request should be approved: Please state the impact if not approved: Please explain what non-hiring alternatives have been considered and why these were not deemed viable? BUDGETARY INFORMATION Budget code for Pay: Account Cost Centre Job Site Code RECRUITMENT PROCESS TO BE USED Grades 1-10 process Academic: Professorial, Readership, Lecturer/Senior Lecturer process Single Person Appointment process Direct Hires process Timesheet / Temporary Staff (including Temp Bank) Please indicate if you have considered recruiting an Apprentice to this position? Yes will recruit apprentice Yes but role not suitable No Page 5 of 6

6 ADVERTISING CONSIDERATIONS Where would you like to advertise? Internal only or External? If external, where would you like to advertise (other than the University website / jobs.ac.uk) If external, contact name where advertising invoice to be sent Duration of advert / proposed closing date SHORTLISTING AND INTERVIEW PANEL DETAILS Shortlisting & interview panel names (requiring access to igrasp) Proposed shortlisting date: Proposed interview date: Section 2 Vacancy Review Group Decision Decision: Approval to commence as proposed Approval to commence with conditions (see summary of decision below) Not approved Reason for decision: Significant impact the operation of a major business process or essential service Significant impact on the levels of organisational risk No significant impact / risk on operations or strategic plan Summary of Decision (including any further consideration/rationale behind decision): Name of Review Group Chair: Date: Section 3 to be completed by the Resourcing Team for approved Vacancy IGrasp Reference Number Date entered onto IGrasp Date notified HR Systems Section 4 to be completed by the HR Systems Team for approved Vacancy Post already exist? If yes, post number Post Created Date created in Staff Connect Date Post number inputted onto igrasp Yes / No Yes / No Page 6 of 6