Planning and Managing a Recruitment Campaign

COUNCIL NEWSLETTER

AUGUST 2021

Step by Step Guide to Planning and Managing a Recruitment Campaign

The recruitment process can be complicated and have a number of potential pitfalls for Councils.  The following step by step guide is intended to give Councils a framework to help them work their way through the process.

1.      The Council or Staffing Committee should allocate responsibility to a group of Councillors to act as the Recruitment Panel. The panel should have delegated responsibility from either the Full Council or Staffing Committee to advertise the post, select candidates for interview, conduct the interviews, and either make a decision to appoint or make recommendations to the Council / Committee as to who should be appointed.

An ideal panel size would be three Members.  It doesn’t need to be too big as this could be off putting at interview, however no individual Councillors can exercise such management responsibility, and a panel of two may result in a split decision.

2.      The Panel needs to decide what the Council needs from a post holder.  For example, does a new recruit to the post of Clerk need:

·        CiLCA

·        Knowledge of the local community

·        Ability to manage a workforce

·        High degree of financial capability

·        Project management skills; for example, to manage a new development

·        Good knowledge of local Government management

·        Commercial capability to improve Council revenues/finances.

Whichever skills, qualifications and experiences are important to the Council need to be included in the Person Spec.

3.      The next step is for the panel to determine which criteria are of greatest value to the Council.  It can then allocate points to the different criteria to highlight those which are of greatest value.  For example, if a total of 100 points are allocated to all criteria, but the most valued are CiLCA and local Government knowledge, 20-30 points could be allocated to these criteria alone.  The remaining 60-40 points can be shared amongst the remaining criteria. 

As a result, those skills and abilities that are of greater importance to the Council will receive a higher degree of attention during the recruitment process.

4.      The Panel can then produce a Job Advert which focuses on those criteria that have received the highest priority scores.  For example, “Applicants must have CiLCA or be willing to achieve the qualification within two years”, “knowledge of local Government management procedures and finances is essential”.

5.      Ensure that the Job Adverts reach the right candidates.  Will this happen if it is posted on the Website/Parish notice board?  Alternatively, would it be better to pay for it to be included in the District/County Councils Jobs circular?

6.      Using the prioritised Person Specification, the Panel can draw up a score sheet for assessing Application Forms/CV’s.  The sheet should list the criteria on the Person Specification, along with the scores allocated to each.  The Panel can then use this sheet to work through the candidates’ completed Application details to help identify if the applicant has the necessary criteria.  Each criteria that is identified in the Application Form/.CV receives the appropriate score as listed on the Person Spec.  The scores for each applicant are then totalled to give that applicant an overall score.

7.      The Council can either invite the top 4/5 applicants to an interview, or set a pass mark (60-70%) and invite those who exceed this threshold to an interview.  This second option ensures that candidates with the right skills are interviewed.

8.      The interview process can also incorporate skills tests, site hours, meeting other Employees, meeting Elected Members.

9.      The interview panel usually conduct interviews for senior posts, such as Clerk, RFO, or Deputy Clerk. The Clerk would normally conduct interviews for subordinate posts; and this would be specified in their Job Description.

10.   When conducting interviews, questions should be based on the requirements of the Person Specification and be consistently asked of all interviewees.  The Interviewer Panel should have a score sheet that lists all of the questions to be asked.  These are based on the Person Specification criteria, with the appropriate priority scores.  As a result, those candidates with the most valued criteria will receive the highest scores.

11.   As with the Application Form assessment, the Panel can set a pass mark (70-80%) to ensure that the successful candidate has the skills which were identified as important to the Council.  The highest scorer would obviously be appointed.

This is general guide through the process, but the purpose is two-fold:

1.      The assessment process is based on identifying non-discriminatory qualifications, skills and experiences that are clearly identified in the Person Specification, reducing the risk of discrimination.

2.      The Council can deliberately “discriminate” in favour of specific skills and abilities that it needs.

PROFILE

Chris Moses LLM Chartered FCIPD is Managing Director of Personnel Advice & Solutions Ltd.  He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and has a Master’s Degree in Employment Law. If you have any questions regarding these issues please feel free to contact him on (01529) 305056 or email p.d.solutions@zen.co.uk

www.personneladviceandsolutions.co.uk