Effective Team Recruitment for Research Projects: A Guide

How to…. recruit a great team

A good project team is essential to the effective and enjoyable delivery of research. For some funding grants, a researcher or researchers are named on the bid. This means they can take the role without going to open recruitment. However, for my ERC bid, I had a budget to appoint resource as needed. My initial idea when writing the bid was that I would recruit 2 x 5 year full-time posts. However, in reality, unless you start recruitment prior to the project starting, it will take at least 4 months to get people in post. In addition, as the PI, it is difficult to foresee the changing requirements of the project over time, so it might be wiser to offer a two or three year contract in the first instance. On the candidate side, a three-year contract may be more appealing to a potential researcher, as it offers medium term stability.

Clarify what skills are needed

My skillset is more in qualitative or mixed methods research. During 2023, and in preparation for the project starting, I had undertaken a number of courses in investigative and data journalism at Goldsmiths (because I recognised the it was journalists who had most commonly reported on ‘powerful perpetrators’) and in using administrative data (e.g. the excellent 5 week introductory course at SCADR). I realised that I needed someone with expertise in data science, particularly R and Python. I saw the project as a way to innovate methodologically and to develop data visualisation outputs that could communicate the work to policy-makers, practitioners and the public. I also, ideally, needed people who had expertise in one or more of the seven professions being considered in the project (judges, barristers, clergy, politicians, police, doctors, military) – and preferably in areas where I was less familiar. For this reason, I kept the job descriptions quite open in terms of disciplinary background and instead emphasised skills, character and some experience of researching gender and violence.

Sifting applications and preparing for interview

I asked two trusted colleagues working outside of my field to help me sift and score the applications (over a 150 in total), using a matrix based on the recruitment criteria. This process enabled us to short-list 8 candidates.

I also had a long list of just over 20 applicants, whom I later wrote to individually to thank them from their application and give some general feedback on why they were not on the interview list. Some applicants do not clearly articulate (a) why they want the role; (b) why at Bristol and with the PI; and (c) how this move would make sense in their career trajectory/fit with their longer term goals. Tailoring your application in this way is critical. In some cases, applicants did tailor their application and were a great fit on paper; it was just simply that the final eight candidates for interview could meet those criteria in depth and in breadth: they were excellent.

I asked three further trusted colleagues (who were not involved in the shortlisting) to accompany me on the interview panel. All at professorial level, they brought expertise in law, medicine and quants methods and in managing large projects. One panel member had also been a contracted researcher (as I had been) for a long time prior to permanent appointment, so I also welcomed their insight there.

The interview

Interviews were held online all day and, again, scored using a matrix. The questions were deliberately few, and focused on motivations and character. Question 4 was important in clarifying that the candidates understood the structural facilitators of gender based violence.

	Question	Follow-up
1	Can you tell us about your current role?	What do you enjoy about your current role and what do you enjoy less?
2	Why did you apply for this role?	How would this role it fit into your career trajectory?
3	What skills and value do you think you will bring to this role?	What opportunities for personal development do you see in this role?
4	As you know this project looks at sexual violence and abuse, perpetrated by high status professionals. What do you consider to be the factors which explain why sexual violence and abuse happens in society?	–
5	This project may require a lot of stamina and initiative, in negotiating accessing to data from multiple sources, and collecting and organizing that data, ready for analysis. So our question is, ‘How do you feel about working on projects which are complex and uncertain?’	And what strategies do you employ to cope with complexity and uncertainty?
6	How do you think your colleagues would describe you?	When you are working as part of a team, what is the role that you tend to take?

Candidates were discussed and ranked. While I had advertised for two posts, I ended up recruiting three members on 3-year contracts, because I felt they would fit together brilliantly. One member was a secondment from another institution. Again, focus on what you and the project needs and adapt your offer and recruitment once you have done the interviews.

Take care and time at all stages

The recruitment, sifting and interview phase was time-consuming, but worth it. The people you work with are key and Nate, Hannah and Emma form an excellent team. Some candidates on the ‘long list’ have stayed in touch, and I am happy to hear about their publications and plans.

Finally, do draw on the experience and templates provided by your Human Resources team, and make use of any internal training available for staff looking to be involved in recruitment. Bring diverse people into your recruitment process and ensure collective reflection and discussion throughout; paying attention to equity and inclusion.