University of St Andrews

Once the panel has reached an appointment decision, the Convenor should make a verbal offer to the successful candidate.  The discussion with the candidate should result in agreement in principle on salary and start date and cover any other arrangements that need to be taken into consideration.

Please note that this is for appointment at grades 6, 7 or 8 posts only as the Principal's Office panel member will discuss offer details with grade 9 candidates.

Once the candidate verbally accepts the offer, the Convenor should complete a Details of Appointment Form (Word, 236 KB) and submit this to the Recruitment team to allow them to draw up the formal, written offer.  This will also act as a trigger for HR to request references (which will be a condition of the offer). The Details of Appointment form (DoA) should also record any candidates to be held in reserve (see Dealing with unsuccessful candidates section below).

Please allow a minimum of 14 working days between receipt of the DoA and the start date of the candidate.  HR will endeavour to issue the formal offer as soon as possible but the Details of Appointment form (DoA) will be in a queue of offers to be issued, ordered by start date and there is no guarantee that they will be able to turn it round to meet an earlier start date.  This timeline gives the team time to:

• gather salary details and seek approval (when starting above the bottom point of the scale)
• obtain pre Right to Work information for visa purposes
• check the funding situation with Finance now a firm salary has been agreed (for externally funded posts)  

This also gives the candidate time to read and return their signed paperwork and to serve their notice period. 

HR will initiate the visa process for candidates who do not have the right to work in the UK once the Details of Appointment form (DoA) has been received. Please note that the preferred start date may need to be altered if there are delays in obtaining the visa.

If the panel wishes to appoint a candidate who will be wholly or largely based overseas, the Convenor must consult the Overseas Procedure and discuss with the Overseas team prior to making an offer.

In those instances where the recruitment exercise has resulted in an exceptional field of candidates, it may be possible to make more than one appointment to a singly advertised post.  However, this must be discussed with and agreed by the Quaestor (for internally funded posts) and Finance (for externally funded posts) prior to making a verbal offer to candidates.  The most likely grounds for additional offers will be:

• succession planning
• to plug a further short term gap in service provision
• ability to fast track longer term plans due to the second candidate’s experience     

If the Quaestor approves an additional appointment, then a separate Details of Appointment Form (Word, 236 KB) should be submitted to the Recruitment team along with the Quaestor’s written approval.

In those instances where there a second and identical post has become available due to a staff resignation, you may make an additional offer once HR have confirmed that the post forms part of your budgeted staffing complement.  

If you wish to appoint an internal candidate to a fixed term post (of up to two years), then you may consider offering the job as a secondment.  In most cases, the post would have been advertised as a potential for secondment but the final appointment will be subject to some caveats as outlined in the secondment policy and will require the full agreement of the employee, the outgoing line manager and the new line manager. 

Secondments will normally be between 3 and 24 months but where a secondment is for more than 12 months initially, or is extended to more than 12 months in total, the University reserves the right to place the employee in a different role on their return (but at the same grade and equivalent job type). 

Please consult the secondment policy for full details. 

In line with the University’s commitment to equal pay principles, most new starts are expected to be placed on the bottom point of the grade for the job.  However, appointment higher up the scale will be considered for those candidates in receipt of a salary and benefits package above the starting point combined with, or as a result of, significant experience, knowledge and skills beyond the essential criteria of the post. Justification should be made in the Details of Appointment Form (Word, 236 KB) and HR will seek evidence to support any such request (eg copy of recent payslip). Please refer to the University’s Starting Salary policy for further details.

For grade 9 roles, salary negotiations will be conducted by the Principal's Office representative on the panel and confirmed directly with HR to allow them to issue the offer.

If the new role is a higher grade than the employee’s current role, they should be placed on the bottom point of the new role’s grade.

If the new role is a lower grade than the employee’s current role, they should be placed on the top non-discretionary point of the new role’s grade. The discretionary points are shaded in grey on the the salary scale eg for grade 6, the non-discretionary points are 30-36 with the discretionary points being 37-38. 

If the new role is at the same grade as the employee’s current role, they should be placed on the same point ie moved directly across. 

As soon as a verbal offer has been accepted by the successful candidate, the Convenor should let any internal shortlisted candidates know that they have been unsuccessful. 

It is good practice, if more than one candidate is appointable, to hold a second candidate in reserve in the event that the first choice does not work out (the offer may be declined, your preferred candidate’s circumstances change after they have accepted the offer or they leave within a few months of taking up post).  Any reserve candidate will remain ‘live’ for six months following the date of the interview and will receive a system generated email updating them to this effect.   

HR will regret all other candidates (including formally notifying the unsuccessful internal candidates) via the e-recruitment system at this point.  It is very likely that candidates unsuccessful at interview will request feedback and this remains the responsibility of the Convenor. 

To ensure a positive candidate journey following completion of interviews, conveners must ensure they have made a decision or provide an update to all interviewed candidates either directly or via the recruitment team within a maximum of 7 days following completion of their interview.

HR will regret all other candidates (including formally notifying the unsuccessful internal candidates) via the e-recruitment system at this point.  It is very likely that candidates unsuccessful at interview will request feedback and this remains the responsibility of the Convenor. 

If the panel is unable to make an appointment following interview, or the preferred candidate declines the offer and there is no suitable reserve, the Convenor should let any internal shortlisted candidates know that they have been unsuccessful and then update the Recruitment team who will formally regret all candidates via the e-recruitment system. 

The School should consider next steps which may include:

• a straightforward and immediate readvertisement
• a delayed readvertisement
• advertising a different post (changes to grade or remit) following discussion with the School/Unit, Finance (if externally funded) and the Quaestor/Master/Vice Principal responsible for the area
• a decision not to recruit to the post at all

HR will contact the Head of School/Unit within four months of the initial interviews to check if the post is still required if no update has been received in the interim.