1. Recruitment training

2. Introduction Aim of the training – consistent approach to recruitment
TAG’s Mission and Values
Launch of new written test & interview questions for support workers
Recruitment policy
Louise
Housekeeping: toilets, fire exits, breaks. Mobile phones – please keep them off.
General: 2 trainers - Collaberation – both trainers will ‘chip in’. Trainees respect for each other in terms of differing opinions etc
Will cover: Legalities (discrimination), Common mistakes, Shortlisting, Interview prep., Lead responsibility, Interview (scoring), Written test (scoring) &
Employment checks
Aim: Consistent approach from every interviewer across TAG to ensure fair and robust process.
Mission & value:
No barriers, choice, enriched opportunities
Ensuring that we aim, through interview process to find the right people for those we support.
At this stage we have limited service user involvement in the process so the interview process is a means of building service users trust in us to find the right people to support them; to enable them to feel valued, listened to and involved in the recruitment process as much as currently possible.
It is a privilege to have that trust and it is our vocation to, with integrity - do our best to interview robustly and with commitment to find the right staff. Right does not always mean – right now. Service user interests need to always be our top priority. (Examples)
Be passionate about finding the right people for our service users.
New written test & questions: Role of the recruitment working group, mock interviews, trial interviews – explain the process
Recruitment policy: Currently (April 2016) under review. Should be launched in near future and will be in line with information given in this training session.

3. Recruitment policy & process
Covers all types of recruitment within TAG
Obligations and expectations:
Legal
Regulatory
Organisational
Process – from vacancy to new start
Debbie
Policy: defines the recruitment process – effective, efficient and fair.
Covers –
Equal opps & diversity
Identifying and advertising vacancies
Receipt of applications and shortlisting/interview
Pre-employment checks
Offer of position
Review and evaluation
Obligations & expectations: How we as interviewers, interview is guided by certain obligations and expectations. Legal = employment law. Regulatory = Care Inspectorate. Organisational = internal. (examples)
Process:
HR advised of vacancy (relevant authorisation and sign off . Discus - Information from DMs regarding net vacancies as well as priority teams, information from TMs/ATMs on how vacancy should be filled. Eg 1 full time female etc.))
Vacancy advertised (budget?)
Applications received and logged on Cascade
Applications passed for shortlisting
Successful candidates invited for interview
Interview & written test carried out by 2 people
HR check and copy ID documents
HR notify candidates of outcome & start recruitment checks
HR pass recruitment pack to manager when checks are complete
Manager arranges a start date with candidate
Manager fills in new start form and passes to HR

4. Discrimination
There are nine specific areas – called protected characteristics - which are covered by equality and diversity guidelines and legislation. 
Can you name all nine?
Direct and indirect discrimination – is it ever justifiable?
Activity 1– Can I ask.....?
Debbie
9 protected characteristics: use flip chart to write up answers people give. Use next slide with group to check they got all nine.
Direct and indirect discrimination:
Direct – Treating one person less favourable than others because of a protected characteristic
Indirect – When the employer applies a standard rule or procedure across the board which has the effect of putting those who share a particular protected characteristic at a disadvantage.
Activity 1: see Activities – trainer notes. Discuss answers as per trainer notes.

5. The 9 Protected Characteristics
Race
Age
Sex
Sexual Orientation
Disability
Pregnancy/Maternity
Marriage/ Civil Partnership
Religion & Belief
Gender reassignment
Debbie
Race - Refers to the protected characteristic of Race. It refers to a group of people defined by their race, colour, and nationality (including citizenship) ethnic or national origins.
Age - Where this is referred to, it refers to a person belonging to a particular age (e.g. 32 year olds) or range of ages (e.g year olds).
Sex - A man or a woman.
Sexual orientation - Whether a person's sexual attraction is towards their own sex, the opposite sex or to both sexes.
Disability - A person has a disability if s/he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on that person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Pregnancy and maternity - Pregnancy is the condition of being pregnant or expecting a baby. Maternity refers to the period after the birth, and is linked to maternity leave in the employment context. In the non-work context, protection against maternity discrimination is for 26 weeks after giving birth, and this includes treating a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding.
Marriage and civil partnership - This is no longer restricted to a union between a man and a woman but now includes a marriage between a same-sex couple. Same-sex couples can also have their relationships legally recognised as 'civil partnerships'. Civil partners must not be treated less favourably than married couples. 
Religion and belief - Religion has the meaning usually given to it but belief includes religious and philosophical beliefs including lack of belief (e.g. Atheism). Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live for it to be included in the definition.
Gender reassignment - The process of transitioning from one gender to another.

