Technical Talent Management: Resources for Managers
Part of the Technical Careers Resource Hub
Explore toolkits and guides to recognise existing talent, strengthen succession planning, and unlock new pathways for long-term career development.
Three projects from the Career Pathways Action Group (CPAG) developed resources for technical managers in higher education and research to support and strengthen technical teams.
Technical Recognition
This project addresses two key challenges facing technical teams within the sector: the limited visibility of the critical role technicians play in institutional success, and the ongoing professional development and recognition of technical staff. By surfacing these issues and offering practical routes forward, the project supports managers in navigating team development, championing recognition, and building confidence in the value their teams bring to their institutions.
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Project title: Technical Recognition
Collaboration between: Queen’s University Belfast, Newcastle University and Nottingham Trent University.
Challenge: Technical staff play a critical role in higher education, yet their contributions are often underrecognised, both in terms of institutional visibility and structured professional development. Compounding this, technicians work across a wide range of disciplines, each with distinct accreditation pathways and routes for formal recognition. This breadth makes it difficult for individuals to navigate development requirements and, in some cases, to access the right resources and support.
Approach: As a group, we undertook research into the support already available for technical staff in terms of recognition opportunities, alongside gathering qualitative data and feedback on their perceptions of recognition.
Outcome: We created three structured resources designed to enhance sector-wide recognition of technicians and the work they undertake, including a recognition toolkit for technical staff, a blueprint for an online technician community, and a ‘buddy builder’ for technical managers.
Impact: The overall impact that we expect from these resources are that they encourage staff to pursue professional recognition and accreditation. Our resources enable viewers to enhance their career development, promoting peer-to-peer support and knowledge sharing.
Part of themes: Career Development for Technical Professionals and Technical Talent Management
Explore Career Development for Technical Professionals resources:
- Recognition Toolkit for Technicians
Click to view | ⤓ Download
Click to view | ⤓ Download
Case study: Recognising technicians as educators
The Queen’s Technician Teaching Fellowship Scheme (TTFS) is a structured professional development initiative designed to recognise and make visible the contribution of technical staff to teaching and learning at Queen’s University Belfast. The scheme supports technicians to reflect on and articulate the educational practice embedded within their everyday roles. Participants build pedagogical confidence and are guided towards Advance HE Fellowship recognition, strengthening professional identity and parity of esteem for technical educators across the institution.
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Succession Planning
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Project title: Succession Planning
Collaboration between: Birmingham City University, University of Cambridge, University of Essex, University of Warwick, and ITSS.
Challenge: To improve and enhance the succession planning processes for the technical staff within university settings.
Approach: This project piloted enhanced annual review processes, developed practical toolkits and templates, and embedded citizenship and knowledge-sharing expectations into role descriptors and job profiles. The group has laid strong foundations to enable continued sustainable workforce development activities.
Outcomes: This project has demonstrated that meaningful succession planning for technical services staff in university settings is both achievable and essential to safeguarding institutional impact. The CPAG initiative has moved succession planning from a sensitive and often avoided topic to a constructive and empowering conversation.
Impact: Reduced single points of failure within technical communities, and supporting the continued creation of resilient technical career pathways. Most importantly, it reinforces the message that technical expertise is a valid institutional asset to be nurtured and developed for future generations.
Lessons learnt: Continued commitment, investment, and cross-institutional collaboration will help embed succession planning as an ongoing practice (rather than a reactive response to problems) securing a confident skilled, and future-ready technical workforce.
Succession Planning for Technical Professionals is a practical guide that helps technical managers build team resilience and long-term health. This guide provides four practical tools and conversation templates, supported by real case studies from technical teams across higher education. Together, these resources will help ensure vital skills and knowledge are retained within your team, enabling future success and continuity.
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Read more about the Succession Planning tools
Tool 1 – Succession planning through annual reviews.
- Changing the annual review documentation to ensure that succession planning is discussed honestly and openly.
Tool 2 – Succession planning through good communication.
- Communication tools that enable and allow retirement or resignation to be discussed.
Tool 3 – Succession planning through job descriptions.
- Guidance on how the addition of good citizenship into job descriptions can help change the culture of knowledge sharing.
Tool 4 – Succession planning through strategic tools.
- A set of tools to gather, map and visualise knowledge about your team’s skills and competencies.
4a: Succession planning tool
- Use the Succession Planning Tool to identify potential replacements for key roles to ensure business continuity. Find out who is ready to do a different role as an immediate permanent move or to provide emergency cover. It can also show the strength of the pipeline of talent within a team.
4b: Skills tool
- Use a Skills Tool to describe the various key skills that exist within your team. A skill is an ability gained by a person through learning and practice – a proficiency to perform a certain activity. Be specific about the technician’s activity and skills.
4C: Competency tool
- Use a Competency Tool to highlight gaps and recruitment needs within your team or the wider organisation. A competency is a combined set of skills, knowledge and desires that describes someone’s ability to perform a particular function.
Click the buttons below to download each tool.
Exploring Technical Careers
This project addresses the challenge that managers sometimes feel nervous and unequipped to speak to their staff about career development. Our career conversations workbook offers managers guidance about how and when to do this, empowering your technical staff to take control of their careers.
Read more about this project:
Collaboration between: Cranfield University, Liverpool John Moores University, Science & Technology Facilities Council, and ITSS.
Challenge: Technical staff often lack access to structured support for career development, leaving many unsure of how to navigate progression or articulate their ambitions. Without the right tools or guidance, meaningful career conversations between technicians and their managers can be difficult to initiate, limiting opportunities for growth.
Approach: Drawing on shared experiences across our institutions, we mapped the gaps in existing career development support for technical staff, before collaboratively developing three practical resources that we each piloted locally.
Outcomes: We created a library of nine short videos featuring technicians sharing their roles and career journeys, designed to inspire and engage technical staff across the sector. Alongside this, two Career conversations Workbooks, one supporting technicians, the other equipping managers and colleagues to guide technicians through their career choices.
Impact: Initial pilots of the videos and workbooks were well received by technical staff and managers, demonstrating clear appetite for this kind of structured career development support across the sector.
Lessons learned: Career conversations don’t need to be complex, but they do need dedicated time and space to be meaningful. When introducing these resources, consider how they can complement and integrate with existing institutional guidance, such as appraisal frameworks, rather than sitting alongside them as separate tools. The closer they are embedded into familiar processes, the more likely they are to be used.
Part of themes: Career Development for Technical Professionals and Technical Talent Management
Explore Career Development for Technical Professionals resources:
- Career Conversations for technical staff
- Video Library