Falmouth University

Search for a Director of Photography

Falmouth UniversitySearch for a Director of Photography

AimFalmouth University were looking for a Director of Photography to help transform the Institute of Photography into a distinctive, sustainable and internationally recognised school. The position was prestigious: photography at Falmouth has a long and celebrated history, and their alumni are widely recognised across the globe. The University had advertised twice for a Director, and although they’d come close to making an appointment, had been unable to secure a suitably qualified candidate.

Falmouth needed someone with academic and professional credibility, with ideas about alternative ways of growing the scope and scale of the Institute. They needed someone with ambition, vision, acumen and drive, who could bring people with them in reimagining what the Institute could be.

They asked TMP to help.

ApproachTMP set up an initial briefing with senior University stakeholders. The meeting provided useful insight into the role, and the challenges and opportunities it would present to the right candidate. We established the type of person that this role would suit, which helped us to shape our recruitment strategy. It was agreed that we should focus our attention on finding suitable individuals at UK universities with the biggest and best photography departments. The priority for our search was to focus on individuals who appeared to have significant and progressive academic leadership experience and credibility, commercial understanding and great ideas on how to grow the business.

Following the meeting, our Senior & Specialist team used a variety of methods to identify active and passive candidates. These methods included deep-web searching, referrals and LinkedIn analysis among other methods. They also directly approached individuals in ‘target’ organisations, and placed adverts in The Guardian and The Times Higher Education.

We identified 60 individuals with the relevant qualifications using market mapping techniques, internet based research, and professional networking sites. Response rates were very high, and we entered into dialogue with 48 of the 60 sourced prospects. This is an initial engagement rate of 80%, against typical higher education sector response rates of 60%.

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After further scrutiny of this long-list of potential prospects and further discussions with the University, 10 people were identified as priority prospects from the list. In addition to this number, a further ten applications were received from the media advertising.

A total of 13 applications were submitted to the University. Seven of these applicants were directly sourced and the remaining six were media applicants.

ImpactAfter interviewing a number of applicants, the University made an offer to a candidate sourced through deep-web searching. The offer was subsequently accepted and the Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor is very excited about the appointment and the expertise this in-coming Director brings.

“Thoroughly impressed with candidate sourcing service TMP provided. We have been provided with strong shortlists following campaigns and received excellent feedback from recruiting managers on the professional and smooth service provided. I would highly recommend this approach for recruiting (especially for hard to fill vacancies!).”

Mark Smalley, HR Services Manager