Survey of employer attitudes to postgraduate researchers

• Summary
• Background
• Recruitment issues
• Perceived benefits and barriers to PhDs recruitment
• New developments
• Recommendation
• References

Summary

Mary McCarthy and Jane Simon, careers advisers at the University of Sheffield, report the findings of a study undertaken by the careers service, on employers’ attitudes to the recruitment of PhD researchers in non-academic environments. The study helps to underline many of the issues found from earlier similar research, but there are some exciting developments too. It is hoped that the research will inform work already underway in many academic departments and careers services.

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Background

This research was designed to inform the training and career development provision for PhDs within the University of Sheffield. A great deal of work was already underway; in the Careers Service, the Graduate Research Centre and a number of academic departments, so one aim of this research was to offer possible applications for future funding.

The focus of the research was to address two main questions:

• Why do employers recruit PhDs and contract researchers? and,
• Why might certain employers not recruit from these cohorts?

A questionnaire was designed, piloted and eventually sent out to over 1,000 employers with links to the University of Sheffield Careers Service. Follow-up telephone calls were made to a number of key employers. The contract researcher element was added to the questionnaire between the pilot phase and the actual mail shot. This was as a direct result of the appointment of a second careers adviser and the enhancement of the roles to include work with contract research staff.

Both quantitative and qualitative results were drawn together in a report that was launched at the UK Grad national conference in September 2006 [1].

The on-line and postal questionnaires elicited a response rate of 5.7% (104 responses), making it one of the largest surveys of its kind undertaken by a single university. Employer selection took account of size of industry and range of business areas. The responses, demonstrated in Figure 1 and Table 1, represent a good spread across both size and type of industry.

Our findings help to underline many of the issues found from earlier research into employer attitudes to researchers [2-5]. However, there were some exciting developments too.

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Recruitment issues

The majority of recruiters who expressed interest in applications from PhDs expected these candidates to apply for research and development or consultancy functions within the organisation. Many of these responses came from large organisations in engineering, IT and pharmaceutical areas. Difficulties arose when asked about other functions within the organisation. Typically, the larger firms would consider research applicants for these roles, provided candidates were able to: a) express their understanding of the skills involved, b) demonstrate a thorough knowledge of their own skill base and effective matching to the role, and c) be convincing about why they wanted to be considered for a post which was not directly related to their research skills or area of academic expertise.

It (the value of their qualifications and research experience) would depend on what function they were applying for and whether the applicant had the right skills set.

Large telecommunications firm

Evidence from UK Grad (What to PhDs Do?) and the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education statistics, for example, show that significant numbers of PhDs are able to make a successful transition from their research into a variety of roles within commerce and industry [6]. However, the question 'Why the change?' is still likely to be asked by recruiters and PhDs need to be ready with answers.

Another recruitment issue, which was highlighted by this research, concerns the employment process. For a number of recruiters, the employment process was deemed to be the same for PhDs as for other candidates. However, almost 20% of respondents to this question stated that the recruitment process would differ. In telephone discussions with some of these recruiters, they emphasised the need for PhDs and junior contract researchers to use their networking skills when looking for posts that reflected their skills and experience. Going via the traditional graduate recruitment route may not be appropriate for some posts. The difficulty, for both candidates and careers advisers, is to know when this caveat will apply.

Exploring the skills recruiters typically look for, we offered the skills set used by UK Grad in What do PhDs do? and asked respondents to prioritise from this list. The resultant rankings can be found in Table 2.

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Perceived benefits and barriers to PhDs recruitment

As we might expect, when asked about the perceived benefits of recruiting postgraduates, the responses mirrored Table 2 in many respects. 50% of respondents considered specialist knowledge and research skills to be beneficial. 30% considered the future potential and maturity of PhDs to be beneficial whilst only 11% thought PhD level IT skills would be of particular benefit. These results mirror the findings of the Higher Education Staff Development Agency (HESDA) research carried out a few years earlier [5].

