NIWA Internal Report

NIWA Guide

Finding Talent

NIWA Internal Report

No. 131 / 2007

Contents

Introduction

Recruitment and Selection

Manager Goals and Objectives

Key Responsibilities for Managers

Need Help?

Recruitment Policy

Job Analysis

Approval Process

Pre-employment Guidelines and Human Rights Act 1993

The Privacy Act in Brief

Management of CV’s

The Recruitment Process

Writing a Recruitment Advertisement

Shortlisting Candidates

Interviews

Suggested Interview Structure

Additional testing

Reference checking

Recruitment and Occupational Health and Safety

Appendix One – Shortlisting Template

Appendix Two – NIWA Guide to Interviewing

Skill Types......

Introduction

This guide to finding talent has been written to help you assess candidates for new positions.

This includes information on:

pre-employment process and the Human Rights Act 1993
the recruitment process
writing a recruitment advertisement

an explanation of structured interviews
a suggested interview structure and post-interview process
recruitment and Occupational Health and Safety
examples of questions you might ask a job candidate, and

additional guidance on interviewing for management positions.

These guidelines will assist you to prepare for interviewing quickly and competently and will increase the likelihood of collecting information to identify the best person for the job.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment is about finding a pool of applicants, whilst selection is the method for choosing the person.

As a recruiting Manager it is your responsibility to ensure that the recruitment and selection process runs smoothly and that the way you treat candidates is consistent and that your process are streamlined and robust.

There are many things to consider such as the Privacy Act, the Human Rights Act and best practice when selecting candidates.

Manager Goals and Objectives

Review your current needs, the role structure and the strategic direction of your area to ensure the right type of candidate is being recruited
Ensure the Case for Appointment form is completed and is consistent with your needs analysis
Liaise with Human Resources to develop a recruitment strategy that targets the type of applicants you are looking for
Ensure the selection process is conduted in a timely manner, including

Reducing the time from the role close off date to the interview
Inviting applicants to interviews as soon as is practicable
Ensure decisions are made in a timely manner following interviews
Keep potential candidates up to date at all times

Ensure the right people conduct the interview

Key Responsibilities for Managers

Protect candidates privacy at all times
Treat potential employees as you wish to be treated
Abide by the Privacy Act
Do not discriminate based on the Human Rights Act

Need Help?

Contact a member of the Human Resources team:-

Justine Blincoe, Human Resources Consultant, 09 375 2080,

Sasha Blair, Human Resources Manager, 09 375 2085,

Recruitment Policy

The overriding consideration in making appointments is that the person judged best suited is to be appointed in accordance with the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1993. The general rule is that there shall be no discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital and family status, religious and ethical belief, colour, race, and ethnic or national origins, disability, age, political opinion, employment status, or sexual orientation.

CEA/CEC clauses and Relevant Legislation

The employment agreements govern the employer/employee relationship.

Clauses 5.2 and 5.3 of the CEA, and clauses 10.2 and 10.3 of the CEC extend coverage to fixed term staff employed for six months or longer, with certain exceptions.

Human Rights Act, 1993.

Privacy Act, 1993.

Procedural Guidelines

Some guidance regarding discrimination is contained in the ‘NIWA Guide to Interviewing’. Any queries or confusion in this area must be directed to the Human Resources Manager for clarification.

The type and extent of advertising of vacancies will depend upon the position to be filled and the difficulty or otherwise of attracting applicants. Certain positions may be advertised in both Māori and English if considered appropriate. The Human Resources team at the Auckland corporate office is responsible for providing advice on alternative sources of advertising to help ensure a diverse group of applicants, e.g., Te Ohu Kaimoana, Women in Science newsletter.

All permanent appointments must be approved by the Director, Operations and, if appropriate, another member of the Executive. All fixed term appointments less than six months must be approved by a Regional Manager, and fixed term appointments for six months or longer require the approval of the Director, Operations. Human Resources maintains and manages all employment agreements/letters of offer for appointing permanent, fixed term, and casual staff.

Job Analysis

Before beginning the recruitment process, it is important to review what the current needs are. Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. This is a process where judgements are made about data collected on a job.

It is essential to review the job; not the person. While data may be collected from speaking to people that understand the role requirements, the outcome should be a description of the job, not a description of the person.

The first step is to determine the job-related dimensions. This is a basic requirement for developing valid selection procedures and provides a common frame of reference for interviewers.

Conducting a job analysis

This is the process we use to obtain information regarding the requirements of the role, that is, the attributes that a person must have to be successful in the role. These can be referred to as the person specifications, critical attributes, job characteristics, competencies, or KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Others).

One approach to conducting a job analysis is to employ the ‘Critical Incident Technique’. This involves collecting incidents from someone who you believe is an expert on the needs of the role: job incumbents are rarely used. This person must have knowledge of the aims and objectives of the job and see people perform the job on a frequent basis.

This process requires the generation of examples of incidents where some form of effective behaviour has led to success in the role. The incidents should therefore contain information on the context, behaviour, description of the action taken, and outcome.

Critical incidents provide ideas for interesting and job-related questions. Collected incidents must be categorised into competencies, then those incidents that best represent the competency are developed into questions. This directly improves the job-relatedness and hence validity of the questions.

Human Resources can assist and provide tools to facilitate this process.

Approval Process

Case for Appointment Form

All permanent appointments must be approved by the Director, Operations and/or the Chief Executive for corporate support positions.

A Case for Appointment Form must be completed and approval sought before the recruitment and selection process begins.

