Due to shortage on the labour market, UM hasn’t been able to fill anyway near all vacancies. And that at a time when there is money – also in the form of starters’ and stimulation grants – to employ extra people.
In 2022 there were about 750 vacancies at UM, more than half for administrative and support staff. At the moment not all of those have been filled. Exactly how many is not known, but it is clear that the university has spent 8.8 million euro less on staff than was budgeted. This was not because of measures to cut costs, but because of a lack of suitable candidates, as appeared during a University Council operational management committee meeting.
For 2023 UM is aiming for roughly 300 FTEs (full-time equivalent) extra. Whether this is feasible with the shortage on the labour market, is the question.
LinkedIn
A new agency as well as a new recruitment strategy should - ultimately - get the job done. The process is headed by Joëll Augustin, head of Connect and Recruit. His team of labour market specialists (a total of 5 FTEs, including himself) will officially start working in February. They will focus on things such as “sourcing”, which means that they will actively search for suitable candidates on platforms such as LinkedIn; people who may not be looking for a job at that time, but who would be willing to transfer if the offer was right. “Suppose we are looking for someone in IT. We will then look to see what can be found in the region and of those who would be suitable for UM. We subsequently make contact and carry out initial explorative talks. For administrative and support staff positions we mainly search in the region because those people are often less inclined to move. In the case of academic staff, we are more likely to search worldwide.”
Sourcer
This concerns active recruitment, Augustin emphasises, the initiative lies with the university and not, as is the more traditional way via advertisements, with those looking for a job. This work is similar to that of headhunters, were it not for the fact that the latter focus mainly on “the management positions; for the highly trained with exclusive skills,” while a “sourcer” goes looking for the positions below that.
It is important to discover which platforms are useful for particular types of jobs. “Do you put a secretarial job on academic transfer? Or would suitable candidates not look there and should you focus on Banenrijk Limburg for this kind of position? Also, if we need an engineer (academic staff), should we focus on Nature Jobs or the job site Research Gate?”
Once you have targeted someone, the question is which UM assets should you bring to the attention of the potential new employee? “The present generation Z greatly values a good balance between work and private life, the atmosphere at work and the content of their job. They find such things more important than their salary. At UM we have parental leave, partner leave, relatively many holidays. That is what you should let people know.”
Benefit
In addition to the ‘new way of searching’ - “this is the way to win the world” - Augustin and his team also want to set up an “Applicant Tracking System”. “At the moment we don’t know which vacancies have already been filled, how many suitable candidates there were and who eventually got the job. This system would allow us to follow an applicant and see if he/she has been invited for an interview, gets through the first round, et cetera. The person in charge can have a complete overview with just one push of a key.” Also: “Imagine you have four good candidates for a position that every faculty or service centre has. Like someone from IT, a communication officer, or a secretary. You appoint one, the other three can be put in a pool to be approached when a vacancy comes up somewhere else. We can benefit from this by dealing with it centrally.” He mentions a few figures: in 2022 there were 83 IT-related vacancies, 200 administrative ones and 37 for management assistants.
Utopia
When will he be satisfied? “If the organisation is sorted and I have insight into the data by the end of 2023. It is a utopia to think that we can fill all vacancies by then. Not in the last place because we have received extra money for extra personnel on a labour market suffering with shortages.”
500-euro bonus
Last but not least: the 500-euro bonus regulation for employees who bring in a new colleague, will continue to exist, says Augustin. “Since the start of the regulation, June 2022, forty-one candidates were put forward, eighteen of them were appointed. Not everyone has gone through their two-month probationary period, which is when you receive the bonus. We must definitely get more out of our own network. That is why it is important that we make better use of our relations with alumni and students.”