6. Common mistakes Too much / too little chatting
Judging / assumptions / personal preferences
Not being prepared
Giving too much away
Jargon
Closed questions & fixed expectations of answers
Script reading
Louise
Too much / too little chatting : a good rule is 80% listening, 20% chatting. Must depend on the person; consider putting them at ease if they are nervous – chat about their current role, how they got here – anything to reassure them. Consider though that some may find chat nerve wracking and may want to just get on with the questions.
Judging / assumptions / personal preferences:
Never make snap judgements. They can lead to you (sometimes unconsciously) not giving someone the same chance you gave the last person – consistent and fair approach.
Do not assume anything. Even good things – just because someone has the experience on paper – you still need to hear the values come through their answers.
Human nature to look for similarities in people; interviewers should be mindful not to let ‘being like me’ unconsciously sway their judgement.
Not being prepared: Not reading the application before the interview (examples of why this could be an issue), not allowing time to set up the environment with the correct tools (water, clipboards, spare pens), not allowing enough time after the interviews to mark them – the potential to hold up the process.
Giving too much away: Fine line between prompts and feeding people the answers. Through tone and or body language – this can happen when you have an expectation that the candidate will pass – oh, you know......, so, you mean......
Jargon: expecting all candidates to know particular process or policies. Things like medication cardex – no one needs to say that specifically – record that the S.U. takes medication is fine. Trigger – knowing the cause is fine. SSSC – candidates new to support work may not yet know what that is – saying governing bodies / social work etc is fine. Clients instead of service users / people we support.
Closed questions & fixed expectations of answers:
Using prompts that require one word answers will not be useful. Simple change in language - rather that ‘do you think that's ok?’ try ‘why do you think that's ok’ or when would that be ok’.
Use example of old challenging behaviour question – interviewer waiting for the words ‘get out of the kitchen’ when candidate has said they would remove the S.U. and themselves from the environment. Be open minded about what the answer could be – every person we interview is a unique individual and while answers should always have similarities, they should also always vary.
Script reading: How it comes across – bored, uninterested, unprofessional, nervous. How to avoid falling into it – practice, know the materials, interview with a variety of different people to build up your knowledge and confidence.

7. Who ARE we looking for? Support Worker Person Specification
Shares our values
Practically-minded
A nice person
Good in a team
Gets the details right
Not afraid to think
Activity 2 – What matters most?
Louise
Person specification – see paperwork, page 10.
What does each specification mean?
 Shares our values – equality, inclusion, person-centred support, respecting differences.
Practically-minded – can budget and manage a home, plans in advance, assesses risk well, responds to challenging situations well.
A nice person – listens, interested in people, patient, calm, fun, caring, considerate.
Good in a team – communicates well, takes responsibility, asks for advice, helps others.
Gets the details right – follows procedure, completes paperwork, punctual, consistent, finds out and remembers stuff
Not afraid to think – Reflects on practice, learns from experience, suggests ideas, puts self in others shoes
Activity 2 – see Activities trainer notes. Discuss answers.
Discuss the information taken from March 2016 Have Your Say. Debbie attended and took along the new person specification and discussed with service users that we had developed this based in part on their feedback.
Service users were asked to rank the specifications – service users so far have said that being a nice person is the most important aspect of being a support worker, followed by being practically-minded. While the being “a nice person” criteria might seems a bit redundant / not the most important specification for team managers, it is clear from our service users that this is the most important thing for them. Keep this in mind while shortlisting and interviewing. You could train / teach the majority of the other specifications but can you really teach someone to be a nice person?

