Tomas Bata University in Zlín

Open discussion on evaluation, recruitment, and career growth of researchers

On December 8, 2025, another thematic workshop was held at the Faculty of Management and Economics of TBU in Zlín as part of the preparations for obtaining the HR Excellence in Research Award. The meeting, dedicated to Pillar 2 – Assessment, Recruitment, Selection, and Career Progression of Researchers, was attended by 21 faculty employees.

Participants worked in four groups and discussed four key areas: evaluation of researchers, recruitment, selection procedures, and career progression.

The main diagnostic conclusions of the discussion include:

• Inconsistency in the evaluation of academics across workplaces and insufficient consideration of qualitative contributions, secondary and tertiary roles, or different types of teaching loads.
• Insufficiently specified requirements in job advertisements and the absence of a more modern visual design for recruitment materials.
• The current concept of the selection process has its limitations in verifying the creativity and true potential of candidates.
• Low predictability of career advancement, mainly due to different approaches by workplace management and high teaching workloads.

The measures proposed at the workshop include:

• Creating a clear manual for completing and evaluating the IS HAP and standardising evaluation rules across institutions.
• Modernising job advertisements, refining job requirements, and considering a more systematic evaluation of candidates’ personal qualities.
• Introducing clearly defined criteria and their weightings in selection procedures, and adding a task or situation to candidates’ presentations to test their creativity.
• Strengthening systematic mentoring, greater communication about career expectations, and better planning for substitution during the semester.

For more information about the process and conclusions, please visit this link.

This workshop also demonstrated that the faculty already complies with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers in several areas, but there is still room for further improvement. The findings will serve as a basis for a GAP analysis and the subsequent creation of an HR Award Action Plan.

We would like to thank all participants for their active approach.