Ellie Bevis
Development Manager
The Staff College
The Staff College Process of Allocating Work to Associates
We’ve had a few questions recently about how we allocate work across the College, so our Development Manager, Ellie Bevis, has written a short piece explaining how we decide who will undertake work and what might be involved. We hope it’s a way to get a clearer picture of how we all work together, including with our commissioners. Let us know if you have any other questions.
Just a quick reminder to keep your profile up to date. It helps us have an up to date view of our community’s skills and experience when allocating work.
Expressions of Interest
The first route is the most common route we use, which is an expression of interest, where we will announce new opportunities via our newsletter and/or email out to our community.
Selection Process
Once we have received all expressions of interest, depending on the volume of applications received, we either send submissions directly to the organisation to make the decision, or if we have lots of applications, we sometimes have to shortlist and send 3 or 4 options for them to choose from. To shortlist, we will always choose those who have the most aligned experience to the particular piece of work we are recruiting for.
Decision Outcome
The decision is always made by the organisation, guided by us if they ask for our input, this will sometimes involve sending additional information if required, such as bios and talking through the history of work and expertise. The process between sending out an expression of interest to coming to a decision can range from 4 – 6 weeks, in some cases longer due to system holdups.
Specific Requests
As we have many organisations that come back to use our services, we often get clients who specifically request an individual associate they are familiar with to deliver a piece of work. This often is from other Staff College Programmes they have been enrolled on, or pre-established relationships from previous or existing work with the organisation. If the case arises where they need 2 associates, we will then send out an expression of interest for the second associate.
Turn Around Time
Sometimes we have organisations approach us who need an associate at short notice. This could be anything from requesting a speaker for an event last minute because previous plans have fallen through, or due to budget requirements where they may need a Programme to be up and running by a certain time and therefore, we have to identify a team within a short period of time. In these cases, where time pressures are involved, we aren’t able to send out an expression of interest because of how long the process takes, therefore we will have to approach certain associates based on their specific skill set and their availability.
Providing Feedback
We appreciate the time it takes to send through an expression of interest, however we are unable to go back to every applicant with feedback because of the sheer volume of applications we receive. If you find that you are repeatedly not receiving work, and would like feedback on how to improve applications, we can have a conversation with you, however, like most recruitment processes, when shortlisting, we find organisations and ourselves make decisions based on expertise and experience and will shortlist accordingly. Because of this, we often will offer the opportunity to shadow programmes to build understanding and knowledge of our programmes and their content, however, there are no remuneration costs involved with this, but the experience of shadowing puts individuals in a better position for future applications.
Finally, we regularly seek feedback from commissioners and our community members around programme engagement and facilitation style. Depending on what we hear, we will adjust where/if necessary, sometimes meaning a change in delivery approach and team. This also means that if you have worked on a programme previously, this doesn’t always mean you will be recommissioned to do the same piece of work.