8. Shortlisting Person specification Empowering people
Building & maintaining relationships
Additional requirements
To pass – 50% or more is required in the first three categories and all additional requirements for the role must be met.
Activity 3– Short listing - Pass or Fail?
Debbie
4 areas included within shortlisting for support workers:
Person specification - be familiar with it, understand the details in each criteria.
Empowering people – what does that mean to you? What kind of answer could we expect?
Building and maintaining relationships – what are we looking for people to demonstrate?
Additional requirements – generally only ability to complete SVQ 2. However – for specific adverts there may be specific requirements – drivers (area or service specific), weekends only ( youth group roles)
Reminder of procedure:Things taken into account are address, gender, car driver, preferred service, location and hours.
Tips:
Read through whole application first then revisit each point
Justify scoring
Everyone will read it differently but must be consistent and fair
SVQ question? Education, literacy skills, additional training etc.
Activity 3 – see activities – trainer notes. Feedback from groups at end of activity and discuss as per notes.
Recruitment group – to discuss 3 columns (none, some, satisfactory)

9. Interview preparationHR
Interviewers
Who
Where
When
Paperwork
Decide on lead
Appearance
Environment
Application
Format
Debbie HR
WHO – Book in relevant candidates, book managers in
WHERE – Book rooms
WHEN – Times (take into account written tests/breaks etc)
PAPERWORK – Invite candidate, inform reception/interviewers, interview paperwork provided
Interviewers
Lead – The role of the lead interviewer will be discussed in more detail later – however it is important this is decided in advance in order for each interviewer to prepare for their part
Appearance – What do managers think when candidates are dressed in certain ways? Interviewers wearing jeans/t shirts (and not looking smart for the interview) when the candidate has went to an effort to look smart for us – it is not acceptable. Senior management request / directive. Candidates first direct contact with TAG, - we should be presenting a professional impression
Environment - water, seating arrangement, pens, clipboards, temperature of room (reference anything unusual and apologies / explain – particularly noisy room, work going on so noise disruptions etc)
Application – Check for gaps in employment, reasons for leaving employment, past experience, 2 references (one from current/most recent employer). Are there any questions you need to ask about it? Use application to assist in deciding which option questions to ask – covered in detail later)
Format – who does what (lead interviewer), discuss maintaining eye contact/ showing interest in candidate – do you need to make basic notes only for the questions you ask?
Tips:
Pick your interview day wisely! Check diary, do you have a busy week, are you coming back from A/L or about to go on A/L?
Do you have 15 minutes before the first interview to meet the other interviewer and go through app etc?
Do you have time after the interviews to mark the written tests? If not when will you have time? Remember, any delay in this could impact on how quickly an offer is made and checks are started.
Cancelling interview/ unable to attend – what to do?

10. Lead interviewer Why have a lead interviewer? Who should it be?
Discussion – pros and cons of interviewing with your ATM / TM / DM
What is the lead responsible for?
Louise
Why & Who: Takes overall responsibility to ensure all paperwork completed etc. Should not always be most experienced person – must allow for development of newer interviewers.
Discussion: use flip chart. What do people think are the pros and cons of interviewing with their own ATM/ TM/ DM.
Examples: Pros – person knows the team when recruiting for specific team, know each other – increased confidence, able to ‘bounce’ off each other to get best from candidate etc. Cons - power dynamic (some may feel they need to do as their manager says, ie when disagreements re scores), don’t get the experience of interviewing with others (new ideas, confidence building)
Lead interviewer responsible for: ensuring consistent marking, all sections completed throughout interview pack, feedback completed at the back (give reasons why important), legal reasons behind why paperwork must be completed fully.
Deciding which option questions to ask – final decision.
Remember any delay in getting completed paperwork to HR could result in a delay to checks being started. Scoring must be filled out on the back, added up correctly.

