As part of the Staff Connect Phase 2 project, the current staff recruitment system, i-Grasp, will be replaced and a new system will go live on 6 March 2019.

Recruiting managers may wish to plan any job campaigns around this launch date. i-Grasp can be used until the new system launch date as long as the closing date for applications is no later than Thursday 28 March 2019. You will need to speak to your resourcing contact if you have an urgent campaign that needs to be advertised before 6 March and you need the closing date to be later than the end of March.

The aim of the second phase of Staff Connect is to streamline our HR processes and provide employees and managers with a one-stop-shop for most HR-related activity. This has seen the recent introduction on training, appraisals (RPD), annual leave and absence management being added to the system.

Although this is part of the Staff Connect project, a separate software solution called Stonefish will replace i-Grasp. Stonefish is more tailored to the HE sector and is used by over 35 universities in the UK and presents a slicker user interface which is more intuitive to use than the current system.

There are a number of benefits to the system.

– Applicants will find the registration and application process easier than i-Grasp.

– Recruiting managers will no longer need to be complete manual forms. Stonefish will be the single source of information about recruitment and duplication of data entry will be eliminated. An improved shortlisting process will be conducted online along with the ability to have anonymous shortlisting where appropriate (the latter will support the University’s Diversity & Inclusion and Athena SWAN commitments).

Find out more here.