Additional recruitment approval process

In our efforts to help control our costs, we have implemented an additional temporary step to recruitment.  

You now need Director and Corporate Leadership Team approval to recruit vacancies. 

This approval process will be in action from 1 April and will be reviewed and adjusted when our finances improve. Colleagues will be notified when this is the case. 

Hiring managers need to use this process to gain approval for all vacancies, with some exceptions, where you do not need approval: 

• Posts that are fully funded by commissioners  - approval to be given by Region/Nation Director via eArcu

• Store managers - approval to be given by Head of Retail operations via eArcu

Hiring managers must have approval from your Director, Richard Moore (Corporate Director of Business Services) and Lynn Perry (CEO) before advertising vacancies. 

• Managers need to submit a business case to their Director (download the business case form below) 

• The Director reviews and submits to the CEO and Corporate Director of Business Services for approval 

• CEO and Corporate Director of Business Services either approve or deny the request and inform the Director 

• The Director will inform the hiring manager. If the request is denied, the Director will work with the manager on alternative solutions. 

Please note, if a vacancy is approved, it will be advertised internally for nine calendar days* before being shared externally. This is to support colleagues who may be involved in change processes to seek opportunities within the charity. 

Please review your vacancy on the eighth day and notify the Recruitment team if there are candidates eligible for shortlisting. This will prevent the vacancy from being automatically advertised externally on day ten. 

*For the first 48 hours a vacancy is open, it will only be available to colleagues in the redeployment pool, followed by seven days of internal applications only via the Internal Jobs website. 

Please do not hire any contractors or consultants unless this is both necessary for frontline service delivery and the costs are fully covered by commissioner income. 

This means: 

• No new consultants (expert agencies or individuals) should be engaged with, unless their costs are fully covered by commissioners. 

• If you do need to work with contractors or consultants, you will need to gain approval from your Director and the Corporate Director of Business Services. Please speak to your Director in the first instance. Written approval from the Director of Business Services must be provided to the recruitment team.

• If you are currently working with contractors or consultants, and they are not fully covered by commissioners, you will still need to gain approval for this work to continue from your Director. Wherever possible, colleagues should be looking to bring these engagements to a conclusion, without losing the value that has been paid for so far.