Information for managers about recruitment, Hiring external staff and posting a job.
Hiring stop on vacancies and stop on external hiring
The Executive Board (CvB) has decided to immediately (as of 10-07-2024) implement a hiring stop on vacancies funded by the first funding stream. This applies to both support and management staff (OBP) and academic staff (WP) vacancies.
All vacancies affected by the hiring stop include:
All new and vacant positions that need to be filled again, including contracts shorter than six months.
Extensions of existing contracts.
Converting temporary contracts to permanent ones.
Expansions of appointments.
Also, the Executive Board (CvB) has decided to immediately (as of 10-07-2024) implement a stop on the hiring of external professionals and organisations. The measure "stop on external hiring" means that from now on, NO new agreements or contracts may be made with external professionals and organisations.
External hiring includes the hiring of academic staff (WP) and support and management staff (OBP), as well as outsourced work. Only with approval from the Faculty Board (faculties), Scientific Director (Institute), or Service Director (Service) is the use of external resources still possible in exceptional cases.
Recruitment (also known as recruitment and selection) is the process of identifying, selecting and attracting the best qualified and available candidate (from within or outside the organisation) for a temporary or permanent vacancy. The following information explains the recruitment and selection process for Scientific Staff (WP) & Support Staff (OBP). Using guides, background information and tips & tricks to reach and appeal to the desired target group, this page supports executives in creating and filling a vacancy. To get an idea of how the vacancies are presented you should first take a look at our vacancy website.
Hiring office
Besides recruiting staff, the University of Twente also hires external support staff. This includes hiring freelancers or detached employees who are deployed on behalf of an external company. The Hiring Desk facilitates the hiring manager (client) in hiring support staff, supports the professional (contractor), and ensures compliance with procurement rules and obligations arising from the Deregulation of Assessment of Employment Relationship Act Deregulation Act.
Support staff are hired at various places across the University of Twente. University employees are the only ones authorised to request the hiring of support staff. In practice, the request will be made by a manager (referred to as ‘client’ below). To comply with the applicable laws and regulations and get a firmer grasp and a better overview of the total number of support staff hired, it has been decided that hiring will be centralised from 1 April 2023. To make this possible, the Hiring Office has been set up to assist clients wishing to hire support staff.
The Hiring Office can be contacted at inhuurdesk@utwente.nl, or by calling +31 (0)53-4897474.
READ MORE ABOUT THE REASON AND THE METHOD HERE
Support staff are hired at various places across the University of Twente. To facilitate you, as a client, with regard to hiring support staff, it has been decided to centralise all hiring of self-employed professionals (zzp’ers) and external staff through a company or staffing agency.
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This is necessary because: 1. a firmer grasp on the hiring of support staff is needed; 2. legal and tax risks need to be reduced; 3. the quality of the hiring process needs to be improved.
When hiring support staff through a company or staffing agency or hiring self-employed professionals, the University of Twente is required to meet two conditions: 1. Compliance with tendering rules;* 2. Compliance with the obligations under the Assessment of Employment Relationships (Deregulation) Act (DBA).**
To meet these conditions, the University of Twente has decided to work with a broker (OneStopSourcing). The broker is the link between the University of Twente and the self-employed professional or external staff through a company or staffing agency. OneStopSourcing facilitates with regard to drawing up the contract, ensures that it is fully compliant with the applicable laws and regulations, ensures the contract is performed and takes care of invoicing. Every hiring contract for support staff will be arranged through OneStopSourcing.
For tenders valued at >€70,000, 3 tenders must be invited.
Tenders valued at >€215,000 must be put out to European tender.
If you want a particular task to be performed by a self-employed professional, it is necessary to determine in advance whether a bogus or sham employment relationship exists. A quick check of whether or not a bogus or sham employment relationship exists:
Does a relationship of authority exist between the University of Twente and the contractor? If not, the work can be carried out by the contractor.
Free replacement of the executing contractor is possible.
