Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
LBU Together
How values-aligned recruitment can benefit leaders
We caught up with Leon Etherington, Director of IT Services to hear more about his experience of using values-aligned recruitment for key senior leadership team vacancies, and how this is attracting top candidates to Leeds Beckett.
Why now?
Implementing the IT transformation programme, we want the whole service to be grounded in a values-led approach. The LBU values connect very well into this approach, together with the importance of colleague wellbeing and leading us through change. We have a clear vision of how we want the IT Services digital change programme to be delivered, and the values gives us a framework within which to operate. They help to manage people's expectations, manage performance, they really clarify what matters - right from new colleagues to team members with longer service.What changes did you make?
For our senior IT recruitment roles, we worked with HR to weave the values and the connected LBU Leader behaviours into a new candidate brief and person specification. We also used the language in the job advert. HR provided us with a values-aligned question bank for the interviews, and candidates also attended a more informal staff panel as an opportunity to meet some of the team and ask questions (as well as a main interview panel and presentation).What was the impact of the changes?
The format of the new-look candidate brief was fantastic, and feedback from the recruitment agencies we partnered with said it had helped them to effectively recruit. Because the values were embedded into the person specifications, every candidate referenced them in their interview. This helped the selection panel assess the candidates because the attributes and behaviours connected to the values were at forefront of our minds.LBU Leader supports behaviour change. During our recruitment campaign it provided a framework to recruit leaders who understand our expectations and demonstrate our values.