The perceived barriers to recruitment of PhDs centred on lack of commercial awareness, difficulty in adapting to non-academic work cultures and over-specialisation (48% of respondents). This again reflects findings in earlier research but these barriers extended to the recruitment of junior contract researchers too.

…too specialized and could find it difficult to work in the business environment.

(large IT firm)

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New developments

So far, our findings mirror what has gone before and, to that extent, should form part of the body of research termed ‘pre-Roberts’ [7]. We are in a transition period at the moment. The majority of research-led institutions are only a few years into the implementation of the Roberts Agenda and just beginning to see the results of more focused training and professional development provision for researchers. However, this piece of research does provide something of a bridge between the pre-Roberts findings and research which will need to be done in the future.

The most exciting development came from responses of employers who recruit small numbers of higher education candidates or who only recruit sporadically. It was extremely heartening to see that, where these employers have recruited PhDs, they are very pleased with both the work and the progression of these employees.

Recent PhD recruits have shown a good deal of maturity and have been able to move through their early career faster than undergraduate recruits

(small financial consultancy firm)

We have employed one superb (PhD) software engineer … and he became a top notch software engineer within a year of starting work with us

(small IT and engineering firm)

We recruited a Chemist who had just completed a PhD and they have become a valuable member of the team…We would certainly look at recruiting PhDs in the future…

(small manufacturing firm)

These responses help to prove the value of our researchers to a wide range of industries and to the SME market as well as to large national and multinational employers. The difficulties seem to lie in bringing researchers together with a wide variety of recruiters at times and in ways to suit both parties. Charles Jackson, a National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC) Fellow, is doing research into this area at the moment and his results should be a useful addition to the debate [8].

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Recommendation

For those of us working with PhDs and junior contract researchers in the University of Sheffield, we are trying to take these recommendations forward in a variety of ways. We hope that the recommendations will be of value to recruiters in industry, commerce and to colleagues in other higher education institutions.

• Work with employers. Raise awareness of the nature of the PhD and postdoctoral experience. For example, stressing the extent to which multi-disciplinarity in research is promoted in the University of Sheffield.
• Work with PhD and postdoctoral researchers on identifying the skills and experiences they have acquired and translating these into commercially understood skills and experiences.
• Continue to develop PhD and postdoctoral researchers’ career management skills so that they market their skills and experience effectively - on CVs, application forms, at interview and in assessment centre situations.
• Encourage researchers to explore commercial awareness through industrial placements, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, employer-led skill workshops and research-specific seminars in areas such as grant writing, intellectual property and budgeting.
• Use support from employers who have volunteered to run skills sessions or other activities on campus and network with those who have already employed PhD and postdoctoral researchers to provide case studies for dissemination.
• Develop awareness of job-seeking strategies which, for researchers, can be more diverse than the traditional graduate training scheme opportunities offered by many employers.

References

1. Survey of Employer Attitudes to Postgraduate Researchers, Mary McCarthy and Jane Simm, August 2006.

2. EMPRESS: Employers' Perceptions of Recruiting Research Staff and Students, Clair Souter, University of Leeds, November 2005.

3. Survey of Employer Attitudes to Postgraduates and Contract Researchers, Sandra Wright, University of Strathclyde, 2000. See Higher Education Staff Development Agency (HESDA).

4. Survey of Employers’ Views on the Employability of Oxford Postgraduate Students and Recruitment Practices, The Careers and Appointments Service, Oxford University, 2001. Report for internal circulation only.

5. University Researchers: Employers' Attitudes & Recruitment Practices, produced by the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) on behalf of The Higher Education Staff Development Agency (HESDA), 2001.

6. What Do PhDs Do?, 2004 analysis of first destinations for PhD graduates, UKGrad Programme/Graduate Prospects.

7. SET for Success, Sir Gareth Roberts for the HM Treasury, 2002.

8. Recruiting PhDs: What works?, initial findings from a piece of research commissioned by UK Grad.

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