The benefits of the Hiring Office to you: 1. A single point of contact for all hiring matters; 2. reduced administrative tasks; 3. possibility to suggest your own network candidate to the Hiring Office and choose which of the candidates proposed should carry out the assignment; 4. lawfulness of tendering (non-discrimination (by nationality), equal treatment (objectivity), transparency, proportionality), thereby avoiding fines; 5. checking for false or bogus self-employment of a self-employed professional.
Temporary staff up to and including scale 9; this will be arranged by the Driessen employment agency.
Temporary academic staff; this will be arranged by the unit’s HR department.
Temporary ICT staff; this will be arranged by our own ICT broker Pro-Act.
Student jobs and student assistants (for more information, see UT studentenbanen.
Outsourcing and hiring personnel are two different ways in which the University of Twente can deploy external resources to achieve its goals. The main differences between these two ways of utilizing external resources are:
Outsourcing
A external service provider or company (contractor) is engaged in performing a specific task or project that cannot be carried out by an employee of University of Twente;
Period of activities is delimited;
The deliverable is specified;
Costs are agreed upon prior to the assignment (quotation);
The University of Twente remains responsible for the specific task or project;
The responsibility and method of execution of the specific task or project lie with the contractor:
The contractor, specialized in performing specific tasks, takes responsibility for the execution of the work;
The University of Twente outsources and is ultimately responsible for the result, but the execution is in the hands of the contractor;
Outsourcing of work is temporary or project-based, and the University of Twente pays a fixed rate or costs based on the performed activities.
Examples of outsourcing
Facility services for buildings;
Landscaping;
Occupational health and safety services;
Result obligated outsourcing such as legal advice from a law firm;
Deployment of experts based on a legal obligation such as bailiffs or reintegration companies.
Hiring Personnel
Hiring an independent professional without employees (freelancer);
Hiring a seconded employee through a staffing agency;
Hired personnel is used when, for example, temporary additional capacity is needed or when specific expertise is desired for the execution of tasks;
Hired personnel works directly for the University of Twente;
Hired personnel is part of a team and falls under supervision of a manager;
Agreements are made in advance regarding the hourly rate, the period of activities and the number of hours of deployment:
The University of Twente hires external personnel;
External personnel submits monthly invoices for worked hours;
The University of Twente pays external personnel based on the worked hours x the agreed upon hourly rate.
Examples of hiring personnel
English language lecturer;
Financial system consultant;
Communication coach.
In summary, the nature of the tasks or services determines whether it involves outsourcing or hiring personnel.
The Hiring Office should be used when you want to hire a self-employed professional or staff through a company or staffing agency for an assignment/position from scale 9 onwards. This applies with the exception of hiring sports and culture teaching staff in scale 8, which is arranged through the Hiring Office!
Before using the services of the Hiring Office, the client first discusses the hiring requirements with the unit’s HR department. The HR adviser is consulted to determine the most appropriate and effective way of meeting the hiring requirements. The options can range from temporary employment at the University of Twente to hiring through the Hiring Office.
If the talks with the HR adviser indicate that hiring through the Hiring Office is the appropriate solution, you can submit your request to the Hiring Office.
What are the steps when using the Hiring Office?
Step 1. Hiring requirements You, as a client, have hiring requirements for a temporary assignment where you want to hire a self-employed professional or staff through a company or staffing agency. Always discuss this first with the HR department of the unit where you work. Consult with an HR adviser to determine the right job profile and level. This can include sharing ideas about an appropriate university job profile, working level and duration of the assignment. The hourly rate for a self-employed professional is determined by the university job profile and the corresponding salary scale, and is converted to an hourly rate using a conversion formula.
Once all the relevant details have been decided on, you fill in the request form.
Step 2. Three-way meeting After receipt of the request form, a ‘three-way meeting’ is scheduled at the earliest opportunity between the client, OneStopSourcing and the Hiring Office. During this meeting, any areas of uncertainty are discussed, the timetable is set and the number of expected candidates is determined. The client can also propose network candidates*.
