Recruiting Co-creation Officers
Setting Up the Job Advert
The best way to advertise the position is through Unitemps, as this supports temporary part-time employment. In advertising the position, you can use the job ad template provided – this will need to be amended to suit the needs of your individual project/workstream. Students must be paid; the suggested rate of pay is dependant on the department and funding in question (but should start at FA4). Funding for co-creation officers will likely need to come from your own project budgets, but there may be specific funding routes in your Department/team that you can explore.
The recommendation is to have at least two student officers. The number of hours for this role will vary depending on the number of students you want to recruit and the workload. Consider 5- 10 hours per week per student as a starting point. Please see FAQs Link opens in a new windowfor more information.
Reaching out to Students
Once the advert is live, there are many ways to get the word out to students. Consider the following:
- Advertisement in the student newsletter
- Posting on social media via Departmental channels or through reaching out to student societies to help spread the word.
- Ask colleagues in academic Departments to spread the word.
- Visit Departments and speak to students in person about the role if recruiting during term time.
- If you're considering in person visits, you may also want to go down the route of reaching out through societies and sports clubs as well.
Shortlisting
As outlined in the job description, there are characteristics and criteria that would be desirable for Co-creation Officers to have (see below). However, it is up to you in terms of the level of experience you think the students will need.
If you are recruiting a group of Co-creation Officers, try to get a group from a range of courses and years of study if possible.
Essential Criteria
- Current student at the University of Warwick (undergraduate, PGR, PGT students; full-time or part-time).
- Able to commit to and legally allowed to work in the UK for up to 10 hours per week.
- Able to work remotely and on campus.
- Strong IT skills and good understanding of the Microsoft suite.
Desirable criteria
- Previous experience with student engagement activities
- Previous experience working with stakeholders across the University. Ability to engage with stakeholders with tact and diplomacy.
- A creative approach to identifying opportunities for meaningful student engagement, and a commitment to seeing those opportunities through to completion.
- Ability to work collaboratively and effectively as part of a team.
- Strong time management and organisational skills
- Strong communication skills
- Comfortable managing workload independently.
Interview Suggestions and Layout
Best Practice- Alternative Interview Style
The recommendation for shortlisted candidates is a short 15-20 minute interview (see questions below).
In order to foster a more inclusive interview consider alternative routes to the typical interview style questions. Whilst this is a job, we are recruiting the students to be a part of something bigger. Alternatives to a 'traditional' interview could be:
- Asking for a presentation/video/essay on something the student is passionate about
- Emphasis here should be that the presentation can take any format- ask the student to make it 5-10 minutes in length
- Ask for the student to show a portfolio of things they find interesting or hobbies they may have
- This portfolio can also take the format of whatever best suits the students needs
- Give the student a task related to your project, give them enough notice to create this and ask them to present back on it, for example:
- Conduct a SWOT analysis of the University Parking System
- Give them a list of potential stakeholders and ask them how they would plan communications- frequency, style and platform
- Ask them to write a small business case for a potential student engagement platform/solution
When only asking questions it can create a negative environment, by using the above you are more likely to engage students with different ways of thinking. By allowing them to present on something they are comfortable with/have had time to prepare they are more likely to showcase their own strengths without needing to ask too many questions. Some questions that you can ask around their presentation can center on:
- What challenges could you foresee with (insert something from their presentation) scenario?
- How would you overcome (insert potential obstacle from presentation) and what actions would you take to prevent that from becoming an issue again?
- Where there any lessons learned from your experience in (insert something from presentation or ask about lessons learned from making the presentation if given a more specific topic)?
The remainder of the interview can focus around a discussion of what the role is, and if they have any questions or are comfortable with what the role would entail.
Traditional Interview Style
If you do feel the need to ask questions focus on strength-based style interviews, rather than 'tell me a time when' style questions. For example, instead of 'tell me a time when you demonstrated organisational management skills' you could ask 'what would you do if you had a deadline coming up, and a new project was introduced to you as urgent'. This approach to interviews allows for students who may not have had prior experience in a workplace environment, and allows them to showcase their talents and approach through hypotheticals.
Some suggested questions are:
- What does co-creation mean to you?
- What would effective co-creation look like for you?
- Follow on question: how would you propose instilling that in a co-creation project?
- How would you approach working with many different stakeholders?
- Follow on question: what would you do if a stakeholder's attitude to a project was more negative?
- If you were working with a group of students and one student was proving difficult to work with, how would you handle that scenario?
- Follow on question: How would you prevent this attitude from spreading to the other students?
- How would you design a student engagement activity intended to get an idea of what problems they face when moving from home to university?
- Follow on question: how would you go about recruiting students for such an activity?
- This role will involve taking on responsibilities in addition to your studies. What would you do if you had a deadline coming up, and a new project was introduced to you as urgent?
- In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges for the University right now? And what are the biggest opportunities?
Transparency
Please be explicit in whatever recruitment you undertake- making sure to outline all interview processes and rough timelines.If possible- please publish interview questions ahead of time. If you have a standard set of questions you intend to ask all interviewees we ask that you please publish them in the Unitemps add, or include them in any communication when inviting to interview.
If any candidates were unsuccessful please do make them aware, as soon as you can, and if possible offer them a call to explain why and offer any improvements.
Group Task (optional)
The co-creation role will likely require students to work as part of a team, including project team, other students, and senior colleagues. Therefore, it may be useful to also run a group task as part of the interview to identify which candidates display good communication and team-working skills.
Scenario Activity
You are working as part of a project team which is looking to transform the Library Services at Warwick. This may include a brand-new Library building, as well as a review of the current provision – considering education, research and community. This programme will require collaboration from many groups of stakeholders across the University. In your groups, discuss how you would ensure that the views of students are at the heart of this project AND what your ideas on how you could contribute as a co-creation officer.
Please feel free to record your ideas in any way you think suitable. You have 10 minutes for this task. You will then have 5 minutes to present your key points to the panel.
While the candidates are in the group activity, the role of the interview panel is to observe the interactions between them and look for candidates who can demonstrate some of the desirable criteria above, such as time management and communication skills.
Approach to Interview
Remember when recruiting to utilize a flexible approach- doing both an online and in person interview can help show the candidate in different settings. Ensure that you allow for breaks, and if the interviews are to be across an entire day ensure that there is at least 1 hour where the student is not in 'interview-like' conditions (e.g. lunch, but with interviewers/staff in the room) as this can result in a lot of strain. Some students may need to walk around or take frequent breaks, but may feel uncomfortable asking for them. Including breaks throughout the interview process can allow for this, it might also help to give a small tour as part of the interview day of where they are most likely to sit or be working.
Please also consider allowing for a short 10 minute call prior to the interview to allow candidates to ask questions about the day, and to ease any concerns. Please note that some people might prefer to keep video off for this first call, as it may make them more comfortable, the purpose of this would be an informal chat to put their minds at-ease before meeting you in a more formal environment.
Consider inviting someone to the interview panel who is familiar with co-creation, they may be able to spot skills and things you might not see and bring a unique perspective to the recruitment process. If you'd like to explore this, reach out to and we can help direct you on who to involve.