Background to Highlands & Islands Enterprise

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is an ambitious organisation with a remit from the Scottish Government that integrates economic and community development. With around 300 staff, HIE supports hundreds of businesses and social enterprises across the Highlands and Islands.

HIE works in a diverse region covering more than half of Scotland’s land mass and including all inhabited islands. Our vision is for the Highlands and Islands to be a prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable region, attracting more people to live, work, study, invest and visit.

Our three priorities are to: Enable strong, capable, and resourceful communities; build successful, productive, and resilient businesses; and create the conditions for growth and a green recovery.

We are committed to developing the young workforce as part of our workforce plan and have recently appointed a cohort of graduates and modern apprentices. Their individual case studies will give you an insight on their experience so far.

How did you find out about the SCQF Inclusive Recruiter programme & why did you decide to join up?

HIE’s recruitment and selection activity is conducted in line with our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. As such, we were delighted when we were approached by the SCQF Partnership about the SCQF Inclusive Recruiter Programme.

As we acknowledge that many different qualifications have the same worth, we have updated our recruitment process, namely the Job Description/Person Specific template. This is in line with the SCQF Inclusive Recruiter guidance, ensuring that we include SCQF Levels to offer clarity around skills and experience required for the role, rather than looking for a specific academic qualification.

How has using SCQF levels in your recruitment benefited your organisation?

There has been a slight increase in volume of applications since we have made the changes noted above. This perhaps demonstrates that some candidates would have not previously considered applying.

How easy was it to embed the SCQF Inclusive Recruiter principles within your organisation’s recruitment processes?

It has been a straightforward process, which entailed updating our templates and advising recruitment panel members that these changes are in line with us being an SCQF Inclusive Recruiter.

Do you have any plans to further embed the SCQF within your organisation e.g. performance management/job evaluation/workforce planning?

Our job evaluation process is already based around knowledge, skills and experience rather than qualifications. However we are looking to map the SCQF levels into the process. Our workforce planning follows the SCQF Inclusive Recruiter principles being closely linked to our recruitment process outlined above.

Get more information on the SCQF Inclusive Recruiter programme and how using SCQF levels in your recruitment can have a positive impact on your business.