This guidance supplements the Recruiters’ Manual and assumes that the interview panel are familiar with the University’s recruitment processes and procedures, and the Leadership and Management Framework. If you are not, please click on the links above, or consult your local HR advisor for further details.

In this guide ACTION sections mean areas you must do and GUIDANCE sections contain advice.

The guide follows the chronological stages of the recruitment process as follows:(Ctrl + click to follow the link)

Preparing a Job Description

Creating Essential and Desirable Criteria

Preparing an advert

Preparing the Information for Candidates

Short-listing - Deciding criteria

- Doing the short-listing

Preparing Interview Questions

Preparing for Interview

Assessing the Candidates

Comparing the Candidates

Preparing a Job Description

ACTION

All recruitment requires an accurate and up to date Job Description. Detailed guidance notes on writing a job description can be found in section 4.2 of the Recruiters’ Manual. Use the following template for writing a job description using competencies Job Description template using competencies.

GUIDANCE

The job description;

  • mustaccurately reflect the duties and responsibilities of the post
  • clearly state the knowledge, skills and experience required
  • is vital to the whole recruitment and selection process
  • should be accurate and fit for purpose, as it will also be used to:

draw up an appropriate advert

provide information to applicants

inform other staff involved in the selection process

serve other purposes, such as planning an induction, setting objectives and subsequent development

If you have already created a Job Description for grading purposes, you will need to alter this for recruitment purposes to ensure you attract the right applicants. You will be able to copy across some of the information from the grading exercise,but you will also want to include some new information. You do not need to include lots of examplesnor detailed percentages of time.

Creating Essential and Desirable Criteria

ACTION

  • Refer to the competency definitions
  • Choose your essential and desirable criteria from the definitions and copy and paste these across to the Job Description Template using competencies
  • Under these headings select specific behaviours from the competencies, as appropriate for the post.

GUIDANCE

  • Start with the competency “Pursuing Professional Excellence” as your first essential criterion
  • List the specific skills required e.g. a management qualification
  • To select the other competencies, refer to the competency definitions document: highlightthe most appropriate ones for your post. Mark with an “e” or “d” depending if these are essential or desirable. Remember to select from across all 3 competency themes; Communicating and Working with People, Building for the Future and Developing Business Success
  • Ifapplicants don’t display all the essential criteria they can not be short-listed. It is therefore imperative that you only include criteria that are truly essential (otherwise you will be restricting the short-list)
  • Ensure the Job Description is not too long (2 to 3 pages) and uses appropriate language e.g.

“ The post holder will act autonomously in the application of resources and setting of the strategic direction. Any actions will be undertaken with reference to the business plan, which will be signed off by the Programme Board”

could be condensed to

“ The post holder will have theautonomy to implement the Programme Board’s resource and strategic plans.”

Preparing an Advert

ACTION

  • Refer to the appropriate competenciesand/or behaviours in theLeadership andManagement Framework to create a brief summary of the ideal candidate e.g.

“..has the ability to empower others to use initiative and confidence in their own judgement”.

  • Include any information that is not appropriate for the advert in the detailed Information for Candidates.

GUIDANCE

  • The advert is intended to attract a diverse and appropriate range of applicants who wish to find out more about the post. It should consist of a brief synopsis of the post and a concise summary of the key competencies required. If your advert is too long it will be returned to you for editing.
  • Further information on writing adverts can be found in section 4.11 of the Recruiters’Manual.

Preparing the Information for Candidates

ACTION

  • Complete the template4.10 of the Recruiters’Manual. There is no need to include a separate Person Specification as this is included under the Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Experience) section in the Job Description.

GUIDANCE

The Information for Candidates pulls together all the information that potential applicants need to know, so they canmake an informed decision as to whether or not they wish to apply for the post.You need to gain the buy-in of genuinely interested and potentially suitable applicants, and dissuade potentially unsuitable applicants from applying. Investing time at this stage of the process will:

  • ensure that you produce accurate and usefulinformation
  • save yourself time later in the process (both short-listing and interviewing)
  • provide an opportunity for you to sell the post and the advantages of working at the University to the applicants.

Elaborating on certain aspects of the role

Information for Candidatesincludes the Job Description and therefore already liststhe competencies for the post. If you wish to elaborate on aspects of the role, select the competency and then a phrase or behaviour from the competency:

e.g. for a Grade 10 role which requires the competency “Leading, Developing and Managing People” andan important aspect of that competency is the behaviour “Creating Meaningful Goals”, you could include specific behavioursfor that competency such as “Inspires others across the University” or “Translates strategy into meaningful goals”.

Deciding Short-listing Criteria

ACTION

The panel must agree the short-listing criteria before they see any applications. This is to ensure that no bias can arise and to comply with best practice.

GUIDANCE

The short-listing criteria were decided when you compiled the essential and desirable criteria in the Job Description.

  • You will not be able to ascertain some of these criteria from a written application e.g. some of the behaviours under the “Influencing others” competency. For example, if the behaviour “Inspires others” is an essential criteria, you will want to ensure that that your short-listed candidates can “Project a positive self-image” and/or “Deliver motivating messages”. At the short-listing stage you will only be able to ascertain this to a very limited extent from their application. This would need exploring in further detail in the interview
  • The “Pursuing Professional Excellence”competency will always form part of your short-listing criteria as this includes all of the technical skills required for the role
  • To ensure that you have an audit trail of the short-listing process you must record your short-listing decisions. To assist you in doing this we recommend that you use the Short-listing Form
  • At this stage the panel chair should agreehow you are going to deal with any late applications; if you are going to accept them and up until which date before the short-listing panel meet
  • If you have not already done so, you should also consider ranking your essential and desirable criteria at this point. This will help you narrow down your short-list and assist you when you compare candidates after interview
  • If the candidates are sitting any other assessments e.g. a presentation, you shouldat this stage confirm how much weight the outcome of these will have on the overall result.