11. Interview –pre-question chat
Small talk & reassurance
Outline process
Confirm understanding of understanding the support worker role document
Discuss vacancies- no promises
Complete pre interview checklist
Lead – questions regarding application form
Louise
Small talk & reassurance:
Be welcoming. Collecting the person from reception – important to reassure if nervous, make small talk, prepare them for other person in room etc.
Maintain eye contact as much as possible and demonstrate that you’re interested in what the person has to say (this comes into when asking questions too – don’t just look down at your notes, write the whole time a person is answering. If you can’t take bullet points notes do you need to write everything down if the other person is?)
The ability to conduct a formal interview in an informal style is important – it allows the candidate to be put at their ease. Try to demonstrate and have empathy with their nerves. Find a way of bringing them out of themselves if they are struggling due to nerves - asking them about what they like about their current job/how they got here – anything.
All interviewers should be able to project a confidence and passion for what we do/the job/our service users – this will help the person feel at ease and that ‘they have come to the right place’.
We, as interviewers, need to be able to show our values of person centeredness in action. The language we use – never use clients instead of our users/or the people we support. Do not say things like you will do personal care. Say instead - the personal care that a user wishes / needs us to support them with etc.
how we ask the questions is very important and we should be ever mindful of our users.
Outline process: (Use front page of interview – paperwork pack page 15) how the interview will proceed - questions (mention writing answers down) & expectations , written test & documents (where and who), opportunity to ask questions at end.
Ensure pre interview checklist is complete and that lead asks any questions arising from application form and notes down the answers.

12. Interview - questions Questions 1-5 are based on person specification
Question 5-7 are based on personal care, challenging behaviour & planning / groupwork
What answers do we expect?
How can the prompts assist us in getting the most from the candidate?
Activity 4 – Follow up questions.
Why do we need a consistent approach?
Remember those common mistakes?
Louise
Discuss new questions. Look at paperwork pack.
Questions 1-5 are on person specification: each specification should be met but remember that individual candidates will have a variety of ways of answering the questions. These questions are mainly value based; ensure these are demonstrated.
Questions 5-7 are scenario questions. While there is are more fixed sense of what an excellent answer looks like here remember not to have expectations of look for jargon – be open minded.
Expectations & getting the most from the candidate:
Get the reasoning behind someone’s answer, even if you are not quite sure you would answer in the same way.
Remember not to feed answers or read all the prompts like you are script reading
Activity 4 – see Activities – trainer notes. Each group to feedback – discuss.
Consistency – link to obligations and expectations – legal and regulatory. Link to our value base in terms of fairness.

13. Interview – post question chat
Availability & preferred location
Ensure all parts are completed
Record as much detail as possible
Make no promises – a verbal offer is an offer
Discuss and record any restrictions on availability
Record questions asked
Louise
See paperwork pack – page 24 – candidate availability and preferred locations.
Ensuring all parts are completed:
It is crucial that each part of this form is discussed and as much detail filled in as possible. For example – number of hours. Part time or casual is not enough. If p/t – how many hours, what days? Casual – have you mentioned the working restrictions for casual workers? The difference between casual and part time- do you know?
Area is important – regardless if you think they will come to your team (this may change by the time checks are complete) you should make note of where they live (not just Edinburgh – where specifically area wise) and how they intend to travel; be specific if there are certain areas they can’t / are not able to work in.
Detail: Assume you are writing it for someone else even if you think the person will come to you – the more information the easier it will be to place them.
Verbal offers: ultimately we are bound by them. Be careful about the language you use. Don’t say – when you start – say – if you’re sucessful.
Restrictions: record notice period and any ongoing commitments. Again, detail is important.
Questions: it is important to record details of any questions the candidate asks incase we need to refer back to it at a later stage.

14. Scoring the Interview Consistency and agreement. Are they important?
Disagreements & the ‘power dynamic’
How can we work through them?
Completing the paperwork
The importance of getting it right
Debbie
Consistency : audits, investigations, difference in scoring (2 & 4), pass mark difference
Disagreements : Difficulties in interviewing with your manager? Someone senior? Consider again the power dynamic. Both interviewers equal in that situation, however you must still be able to justify your score. (You cannot mark someone down or fail them because you personally don’t see them fitting – remember those common mistakes and 9 protected characteristics?)
Paperwork: All sections must be completed and signed.
Written test : must be marked and returned to HR within 24 hours; ideally asap – straight after the interviews.
Remember any delay in getting completed paperwork to HR could result in a delay to checks being started. Scoring must be filled out on the back, added up correctly.

