2 Informing about a vacant position

Contents on this page

Advertising vacancies – informing about a vacant position
Information channels – where to publish vacancy notices

Advertising vacancies – informing about a vacant position

Vacancy notices must be based on the person specification and designed in a clear and measurable way. The academic appointments board’s HR officer usually supports the design of the vacancy notice in consultation with the academic appointments board and the organisation. A well-written and straightforward notice increases the chances of attracting qualified candidates. Use a competency-based approach and formulate the vacancy notice in a way that will appeal to applicants. Avoid abbreviations and explain all University-specific terminology.

The announcement is created in the recruitment system by the academic appointments board’s HR officer. The recruitment system also offers the possibility to use selection questions, which can facilitate the selection process later on. Selection questions can help in the screening of candidates and streamline a recruitment with many applicants. If answered correctly, selection questions can also give a sense of how many of the applicants appear to be qualified for the position.

The vacancy announcement should always be:

published on the University and the Swedish Public Employment Service websites, in accordance with the Ordinance on public authority vacancy notices (1984:819), as well as on the Euraxess website.
published for at least four weeks.
published in Swedish, in accordance with Section 10 of the Swedish Language Act, and as we are a public authority.
be translated and published in English.
contain contact details for the manager or HR officer. There must always be someone the applicant can contact during the recruitment period.

Exceptions to the obligation to inform

In principle, a public authority must publish/inform about vacancies, no matter the length or type of employment. There are a few exceptions to this rule:

when an employee is being redeployed, (the Employment Protection Act LAS, Section 7):
when appointing someone with preferential right to re-employment
when appointing someone covered by the Job Security Foundation’s (Trygghetsstiftelsen) measures.

Information channels – where to publish vacancy notices

The academic appointments board’s HR officer supports the organisation in identifying additional information channels that may be appropriate to use during a recruitment. The recruiting manager must reflect on how and where the target audience can be reached. Is the target audience actively looking or must they be found? What attracts the target audience? What budget is there for advertising costs? The recruitment system connects to several information channels, which the academic appointments board’s HR officer will be knowledgeable about.

Procured advertisement brokers

If the recruiting manager wishes to advertise in more channels than those accessible through the recruitment system, the procured advertisement company Nowa Kommunikation must be used.

Nowa Kommunikation can be reached via email at avropa [at] nowakommunikation [dot] se

Euraxess

Euraxess is a European network under the auspices of the European Commission that aims to facilitate researcher mobility and make research vacancies in Europe visible. All vacancy notices for research positions should be advertised on Euraxess. Advertising is free and should be in English.

ResearchGate

LU organisations can advertise on ResearchGate, which is a social network for researchers with over 15 million users. There is a fee to advertise.

LU uses LinkedIn for advertising. The service is focused on creating a meeting place between job searcher and the organisation. There is a fee to advertise.

Research publications

There are several research publications which could be suitable for advertising vacancies. The disadvantage with these is that long production schedules and time between editions means that there could be a substantial delay. There is a fee to advertise.

Daily newspapers

It is becoming increasingly rare to advertise vacancies in the daily newspapers as this is seldom where today’s potential applicants look for work. It could be suitable in some cases, however, or as a form of marketing. There is a fee to advertise.