Start the recruitment process

Merit and competence are key concepts when appointing central government employees. This is regulated by the Instrument of Government (1974:152) and the Public Employment Act (1994:260). It means that the individual’s competence, whether formal or informal, must be the primary consideration when making the appointment. This minimises the influence of factors such as arbitrariness, friendship and personal loyalty on the decision.

Personal qualities such as leadership and collaborative ability may be included as necessary competences in the requirement profile and advertisement, and thus taken into account when evaluating merit and competence.

Recruitment is only one of many ways to address changing staffing needs. Before deciding to begin a new recruitment process, consider whether there are alternatives to recruitment. When assembling your recruitment team, make sure it includes people with a range of experience, so that your needs can be considered from several perspectives.

Analyse your existing needs and any needs that may arise in the organisation in the foreseeable future.

Link: Documents and questions you should consider ensuring that your needs analysis is well-thought-out

Consider the composition of your recruitment team and agree on a joint timetable for interviews and decision-making meetings. The final appointment decision always rests with the responsible manager.

Consult your HR specialist if you are recruiting a manager with line management responsibility.

It is important that your requirement profile differentiates between and describes “must” and “should” requirements. There can be no compromise concerning “must” requirements, such as a given academic qualification. “Should” requirements are often expressed as qualifications that provide added value, for example, experience of a certain computer system or experience of working at a university or university college. “Should” requirements include personal qualities: choose two or three personal qualities that provide added value for the position in question. The document Competency-based interview questions to assess personal qualities describes a number of useful personal qualities and recommends relevant competency-based interview questions.

Link: Competency-based interview questions for personal qualities

Link: Requirement profile

Content of the advertisement

The advertisement must provide information about the position, including duties, required qualifications and terms of employment, and explain why the position and your workplace are particularly attractive.

Use plain language and try to look at the description from the applicant’s perspective. The job advertisement must be relevant, arouse interest in the position and market it, while also describing the requirements and qualifications needed for the role.

Consider how you, as the recruiting manager/equivalent, can best describe your workplace and what you can offer the successful candidate. There are many surveys examining what potential employees are looking for in an employer. Important factors when choosing an employer include a pleasant work environment, interesting duties, a good work-life balance, job security and flexibility.

Your job advertisement must sell the position while also describing it realistically. How can we make the job description inspirational to the candidate? Is there other value in the workplace worth highlighting? Feel free to address the potential applicant personally: “You could be the person we are looking for if you...”, or “Are you the person we are looking for?”.

Link already available in English

Advertisement templates

We have prepared templates both to make it easier for you to design job advertisements and to ensure that, as a public authority, we present a uniform and professional impression. The advertisement templates are structured with the headings that must be included. When you select a recruitment template when creating a project, an advertisement template will be included automatically.

The templates include supporting texts that help the project owner design their advertisement. Remember to delete the supporting text from your finished advertisement.

The headings in the advertisement template in ReachMee will help you structure your advertisement. Here is a link to the advertisement template “General recruitment SLU” in ReachMee, which is used to recruit researchers, postdoctoral fellows and technical and administrative staff. This can be downloaded and used in preparation for creating a project in ReachMee.

Link already available in English

As a general rule, all vacant positions must be advertised. Advertisements are published in ReachMee either in Swedish or in Swedish and English. (As a Swedish public authority, SLU is not permitted to advertise solely in English.)

An exemption may be granted if special grounds exist.

Whether special grounds exist for an exemption must be assessed based on the circumstances in relation to the regulations on:

1. redeployment
2. right of priority to re-employment
3. right of priority to additional working hours
4. promotion from associate senior lecturer to senior lecturer

If you have any additional questions, please contact your HR specialist.

Advertisements are published via ReachMee. The most common channels provided through ReachMee are

Basic ad (Swedish = requirement)

• SLU.se (SE)
• Intra (SE)
• Job Bank (Platsbanken)

English version

• SLU.se (SE)

• Job Bank (European Employment Services (EURES) for wider dissemination)

• EURAXESS (only for doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, teachers/researchers)

LinkedIn

Your HR specialist must be informed if an ad is to be published on LinkedIn. To publish via LinkedIn, we need an invoice reference so that the invoice is processed correctly in Proceedo.

Cost = SEK 4,900 per advertisement type for publication for 30 days. For an advertisement in Swedish and English, the cost is SEK 4,900 × 2. An advertisement can be published for longer or shorter than the previous standard 30 days. You will be debited for each commenced 30-day period.

Before you can employ a citizen of a third country (outside the EU/EEA), the position must be advertised for a minimum of 10 working days on the Swedish Public Employment Service’s Job Bank. The advertisement can then be transferred to EURES, which is the Swedish Migration Agency’s requirement for issuing a work permit to citizens of third countries.

https://internt.slu.se/globalassets/mw/stod-serv/hr-fragor/reachmee/manual-reachmee---uppdaterad-260416.pdf

https://internt.slu.se/verktyg/reachmee/

If the advertisement is to be published through another channel – a trade journal or website, for example – the organisational unit is responsible for both the cost and administration. If you intend to place a job advertisement in a trade journal, bear in mind that print deadlines vary from one week to one month.