References for the purposes of this guide:

  • Front end refers to the myjobscotland Drupal portal meaning the candidate search filters used in job search, saved searches and job alerts. 
  • Back end refers to TalentLink fields when creating/editing job requisitions.
  • External Advertisers are those who log into myjobscotland to post jobs without using TalentLink.

Why

We are making changes to simplify the categories and types used by candidates in job searches and alerts to better align our fields with other job boards and alleviate confusion experienced by candidates.


Below you can see the comparison between myjobscotland’s current contract and position types and how the compare against other job boards:

Our present model causes issues with the combined selections (e.g. a candidate sets up a job alert for “Permanent & Temporary” expecting alerts for jobs listed as both “Permanent” and “Temporary” not realising it only refers to adverts listed with multiple jobs including permanent and temporary) understandably leads to confusion amongst users and complaints if a candidate misses a job advert because of the options.


Whilst organisations cannot change the contract type in the job requisition after it has been created, it is now possible to change the contract type in the hiring tab when defining conditions rescinding the original reasoning for our current options.

What

As a result of the review we will be amending the available options for Contract and Position types as well as some housekeeping of the job categories and sub categories.


Contract Type

The list of options for Contract Type will be reduced to:

  • Permanent
  • Temporary
  • Fixed Term
  • Supply/Casual/Relief
  • Apprenticeship
  • Voluntary
  • Redeployment

 

We will remove the lone value “Supply” and add the word “Supply” into the “Casual/Relief” value.

 

In the back end you will still have both “Fixed-Term” and “Temporary” however in the front end these will be amalgamated and display only as “Temporary”.

 

On the front end, only the following will be visible:

  • Permanent
  • Temporary
  • Supply/Casual/Relief
  • Apprenticeship
  • Voluntary


Position Type

The position type will be limited to:

  • Full Time  
  • Part Time  
  • Supply/Casual/Relief
  • Voluntary  

 

Which like contract type we will remove the lone value “Supply” and add the word “Supply” into the “Casual/Relief” value.


NEW FIELD – Term Time Only Contract

Because we are removing the combination options which show “term-time” we understand there are a lot of candidates out there who are looking for term-time only contracts (i.e. contracts less than 52 weeks per year). This will soon appear on your requisitions with a yes/no option.


The candidates will only have the option to filter on jobs marked “Yes”, they won’t be able to filter out term-time roles they can only exclude non-term time from their search results.


This means if you are recruiting multiple jobs on one posting, with some, but not all “term time”, we advise best practice to mark “yes” in the term time question and detail the jobs and their terms within the advert text.


Note: if your organisation does not offer term-time contracts please let us know and we can default the question to “No” and remove it from your manager’s view.


Job Categories

The work on the contract and position type is essential to help align with other job boards and futureproof external job feeds. In order to apply these changes to the front end website job alerts and saved searches, Spider must deploy a complex script across all affected saved searches and job alerts the update the users current selections to the most suitable new match. As this is already a major piece of work, it offered a prime opportunity for us to include a tidy up of the job categories we currently have.

 

First, we will be removing the apprenticeship categories – as we are adding “Apprenticeship” to contract type, the roles can simply be posted in the job category most suited to the role.

 

Similar to apprenticeship, we will remove the “Volunteer” job category – as we are making this a contract type, the roles can be added to the job category of the type which they best match.

 

The Ambulance category will also be deactivated, following Scottish Ambulance Service departure in 2020 this is no longer required and misleads candidates into thinking the roles will appear on myjobscotland.

 

NOTE: We are not adding any new categories, we are removing duplications and redirecting them whilst renaming those which are misleading. The Job Categories > Sub Categories is not meant to be a reflection of your organisation structure; it is a search filter designed for candidate use to find job adverts relevant to them.

 

If you require additional fields for your own reporting purposes, please contact us directly. See below details for what is required of the job requisition.


You can read more about your Job Requisition Form here