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Digital project management for West Midlands University
This university is a dynamic institute offering over 20,000 students a rich learning environment and the opportunity to study at one of its several state-of the-art campuses. Having invested heavily in recent years in campus development and teaching facilities, the university has ambitious plans to continue its investment in education, training and local economic growth.
As part of its improvement plans, the university was undertaking several transformation programmes including the implementation of a new Student Information System and research and curriculum management system. The new integrated systems would help manage, record, and improve data and visibility of internal and externally funded projects. With an existing team of PMO specialists, the university identified the need to bolster the team with additional resource. Having previously been unsuccessful in fulfilling the roles internally, the university engaged Practicus to deliver the following Fixed Term roles:
- Digital Project Manager
- Project Manager
- Project Support Co-Ordinator
The university required quality Project and Programme Management resources that could support its change agenda and projects.
Taking a full brief from our stakeholder within the university, we understood the requirement was time-critical. The university needed project resource that could prepare it for the new systems as well as lead on their implementation and integration. They also required candidates with specific Higher Education and digital experience, bringing with them the knowledge and understanding of the nuances of Higher Education as well as the experience to manage data and digital projects at this scale. It was also important to understand the culture of the university and source candidates that met their requirements for excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
We immediately deployed our team of Higher Education Consultants who reached out to our network of candidates across the Midlands. Speaking to candidates that were actively and passively looking for a role, we also advertised through Social Media and sector-specific job boards.
A key benefit to the university of using Practicus was our candidate vetting process. Spending at least two hours with each candidate to assess their motivations, availability and appetite for the roles meant the shortlist of CVs was concise and contained only candidates who closely matched the requirements. This saved the university significant time throughout the interviewing and assessment process and ensured only high-quality candidates were considered.
As a result, we successfully filled the three roles within six to eight weeks surpassing the university’s expectations for a fast time-to-hire. Due to the quality of the candidates presented, the university was able to quickly offer the roles with the confidence they would be able to meet the requirements of the projects and be an excellent cultural fit for the team. Candidate quality and time-to-hire were key measurements for the contract and were successfully met and exceeded.
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