15. Written test Marking the test Consistency in marking
Familiarise yourself with the marking criteria
Sections 1 & 2
Fail due to literacy = resit option
Fail due to content = no resit option
Activity 5 – Written test – pass or fail?
Debbie
See paperwork – pages 29-33
Consistency: important in terms of fairness.
Sections 1 & 2: Be familiar with criteria, description and guidance with each score - overall readability – all 5 must be a yes.
If failed through literacy then asked to resit
If failed through content then fail process, even if pass interview
Section 3: Check scoring criteria – 1 mark for info and 2 for calculations
If failed then asked to resit
Activity 5 – see activities – trainer notes. Discuss feedback.

16. Employment checks & starting
Legalities
Cascade – how to check the progress of an application
What to do with an application pack
Check – OH report, availability & hours requested
Agree start date & complete new starter form – return with pack
Debbie
Remember any delay in getting completed paperwork to HR could result in a delay to checks being started.
Legalities: click onto next slide for each one – briefly discuss / explain each.
Cascade: recruitment tab. Sign into cascade and check a current application. Show where to look for progress on references and PVG.
What to do with the application pack once someone passes and checks are complete:
Once pack checked over by HR advisor, to relevant manager and pack in pigeon hole.
 Manager should read all information in pack – especially taking note of OH reports, written test, availability (interview pack – highlight importance of filling this in) and number of hours requested, and holidays planned that were disclosed at interview – must be honored.
Is the candidate the right fit for your team? Has your vacancy changed since interview? Does another team have more need and would be a better fit due to location/availability etc?
 Phone call to candidate making a formal offer and confirming employment. Nice to congratulate!!
 Start date mutually agreed (check with training calendar for mandatory training before phoning) and then complete starter form.
Please keep in mind that the starter form will not be processed by HR until the recruitment pack is back with HR also. Once you have read the pack and taken note of the contact information (can also see on Cascade) then pass pack back to HR immediately.

17. The Legalities Proof of Right to Work in the UK Visa PVG/ Disclosure
References
Health Questionnaire
Professional Memberships
Data Protection
Debbie
Proof of right to work in UK : birth certificates, passports, visa
Visas: remember some people have limits to their hours (massive fines for the organisation if this is not kept to)
PVG/disclosures: (existing or new, tend to come back within 2 weeks, others can take more). Discuss meetings with senior managers.
References: biggest hold up in recruitment process. Check this on the application at interview. No personal addresses unless can prove this is the official one. Must have current or most recent employer. Professional addresses best.
Health Questionnaire: online and provides report, either saying “Fit” or giving adjustments and full report
Professional memberships: are checked eg SSSC, CSP etc
Data protection : self declarations for candidates needing PVG, kept in HR, locked away, however keep in mind when given pack in pigeon hole. Look after the pack, a lot of sensitive information there if packs get lost etc. .

18. Conclusion Key points to remember: Obligations and Expectations
Empathy and Understanding
Who we are looking for and why
TAG’s Mission and Vision
Louise
Obligations and expectations : legal, regulatory and organisational – (examples of each)
Empathy and Understanding : reassurance / nerves. Put people at ease – you’ll get the best from them.
Mission & value:
No barriers, choice, enriched opportunities
Ensuring that we aim, through interview process to find the right people for those we support.
At this stage we have limited service user involvement in the process so the interview process is a means of building service users trust in us to find the right people to support them; to enable them to feel valued, listened to and involved in the recruitment process as much as currently possible.
It is a privilege to have that trust and it is our vocation to, with integrity - do our best to interview robustly and with commitment to find the right staff. Right does not always mean – right now. Service user interests need to always be our top priority. (Examples)
Be passionate about finding the right people for our service users.
Questions?
The End