Guidance Notes on the Recruitment & Selection Policy - Waiver of Advertising

Content

• Purpose
• Scope
• Procedure
• Monitoring and Review 

Purpose

1. This note provides guidance to Deans and others on the process to be followed when seeking approval for waiving of advertising as outlined in the Recruitment & Selection Policy. 

Scope

2. The waiver applies to Professorial level appointments only.

Procedure

3. The Provost will consider requests from the relevant Dean to waive advertising of Professorial posts.

4. Such requests should be made to the Provost by directing a case to the relevant HR Business Partner who will record the request for monitoring purposes before forwarding it, on behalf of the Dean, to the Provost for consideration. The HR Business Partner will copy the Dean, the relevant Director of Operations and the Director of Academic Services into the request to the Provost.   

5. In making a request that the Provost waive advertising of a Professorial post, a Dean is required to evidence that:

• There are no redeployees who should be considered for the Professorial post (your relevant HR Business Partner will be able to assist);
• The candidate under consideration has unique internationally renowned expertise relevant to the achievement of Departmental and UCL strategic objectives which would bring exceptional benefits to the department or Faculty as a whole;
• Advertising the post would deter the candidate from applying for the post or would otherwise put the successful recruitment of the candidate at risk and/or a waiver of advertising in the particular case will assist UCL in meeting its equality targets;
• Consideration has been made of how the appointment may impact on Faculty progress towards UCL’s equality objectives and, if it would have a negative impact, how that impact may be mitigated by complementary strategies¹;
• The candidate already has the right to work in the UK or is eligible for an appropriate visa (e.g. the skilled workers visa or the global talent visa); and,
• The number of waivers already granted to the Faculty within the academic year (1 October – 30 September) has not exceeded more than 5% of the numbers of professors in the Faculty.

6. Subject to the Provost’s approval of the request all other processes within the recruitment and selection policy apply. As the usual online recruitment process will not be used for advertising purposes, the successful candidate’s details should be submitted through Departmental Transactions in MyHR, in the same manner as when appointing a named researcher on a grant. 

Monitoring and Review

7. This variation to the Recruitment and Selection policy will be subject to annual review.

8. The review will assess the number of waiver requests submitted and approved by Faculty and across UCL and whether the waiver process has had a significant impact on the achievement of equality targets or equal pay within Faculties and across UCL. The review will also assess the number of ‘waived’ appointments applying for immigration sponsorship. 

HR Employment Policy Team

August 2021