*(a network candidate is a company, staffing agency or self-employed professional you know or have had positive experience with in the past).
Step 3. Search Based on the outcome of the three-way meeting, OneStopSourcing will conduct an active search for the right external professional or professionals for the assignment. They select and recruit the most suitable candidates. The Hiring Office ensures that the details of these candidates are forwarded to the client.
Step 4. Interviews The client conducts the interviews with the candidates proposed.
Step 5. Choice of candidate Based on the interviews, a choice of candidate is made. The Hiring Office is informed of this choice. It is important that the client sets out the grounds for the selection of the successful candidate and the reasons for rejecting the other candidates. OneStopSourcing informs all the candidates of the outcome.
Step 6. Contracting The candidate is screened by OneStopSourcing prior to the commencement of work. In the case of extended screening, however, the screening is always conducted through the Hiring Office. Given a positive result from the screening process and financial approval, OneStopSourcing can proceed to the contracting stage.
Step 7. Registration in AFAS To enable the candidate to use the University’s facilities (access to buildings, coffee machine, printer, etc.), they are registered as a guest in the AFAS HR system. This registration is handled by the HR department of the client’s unit.
Step 8. Approval of hours After registration and contracting, the candidate can begin working. The candidate will register the hours worked in Proactis. These hours are approved by the client through the Approval Portal. Based on the approved hours, OneStopSourcing prepares a monthly invoice, stating the work order number shown on the request form.
If you have hiring requirements, please fill in the request form;
Establish the appropriate job profile and level. This should include thinking about an appropriate UFO profile, the level of work and the duration of the appointment. Using the job level matrix on the UFO page of Universities of the Netherlands, a salary scale can then be found. HR can support you on this matter.
SCREENING
Determine in advance whether screening is necessary using the screening tool and manual to know whether an assessment needs to be part of the selection procedure.
Careful and transparent recruitment and selection is achieved, among other things, through the screening policy. The starting point for the screening policy is the standard that every recruitment and selection procedure is screened, regardless of the position. Before appointing an employee, HR requests the following information from the candidate: a copy of the candidate's diploma, a certificate of good conduct and a declaration of integrity (based on the UT Code of Integrity). These documents are kept in the personnel file. In addition, the supervisor requests references and tests how the candidate presents themself on the Internet. In particular, a number of positions have been rated as vulnerable positions. Here a heavier screening will apply.
LANGUAGE POLICY
Research has shown that candidates search for vacancies in their own language. As a result, it is advised that vacancies for OBP should not be entirely in English. For OBP vacancies, it is advised to look at the search behaviour of the target group. The advice for OBP vacancies is to draw up a text in Dutch. WP vacancies are drawn up in English (with the exception of some vacancies at BMS/ELAN).
The desired level of English and Dutch should always be included in the vacancy text.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In addition, you need to determine what information applicants should send with their applications and how long the position will remain open.
You will also need to determine which committee members will participate in the BAC and thus need access to the applicant informations. Requirements for a BAC or application committee may vary by type of position.
To make the recruitment process as efficient as possible, we request that you submit a comprehensive vacancy text as completely as possible to the HR assistant of your organisational unit. You can do this using one of the vacancy templates and in consultation with the HR adviser of your organisational unit.
On our career website, we give a general impression of what it is like to work at our university (employer branding) for both academic staff and support positions. On the vacancy page there is the possibility to address the potential applicant in a more personal way and to mention the important aspects (pull factors) for this target group in choosing a (new) employer. In addition, we strongly advise the vacancy text includes the most important terms of employment (except salary) for the intended target group.
Below are some examples of key pull factors (reasons for a target group to choose a job or employer) and terms of employment for academic staff. For a detailed and/or more extensive target group report (information about the interests of the target audience, what websites they use in their job search and such). You can contact your HR assistant or recruitment@utwente.nl.
You can find vacancy templates on this page below.
