Campuls-digital” spoke with Vice President Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Wolff about how Hof University would like to recruit and further promote its professorial and scientific staff in the future. Together with Andrea Graf from the Human Resources Department, he heads the newly launched project “Go2Hof4ever”.
Andrea Graf, Head of Human Resources and Vice President
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Wolff; Image: Hof University of Applied Sciences;
Universities also have to make increasing efforts to recruit skilled workers in order to maintain their level of excellence. What are the basic challenges in the market for teachers and researchers?
“Recruiting young scientists is very important for the continuous development of our university, but also for the entire science and business location. Professorial staff at universities of applied sciences must have extensive practical experience in addition to scientific and didactic qualifications. This means that Hof University of Applied Sciences is in direct competition with commercial enterprises when it comes to recruiting personnel. In view of the demographic development and the competitive environment, we are facing enormous challenges here. In the science sector, too, there is currently an employee market, especially in engineering, information sciences and economics. This is reflected in an unfortunately often rather manageable number of applicants when professorships are advertised. In addition, the job description of an HAW professorship and the requirements for an application in this regard are usually little known.”
“Go2Hof4ever | Go to Hof and stay forever” – what do you mean by this new project at the university?
“In order to better meet the aforementioned challenges in the future, the “Go2Hof4ever” project was applied for as part of the FH-Personal funding program. In short, the project team deals with the recruiting, onboarding and further qualification of scientific and professorial staff at Hof University of Applied Sciences. In order to do justice to this comprehensive subject area, the project “Go2Hof4ever” is divided into three sub-projects.”
What are the focal points of these areas and what exactly are the goals you are pursuing with your work?
“The sub-project “Talent Development” aims to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the university as an employer for young scientists in the national and international environment. Talent within the university’s own ranks, even among students, as well as in industry, is to be discovered and promoted through structured career programs. In this way, the applicant situation is to be improved both qualitatively and quantitatively.
The “Welcome Service” deals with the question of how the professional and social integration of new scientific and teaching staff can be optimized. The aim is to retain them at the university and in the region for as long as possible (and preferably for longer). In addition to setting up a university-specific onboarding structure, networking with the various organizations in regional marketing plays a major role here.
In the sense of lifelong learning, the goal of the third subproject “Competence Center” is to maintain and expand the scientific and professional competencies of the teaching staff. To this end, analysis procedures are being developed and corresponding continuing education programs are being implemented and carried out.”
Embedding in the region is obviously an issue?
“Of course, the image of a region always has a strong influence on the attractiveness of a potential job. In this respect, regional marketing and employer branding are closely related.
If we want to attract future candidates for teaching and research, we have to emphasize the advantages of relocating to our region even more than before.”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Wolff
In addition, however, there are talented executives in the regionally based business community who, if appropriately supported, could develop their skills in the areas of research and teaching.”
How many people are working in this area and until when is the project planned?
“Go2Hof4ever has a funded duration until the end of 2027. We are now still in the start-up and conception phase. Right now, we have five female employees working on the project to further develop our university, but the majority of them are part-time.”
Nevertheless, this is probably a permanent task. How do you plan to keep up with it after the project ends?
“Definitely, this is a permanent task. That’s why Andrea Graf, as head of the HR department, is also in the project management together with me. And, of course, the sustainability concept is the focus of all planning. The challenges posed by demographic developments will continue to have an impact on personnel acquisition and development beyond 2027. We are also already in an initial exchange with the faculties and institutes and will intensify this considerably as the project progresses. In this respect, the future introduction and expansion of structurally effective instruments will always be reflected upon by the departments and checked for future viability. Since we are still at the beginning of the project, further developments will show to what extent personnel requirements will exist beyond the project duration.”
Contact: go2hof4ever@hof-university.de
