Staff Competitive Retention Pathway

Page updated 15 August 2022

The Staff Competitive Retention Pathway enables UCD to move quickly to retain the services of individuals whose departure would cause immediate disruption to the university’s business. In this section you can learn about the scope of the policy and the circumstances in which it the process is activated.

Staff Competitive Retention Policy

The staff competitive retention policy may be activated in exceptional circumstances when the University needs to be in a position to act swiftly and decisively in a competitive market to retain the services of individuals whose departure would:

• Cause a significant and immediate diminuition in the services offered by the University
• Cause a crisis for the University within a short timeframe and where the duties of the departing individual could not be assumed by another individual or group within an acceptable timeline.

This policy will be available for use only in cases of posts at senior level - staff at SAO4 or above, or where the competing offer is made at the equivalent of SAO4 or above.

An individual case needs to be made by the relevant College Principal or Vice President before the University Management Team considers the matter. The steps involved are summarised below and outlined in greater detail in the Policy.

Having considered the matter the UMT has a number of options at its disposal including revisiting the grade of the current post, conversion to a permanent role or a matching offer. All options are considered within the context of public pay policy and related UCD policies.

This section contains a summary of a UCD policy, however, in all cases the Policy remains the definitive source of information on the topic. For more details, read the (opens in a new window)Staff Competitive Retention Policy.

Staff Competitive Retention Process

Step 1: The College Principal / VP initiates the application, gathering the resources below. This should include:

• A Statement of Application outlining why the use of this policy is merited.
• A Statement of Criticality setting out why this post is critical to UCD.
• A statement from UCD HR regarding the current and other possible grades.
• Copy of the individual’s full curriculum vitae. 

• Details of the appointment process for the post at the external 
institution.
• Detailed written evidence of having received an offer following a competitive interview.

Step 2: The application is sent to UCD HR, Promotions & Grading ((opens in a new window)Promotions@ucd.ie) who forward to the President (or Nominee) for an initial review.

Step 3: The President (or Nominee) agrees that a case exists and circulate to the UMT.

Step 4: The UMT considers the case and makes a decision.

Step 5: The decision is related back to the relevant College / Unit