On our career website we give a general impression of what it is like to work at our university (employer branding) for both academic staff and support positions. On the vacancy page there is the possibility to address the potential applicant in a more personal way and to mention the important aspects (pull factors) for this target group in choosing a (new) employer. In addition, we strongly advise the vacancy tekst to include the most important terms of employment (except salary) for the intended target group.
Below are some examples of key pull factors (reasons for a target group to choose a job or employer) and terms of employment for support staff. For a detailed and/or more extensive target group report (information about the interests of the target audience, what websites they use in their job search and such). You can contact your HR assistant or recruitment@utwente.nl.
You can find vacancy templates on this page below.
TEXTIO - HELPS IMPROVE JOB POSTINGS
Textio has developed the world's most advanced workplace language guidance so you can see where social biases are hiding - and know exactly how to fix it. Available to all UT employees;
Based on analysis data from 10,000,000 job postings per month + application data
Advice on word choice and form, not content
Recognizes male and female words and provides rating & suggestions
Higher score leads to more, better applicants who apply faster (shorter time to hire)
Sample job texts are also available in the Textio application to get you started. In addition, HR can also provide support in drafting good job postings and adding the right terms of employment and pull factors.
The vacancy template is placed in the AFAS job posting system by the HR assistant. After which it is published on the UT careers website.
PUBLICATION
Internal vacancies (often the first week of publication) are only visible to UT employees by logging into the vacancy overview page. External vacancies also become visible online on platforms outside the UT career website.
To maximise reach, UT also relies on ambassadors. Via LinkedIn you can share the vacancy with your network. In addition, it is possible to set up a paid campaign; HR can help determine the appropriate channels, duration, budget, etc.
MY HR
Via the Recruitment tab in the AFAS insite environment you will find the Applicant portal. You can manage this yourself, if applicable your secretary also has access to it. All the candidates will be entered into this environment, where they can be assessed and selected applicants can be invited for a first round of interviews.
An invitation email can be sent directly through the vacancy system (by your secretary or the secretary of your department/department) via the appropriate action linked to an email template.
Applicants are rejected by the chairperson through AFAS, after which the HR assistant definitively rejects them and sends the corresponding email.
The same applies to a second/third round of interviews.
Please note that candidates should be notified within two weeks of the closing of the vacancy!
To prepare for the job interview, several resources can come in handy, including:
When you (with the selection committee) have decided to proceed with the appointment of an employee, you inform the HR assistant. The HR assistant makes an appointment for an employment interview with the candidate (possibly with you).
Onboarding
Finally, the HR assistant can enter the appointment request for this new employee in MyHR (AFAS). The pre-boarding is then initiated (digitally). The New Employees Service Portal provides the employee with all kinds of information such as a handy 'My first 100 days at UT' timeline and the employee is invited to an UT introductory meeting.
All vacancies and applicants are processed through AFAS Recruitment. This an additional module belonging to the AFAS HR & Payroll package we already use. Like MY HR, the recruitment section can be accessed through the staff portal and myhr.utwente.nl.
At the University of Twente, we are working behind the scenes to implement optimization steps in AFAS. You can monitor progress and suggest opportunities within the MyHR portal. View our implemented optimizations
NVP recruitment code
When recruiting, the University of Twente acts in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) for Dutch Universities and in accordance with the applicable (inter)national laws and regulations and in accordance with the NVP Job Application Code. The code focuses on transparency and fair recruitment and selection.
Our Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is as a promise between UT and a potential applicant and/or employee. What can our university and culture offer them, in exchange for their talent, skills, and experience.
EVP (short version)
'The University of Twente (UT) brings people and technology together in the best possible ways. Whoever you are and whatever your talents, ambitions and personal interests are, at UT, we aim to appreciate you, challenge you, and encourage you to flourish. Join the ‘High Tech Human Touch’ university and shape new opportunities for our university and our society.'
For ideas, comments or modifications to this page, please email webteam-hr@utwente.nl.
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