Human Resources

Once you have decided who you want to appoint you will need to offer them the job and agree the salary.

You should contact everyone who you interviewed and offer them all feedback. Contact your first choice candidate first and then go down your rank order of appointable candidates if anyone turns the job down.

The job will have a grade but you will need to agree the specific salary. New employees should normally be appointed at the bottom of the grade. Anything more should be justified and reasons might include:

• education and qualifications;
• research record and publications (for academic staff);
• salaries of other staff with similar jobs in the department and the University. Try to avoid creating differences that can’t be justified.

Current or previous salaries should be considered but simply matching or improving someone’s current salary could be discriminatory. There are gender pay gaps at the University and in the UK which favour men (this means men are generally paid more than women) so using current or previous salaries to decide what we pay someone will stop these being addressed. Try to base it more on the level and responsibility of the jobs not just the salary.

Remember about the overall package we offer to employees. This is often more generous than other employers and should be used in salary negotiations.  For example annual leave, pension schemes and other staff benefits.

All job offers will be made subject to any relevant checks.

These might include:

• references;
• Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) or Disclosure Scotland checks as applicable (you should have decided if a criminal record check is needed when you wrote your job description);
• proof of right to work, for example a UK passport or a valid visa (if your new employee will need a Certificate of Sponsorship and/or a visa then the offer will be subject to them getting this);
• proof of qualifications or professional membership (if these are needed for the job);
• proof of teaching qualifications (if the job involves teaching). 

As soon as you have any of these, you should send them to HR.