Recruitment and Selection

1. Recruitment and Selection Trainer: Susan Norman Guest speaker: Graeme Ross, Immigration & Compliance Manager Personal and Professional Development (PPD)

2. Session content • Selection criteria & methods • Bias & discrimination in the recruitment process • Shortlisting • Interview preparation • Questioning, listening and rapport skills • Disclosure & Barring, RTW checks, Tier 2 visa

3. R&S process overview • See HR5 recruitment checklist included in course handout

4. Employment Law and Recruitment • Legislation you must comply with during the recruitment process: • The Equality Act 2010 • Identity checks to ensure eligibility to work in UK

5. Equality Act 2010Protected Characteristics

6. Types of Discrimination • Direct discrimination • person is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic • Associative discrimination • DD because they associate with another person who possesses a protected characteristic e.g. not to appoint someone because they have a child with a disability.

7. Types of Discrimination • Perceptive discrimination • DD think they possess a particular protected characteristic e.g. refusing to recruit someone who you believe may hold particular religious views even though they don’t. • Indirect discrimination • a condition, rule, policy or a practice in your company that applies to everyone but particularly disadvantages people who share a protected characteristic e.g. including height restrictions for a role

8. Genuine Occupational Requirement • Allows that in some circumstances you may state that being of a certain sex/ race/ religion/belief /age / sexual orientation is an occupational requirement of the job • E.g particular gender because the position requires the promotion of personal welfare or education services for that gender • Specific wording needs to be included in advert re Schedule 9 Part1 of the Equality Act 2010

9. Employment Tribunals (ET) • Unsuccessful applicants may make a claim to ET if they believe you have unlawfully discriminated in the recruitment process • Includes anyone not invited to interview if they believe they have shown they posses the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job • Tribunal will assess amount claimant would have earned if s/he had been appointed • Maximum award in discrimination cases is unlimited

10. Discriminatory Selection Criteria • Length of service • Willingness to work outside normal hours • Preference for full-time workers • Acceptance of only UK academic of professional qualifications • Age restrictions

11. Protecting against a claim • Check for discriminatory elements in: • Advert • Job description/ person specification • Interview • Interview tests • Pre-employment checks • Record keeping

12. Inclusive Cambridge • Consideration of the impact of gendered wording throughout the recruitment process and provision of guidance. • Review of positive action toolkit and guidance to enable broader use. • Review of starting salaries procedures and practices together with the data available to managers to help them make informed decisions. • Review of additional payments and incentives in recruitment to ensure equitability and transparency. • See:http://www.inclusivecambridge.admin.cam.ac.uk/taking-action

13. Constructing selection criteria • Underpins the whole process • Must be based on skills, knowledge and experience required for the role as per person profile • Must not be discriminatory • Distinguishes between essential and desirable • Will be recorded on shortlisting matrix template

14. Essential and Desirable • Essential means that this is the minimum criterion needed to carry out the job and the job cannot be done without these criteria. • No one without these criteria will be offered the job, no matter what other attributes they might possess. • Desirable refers to those criteria which are not essential; someone could do the job without this. • Attributes not identified as either essential or desirable should not be taken into consideration in the selection process.

15. Behavioural attributes • Communication • Relationship Building • Valuing diversity • Strategic focus • People development • Negotiating and influencing • Innovation and change • These can be used at all stages of the process • Useful to consider for any group of staff, including research and academic, as well as assistant and academic-related.

16. Scoring • Helps make the subjective as objective as possible • Panel will identify range to be used and any weightings to be included

17. Weighting Scores

18. Activity • In your group discuss and decide: • the selection criteria you will use • the selection methods for assessing criteria • the overall scoring arrangements

19. Shortlisting • Review applications against the selection criteria using matrix • Shortlist only candidates who meet essential criteria • Use desirable criteria for further selection if needed. Keep score sheet • Invite successful candidates to interview using HR templates • Request references using HR template

20. Shortlisting activity • Work independently first to assess the two applicants against the job description and person profile • Assess only against the selection criteria; initially use Essential criteria. Use Desirable only if necessary • Meet as panel to discuss and agree shortlisted candidate(s) • Use the matrix to record your decision

21. references

22. References / 2 • Request before or after interview • May be difficult to gain • Check anything you don’t trust • Phone referee if you want more info • Give candidate opportunity to explain any issues arising from references

23. Interview prep • Book room, notify relevant people internally • Design questions • Decide who will chair the Appointing Body/ Interview Panel • Decide who will ask which questions • Arrange workplace visits, tests, etc. • Have all relevant paperwork prepared

24. Health Checks You can: • Ask at interview if there is anything in the job that would present an issue to the candidate • Ask if they believe that they require any adjustments to be able to carry out the role • Arrange post-interview health checks carried out by a fully qualified Occupational Health practitioner

25. Ladder of Inference

27. Question types • Closed: useful for clarification/verification • Open: encourages full answers • Probing / Follow on: gain more information • Leading: suggests the desired answer • Hypothetical: only gives what candidate thinks is a ‘right’ answer • Multiple: can confuse the candidate • Funnel approach most useful: open; probing; closed

28. activity • In your small groups design questions for your interview • Decide and note weighting for each question • Decide who will ask each group of questions

29. Interview: The beginning • Chair makes introductions • Explains the format of the interview • Explains the panel are interested in the candidate’s approach to specific situations • Panel members state post title and sentence about their role • Candidate should be informed that they may be asked probing/ follow up questions by any of the panel members.

30. Chair should explain to the candidate: • That he/she should feel free to ask for clarification of questions • That he/she will have an opportunity at the end of the interview to add or clarify anything and to ask questions • That panel members will be taking notes to ensure that there is an accurate record of what is said and that he/she should not let this put him/her off • Ask a non-scoring ice-breaker question (e.g. what attracted you to this vacancy?).

31. Interview: the end • Inform the candidate that they are at the end of the formal interview • Invite the candidate to ask any questions • Inform the candidate about what next steps • State how they will be contacted and ensure you have the correct details • Thank the candidate for participating in the interview process.

32. After the interview • Review all scores • Apply agreed decision rules, incorporate results from any test • Record all scores • Confirm when and by whom candidates will be contacted • Contact successful candidate first • Use Conditional Offer Letter • Agree who will provide feedback if required

33. Identity Checks • Successful applicants must be asked to provide original documentation for proof of eligibility to work in the UK before they can be legally employed. • UKBA provide guidance on their website about what documents to check, what they look like and how to carry out the checks

34. Job Offers Conditional job offers on satisfactory: • Proof of eligibility to work in the UK • Post interview health check • CRB check • Reference check • Qualification checks

35. Feedback hints and tips..1 • Refer to the extensive notes taken during the selection process •  Agree who on the panel will be giving feedback and the content. Often there are internal candidates that other panel members may meet or work with - important that feedback is agreed and consistent • Feedback can be given in writing or by phone call. • If done by phone this should be pre-arranged to ensure the candidate is in an appropriate place to take the call

36. Feedback hints and tips..2 • Feedback should be linked to the candidate’s performance against the role profile and further particulars. It should not be about any judgements of character • Feedback should be constructive and truthful so that it is useful for future applications. Include positive feedback, especially as a concluding comment •  Wherever possible, provide feedback on all parts of the selection process i.e. application form / CV, selection exercises and interview