Are you passionate about attracting top talent and delivering an exceptional recruitment experience?
Join The Open University as a Recruiter and play a key role in shaping the future of our workforce by connecting diverse talent with meaningful opportunities.
About the Role
Proactively delivering a high-touch, responsive, inclusive and innovative end-to-end recruitment service, you will act as a trusted recruitment partner to hiring managers and stakeholders across the University. You will provide expert advice and insight on talent attraction, assessment, selection and hiring, supporting the recruitment of diverse talent and helping to build the organisational capacity and capability required to deliver the University's strategic objectives.
Working collaboratively with colleagues across People Services and the wider organisation, you will use market insight, data and innovative sourcing approaches to identify, engage and attract talent, whilst championing inclusive recruitment practices and an exceptional candidate experience. This role is for a fixed term of 12 months.
Key Responsibilities
* Provide professional and expert advice and support with a wide range of recruitment‑related topics and activities. Examples include: candidate attraction, pre‑screening and engagement, utilising social media and direct sourcing, pipelining, redeployment, assessment methods, vetting, inclusive hiring, systems and processes, compliance, data and insight, and market and technology trends.
* Successfully manage multiple innovative recruitment campaigns and projects.
* Understand the strategic objectives and priorities of the organisation and work in collaboration with People Business Partners and senior managers to develop an understanding of future workforce plans, aligning recruitment activity to positively impact organisational success.
* Actively seek opportunities to act as a brand ambassador and promote our employee value proposition, both online and in person. This includes having an active recruiter presence on LinkedIn, attending job fairs and professional networking events, all with the objective of providing candidates with an understanding of the organisation, its employee value proposition and brand, and encouraging employee advocacy.
* Engage with outsourced suppliers and partners, ensuring contracted services are effectively delivered and seeking to secure best value for the organisation.
* Ensure our customers are at the heart of all we do. Provide a high‑touch service, seeking opportunities for continuous service improvement by utilising technology to simplify and automate processes and improve data and insight capabilities. Work in an open and collaborative way with colleagues to share best practice and ensure consistency of high‑quality service delivery.
* Build recruitment capability across the organisation through coaching, guidance, training and sharing of best practice.
* Design and advise on robust, inclusive and evidence‑based assessment approaches that enable effective selection decisions.
Skills, Knowledge, Experience & Behaviours
* Significant experience delivering end‑to‑end in‑house recruitment within a complex organisation, acting as a trusted subject‑matter expert and strategic recruitment partner.
* Experience of improving inclusive hiring practices, including successfully leading campaigns targeting under‑represented groups.
* Up‑to‑date knowledge of employment law relating to recruitment and pre‑employment vetting, including requirements specific to the nations of the UK.
* A passion for customer service excellence and utilising opportunities to learn, adapt and improve service provision.
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the proven ability to:
* Develop and maintain beneficial working relationships and manage the expectations of multiple stakeholders.
* Act professionally and confidently in informing and influencing stakeholders and colleagues.
* Create concise, high‑quality written work including reports, guidance, presentations and workflows.
* Facilitate training.
* Proven ability to manage constantly changing workloads, multiple tasks and competing priorities with little supervision, escalating issues where appropriate to maximise team resource capability.
* Demonstrates adaptability, professionalism and sound judgement when managing competing priorities, organisational change and challenging situations.
* Proven ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, sharing knowledge, listening to and building on the ideas of others, and offering support and development.
* Confident with data analysis, using it to produce insight, inform strategy and monitor performance.
* Considerable experience using applicant tracking systems and Microsoft 365 applications to manage recruitment activity, analyse data and support service delivery.
* Demonstrable success in proactively identifying, engaging and converting talent through direct sourcing, networking, talent pooling and relationship building.
Support with your application
If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.
Why Join The Open University?
At The Open University, we’re proud to be leaders in accessible education and innovation. This is your opportunity to help shape how we attract and hire talent, ensuring we continue to build a diverse and high‑performing workforce.
Our benefits include:
* 33 days annual leave, on top of bank holidays and a three‑day Christmas closure period.
* Access to a leading pension scheme for UK higher education with generous employer contributions.
* Staff Fee Waivers for OU study, meaning you could earn a degree for free.
* Hybrid working, with limited requirement to attend the office in‑person, with agile working and family friendly policies.
* Discounts, wellbeing support, and development opportunities.
Ready to make an impact?
Apply now and help us build a recruitment experience that attracts, engages, and retains the talent that powers the future of learning here at one of the UK’s most respected institutions.
#J-18808-Ljbffr