Creating interview questions

ACTION

  • Prepare your questions once you have decided your short-listing criteria. This should take place before reviewing any applications to ensure no bias and comply with best practice.See section on Preparing Interview Questions for guidance on writing interview questions.

Doing the Short-listing

ACTION

Short-listing should only commence when you can confirm that all applications have been received against the Applicant Tracking Form.

  • The short-listing panel should, together, go through each application anddetermine whether or not the applicant meets the already agreed short-listing criteria
  • You must have an audit trail of your process, so ensure that if you have used the rankings note this on the Short-listing Form
  • If at any time you are unsure about a short-listing decision, please consult your HR Advisor
  • Only applicants who meet all the essential criteria can be considered for interview.

GUIDANCE

  • You cannot credit an applicant with the experience, skill or behaviour, if they do not specifically state in their application that they have it
  • Clarify the experience you are looking for by referring back to the Leadership and Management Framework. It is unlikely that applicants will use the same terminology as the Leadership andManagement Framework, but the Framework will give a good indication of the kinds of behaviours that applicants should describe in their application
  • If, once you have short-listed all of the applications you have more suitable candidates than you wish to interview, use the rankings that you agreed previously to identify your top candidates
  • Further Information on short-listing can be found in section 5.1 of the Recruiters’ Manual.

Preparing Interview Questions

ACTION

  • Compile your interview questions before you review any applications, to ensure no bias and to comply with best practice
  • The basis of the questions is the Job Description, and in turn, the Leadership and Management Framework.

Examples of competency based interview questions can be found at Examples of competency based interview questions.

  • Look at the differentbehaviours that define this competency
  • Word your questions so that they require the candidates to explain how, in the past, they have demonstratedthese behaviours. (Sometimes one question willcapture more than one behaviour.)
  • Ensure that your questions are not too lengthy nor complex;you mayneed to explore the answers by asking further questions
  • Read over your questions to ensure that the candidates will understand the aspect of the behaviour that you are trying to get them to describe.
  • The last page of the Candidate Assessment Form contains a section for “Additional Questions”. The section is completed after candidates have been selected for interview. Further details can be found in the Preparing for interviewsection
  • You may not have time to question all of the competencies/behaviours stated in the Job Description, but you must ensure that candidates have the opportunity to show you that they meet all of the essential criteria.
  • Use the Candidate Assessment Form to note which questions to ask the candidates. Populate the left hand column of the form (under the competency description) with the questions that you wish to ask for each competency/behaviour

Preparing for Interview

ACTION

  • Before the first interview, preferably at the short-listing stage, the selection panel decide who is going to ask and take notes for each area of questioning
  • The panel should complete the “Additional Questions” specific to each candidate. For consistency and fairness all candidates must be asked the same questions. However, individual applications will highlight areas, specific to a candidate, that need further investigation e.g.questions arising from psychometric testing or gaps in employment. It is possible that you will have no “Additional Questions” to ask a candidate
  • Before the first interview make sure the panel members are familiar with the Leadership and Management Framework and haveenough candidate assessment forms for the interviews, to assist the panel in evaluating the candidates
  • Plan the timing of each interview, allowing time inbetween to complete the documentation.

GUIDANCE

If you have followed all of the preparation stages listed above, the interview should be straight forward. It is envisaged that the competency based interviews will take approximately 1hour (longer if a detailed explanation of the role is required). You will also need to allow approximately 15 minutes at the end of each interview to complete the documentation.

Assessing the Candidates

ACTION

  • Follow theformat of the Candidate Assessment Form to ensure that all questions are asked and thorough notes are taken
  • Immediately after each interview write up and score it. This will ensure that you do not miss anything, or become confused and attribute responses to the wrong candidate
  • As a panel, review each of the candidate’s answers and evaluate to what extent they met (or did not meet) the competency or behaviour, and apply an agreed score for each.If necessary, refer to the Leadership and Management Framework to confirm the indicatorsfor each behaviour
  • If a candidate demonstrated behavioursfrom one competency when answering a question about a different one, credit should be given for this evidence when deciding the score
  • You can give a candidate credit only for a competency/behaviourfor which they have provided evidence.Equally, if any of the candidates are known to the panel they can be credited only with competencies that were displayed in the interview – no recognition can be given for what is already known, or supposed about them.

Completing the summary section of the Candidate Assessment Form

  • The summary sectionwill consist of factual observations and be specific, objective and non-personal.
  • The Chair writes down any strengths and development needs that became evident in the interview and completes the General Summary
  • The Chair providesan overview of how the candidate performed at interview and includes comments such as “was very nervous”, “took time to think about his/her answers”, “well prepared” and “struggled to understand the question(s)”
  • Record the scores from any assessments (eg; presentations, on line tests, psychometric profiles) in the section headed “Other Assessments”.

GUIDANCE

Further information on interviews can be found in section 5.6 of the Recruiters’ Manual.

Comparing Candidates

ACTION

  • Compare candidates only when they have all been interviewed
  • Populate the essential and desirable criteria onto the Comparison Matrix(if you have ranked them, you may find it useful to list them in the order they are ranked). You must keep an audit trail of the process
  • Enter the names of the candidates and the scores that you allotted them for each behaviour.
  • Complete the last section (if appropriate) to record the scores from any other assessments that the candidates undertook
  • Read across the matrix to see which of the candidates best demonstrated all of the behaviours . To be successful a candidate must have demonstrated all the essential criteria. Factor in the scores from any other assessments.

GUIDANCE

Further information on Comparing Candidates can be found in section 5.7 of the Recruiters’ Manual.

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