Client Case Study – Edinburgh Napier University

Project Overview

We completed a 6-month project with Edinburgh Napier University designed to clear the backlog, share important market research and to support the Internal Resourcing team in moving forward with reduced agency reliance and spend. Outsourcing this piece of work allowed ENU Stakeholders to focus on their core business objectives, safe in the knowledge their strategic hiring plans were being met. The end solution enabled the client to attract niche technology talent that they previously would not have been able to.

 

Testimonial, Claire Taylor, Director of Information Services

“From our early discussions (which were not expected to lead to a formal engagement), I have found the team at Hamilton Forth to be informed, energetic and authentic professionals. The Account Director has become a trusted advisor, sometimes challenging, sometimes pushing us along at a pace we need to adopt, and always with openness, humour and our best interests at heart. We have changed the way we set out our employee value proposition to attract and retain talent, which has been very successful of late, with Hamilton Forth at our back bringing candidates forward. The small, specialist team form a very human force for good in the challenging works of recruitment”.

 

The Context

• Edinburgh Napier is an award-winning modern University. Like many Universities, they are undergoing huge transformation on how they operate following the pandemic and are investing heavily in a digital transformation across the organisation driven by their Information Services Group
• As one of the largest professional services departments in the University, Information Services is responsible for the provision of technology, systems and library services. Information services underpins all aspects of University operations and provide key enablers to deliver the ambitious University strategies for Learning & Teaching, Research & Innovation and Internationalisation. Key to the success of this transformational programme was hiring first-class talent to deliver this work
• Like many public sector organisations over the past 18 months, Edinburgh Napier lost technology staff to high paying private sector organisations that could offer significant increases in pay and remote working. They were also finding it difficult to attract top talent to replace these leavers as well as build out the new team as well.  Following a conversation with their Director of Information Services and Head of Resourcing, Hamilton Forth offered a solution that would ensure they would not be left behind

 

Our Solution

Hamilton Forth allocated an Edinburgh Napier Account Team led by an Account Director to develop a solution that would tackle the main challenges that the IS Group faced.

Creating an IS Group Employer Value Proposition: Working with the Director of IS, we designed an IS career landing page, highlighting the benefits of joining the team. We redesigned role profiles to help tell the story and produced and broadcasted video content to engage with new talent, including interviews for greater social media presence.

Desk Based Research: For each role, Hamilton Forth mapped the market using our Research team. This enabled us to headhunt appropriate passive candidates rather than relying on the university careers page.

Identifying the Ideal Employee: Hamilton Forth approaches were centred on defining the values, attitudes and behaviours the University required with the aspirations and experience candidates were seeking.

Providing a First-class Candidate Journey: Hamilton Forth worked with the leadership team and HR to streamline lengthy processes to ensure the best talent was not snapped up in this busy market.

 

Value

The end solution enabled the client and their stakeholders to attract new talent across the team.

A selection of successful appointments included:

• Head of PMO
• Corporate Systems Manager
• IT Business Change Consultant
• Test Manager
• Workspace Technology Engineer
• Senior Linux Systems Administrator
• Learning Technology Support Manager

 

Outcomes

✓ Access to passive candidates, networks and databases

✓ Quality Hires

✓ Backlog of open roles cleared

✓ Access to IT Market Information

✓ Enriched Brand through EVP strategy

✓ Improved Candidate Experience

✓ Excellent employee engagement from the moment of hire

✓ Increased strategic focus from liberated IS hiring managers and Talent Team

✓ Increased new hire / employee retention

✓ Ensured compliance and reduced risk

✓ Preparation for the future through market mapping and deep talent pools

✓ Improved time to fill cycles and reduced employee turnover which can produce large savings

✓ Quality conversations in market about Higher Education employment and working at ENU

✓ Freedom to focus on strategic imperatives with full confidence that tech talent acquisition needs are being met

✓ Longer term savings on recruitment agency spend

 

Get in Touch with our Specialists

Our Purpose is to advise and support people and organisations to realise their potential so that together we can impact lives and communities for the better.

Get in touch with our team for support with your technology recruitment needs:

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T: 0131 285 4309 / 0141 370 4701