By streamlining how we make a formal offer of appointment, we can provide a better experience for candidates and recruiters.

What has changed?

We've started asking candidates for their National Insurance number when they apply for a job at York. This allows us to introduce greater automation to our appointment process, supported by a new 'smart form' to support the offer process.

The new form will ask managers for a couple of additional pieces of information (including National Insurance number) but it allows a contract of employment to be issued much faster, significantly reducing time spent on manual input and checks. Our target is to issue this paperwork within hours of receiving the right information, rather than days.

We have done some testing with regularly recruiting departments and so far feedback has been positive.

What now?

We are keen to get more feedback so we can make any necessary improvements before adopting the new approach for the vast majority of appointments.

A pilot version of the new form is available now, and will be embedded within our recruitment guidance from 5 August 2024. We would welcome colleagues trying the new process wherever possible and share any feedback with us at hr-enquiries@york.ac.uk.

If you are off campus, you will need to be using the VPN to complete the new form. You will also need to have the candidate's National Insurance number, if they have one. Ask the candidate for this information when making an offer if your recruitment used an older version of our application form.

If you have any queries or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us at hr-enquiries@york.ac.uk.