NHS Shetland - case study
What is happening in NHS Shetland?
NHS Shetland is using psychometric testing to support values-based recruitment decisions.
Around 5 years ago the Board arranged for a small number of people from the Staff Development Team to be trained in psychometric testing and some of them went on to do more advanced training. Three people are currently trained and a couple of others are trained to a basic level.
When Everyone Matters was published in 2013 the Board was able to use these new skills to support values-based recruitment decisions by identifying people who match well with the NHS values.
How is it being used?
At the moment this is being used to support senior managers and executive recruitment. (Band 8 and above) They would ideally like to use it across the Board but have limited resources and for some posts there aren’t enough applicants to justify it.
When did the work take place?
The training took place a couple of years ago and the publication of Everyone Matters gave it a kick start in practice.
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It is being used on an ongoing basis and a policy is currently being developed.
Andy Glen,former Staff and Organisational Development Manager, says “This is starting to make Everyone Matters feel real and not a just a high level workforce policy document.”
Why did you do this?
The costs of getting recruitment wrong are high in every organisation, when we are so remote it is to the mutual benefit of both applicant and NHS Shetland that we recruit people with the appropriate skills and values. That we have people working in a way that both they value and that the Board values.
How does it work?
Recruiting managers work with an expert in psychometrics and they create a personality profile for the role. They go through the range of personality factors and decide which best suit the role and which are most important. They are encouraged to think about what they need for their team and to consider values as a key part of the process.
Short-listed applicants complete the personality test and their results are compared with the profile. The resultsenable tailored questions to be asked at interview to probe certain issues further. The results form part of a suite of resources that are used to inform recruitment decisions.
Director of Community Health and Social Care, Mr Simon Bokor Ingram has used this service frequently and values the approach. He says,
“This was offered and explained by HR, and having gone through a recruitment process within the health board myself and been subjected to the analyses, it seemed a good opportunity to use the tools for a particular post where we had struggled in the past to get the right appointment.
“The tool is good at identifying underlying values in individuals, and triangulation as part of the interview process for getting the right match to the importance we attach to certain values.
“This is definitely a useful approach- to be used as part of the overall interview process- and does identify good matches or the need to follow certain lines of enquiry through the interview process.”
What are the benefits?
The process identifies people whose personality matches well with the personality factors and values that are needed for the role. And conversely it helps to avoid poor recruitment decisions by detecting people who appear to be a poor match or who may be overly positive about themselves.
Managers who go through this process are reminded of the values and become aware of the importance of recruiting people who share our values. They really like the process and can use the results to support their otherwise subjective judgment about candidates.
Andy says, “You can’t change peoples’ personalities so it’s better to recruit folk with the right values in the first place.
“Another benefit is that by talking about values this helps keeps Everyone Matters in folks minds.”