An online version of this form can be found at:-

The interview panel

The Case for Appointment includes the proposed interview panel.

The panel should consist of two or more people, but no more than four and can serve several purposes.

Take notes while one interviewer asks questions and listens.
Act as a check on individual perceptions and ratings, increasing reliability and assisting to reaching consensus.
Allow for representation of various parties, e.g. Regional Manager, Project Director, co-workers.
It is not appropriate to have departing staff members on panels or subordinates.

Interviewer roles

In a structured interview, only one person on the interview panel asks the questions. This ensures standardisation of the way questions are asked. Other panel members are there to listen and provide their own ratings. It is also easier for them to take notes.

Increasing reliability

Reliability can be increased in two ways. First, panellists act as a check on each other’s perceptions. Each participant will respond differently to replies and this approach allows the panel to discuss them and come to a consensus rating.

Second, inaccurate ratings can be minimised by combining interviewers’ ratings through taking the average.

It is important to always use the same team of panellists for all interviews related to a particular role.

Representation

Interview panels can be used to include participation of different organisational groups. All panellists must be briefed on the questions, role being recruited, rating criteria, and interviewer roles. At the time of the interview applicants should be made aware of the purpose of the panel and what the roles of the observers will be. It is essential that post-interview meetings are conducted to ensure that all views are considered and actively discussed, thus validating the use of a panel.

Applicants have the right to have their applications treated confidentially. That means the interviewers must not talk about who has applied or disclose any information about the applicants to anybody except appointed referees or other interview panel members.

It is important that the only people who view candidates CV’s are those on the interview panel, otherwise this is a breach of the Privacy Act.

Pre-employment Guidelines and Human Rights Act 1993

Before embarking on the recruitment and selection process it is essential that you are familiar with the requirements of the Human Rights Act 1993.

Our workforce and society are becoming more diverse - more cultures, more fit and capable older people. More women at work. New technology is improving access for people with disabilities to participate in the workforce.

The intention of this Act is to help ensure that people are treated fairly. Where a job applicant is qualified for particular work, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate on the following grounds:

Sex – including pregnancy and childbirth
Marital status – which includes being single, married, separated, divorced, widowed, or in a de facto relationship
Religious belief
Race and colour
Ethical belief(lack of religious belief)
Ethnic or national origins
Disability – including physical or psychiatric illness, and presence in the body of organisms capable of causing disease, e.g., the HIV virus that causes AIDS
Age – protection begins at age 16
Political opinion
Employment status – i.e., being unemployed or a beneficiary or in receipt of ACC
Family status – including having or not having responsibility for children or other dependents; being married to, or being a relative of a particular person
Sexual orientation.

It is unlawful to ask questions of (or about) a job applicant, or publish an advertisement assumed to show an intention to discriminate, on any of the above grounds.

Employers should request only information that is clearly relevant to the requirements of the employment, and to the applicant’s ability to do the job. It is essential that you avoid seeking irrelevant personal information.

“A man whose boss told him he couldn’t be his secretary because he wasn’t a woman was awarded $3,500 by the Complaints Review Tribunal”.

“A woman was told at a job interview for a clerical position that there was concern as she had a young child. She was unsuccessful in getting the position and it was indicated to her that the reason was that she had a young child and the company couldn’t afford for her to be off work. In settlement, the woman received $2,500 compensation and an apology”.

You cannot, because of any of the prohibited grounds, discriminate against qualified applicants or employees by:

refusing to employ
offering less favourable conditions, training, opportunities, promotion or transfer, or fringe benefits
dismissing
retiring

Employees can mean:

applicants
paid employees
contract workers you employ
voluntary workers

Pre employment is an area covered by the Human Rights Act and includes:

advertisements
application forms
shortlisting
interviewing
appointing

Reference – The Human rights Act and Best Business Practice

The Privacy Act in Brief

Privacy and the Management of Information

Here is a summary of key legal requirements in relation to the management of information in relation to recruitment and selection, as stated in the Privacy Act 1993.

Personal information about potential employees must be collected only for a purpose connected with the organisation’s activities.
There are limitations on sourcing information about an employee or applicant from someone other than the person themselves.
Evaluative comments about job applicants must not be sought without the permission of the applicant.
Referees’ reports are sought, provided and received on the understanding that they will remain confidential to those concerned with considering applications and that they will not be used for any other purpose.
Employees (including a successful applicant who has not yet taken up the position) should be told that they have a right of access to, and correction of, personal information held by the employer. Evaluative information, such as notes made by the interview panel during the course of the interview, can be withheld.
Organisations are obliged to store personal information in such a way that it is not accessed by anyone not entitled to the information.
Organisations are required to take “reasonable steps” to check the accuracy of personal employee data before acting or making a decision based on it.
Personal information should not be held longer than necessary.
Personal information about employees collected in connection with their employment should not be used without their consent for other purposes such as marketing.
Personal information about employees should not be disclosed to another person of the organisation without the employee’s consent.
Employee records should not assign unique identifiers, such as IRD numbers, to identify individuals.

Management of CV’s

In line with the General Disposal Authority, until administratively no longer required the following information can be destroyed.

Advertising of positions
Applicant CV’s
Selection interviews and notes
Testing of applicants
Reference Checks

It is NIWA’s recommendation that documents be handled in the following manner:-

Initial unsuccessful candidates are advised and CV’s destroyed or returned as soon as possible if they were sent by hard copy by the Regional Administrator

Following interviews, unsuccessful applicant CV’s / interview notes should be passed to Regional Administrator to destroy after 90 days, or returned to candidates if not sent electronically
Successful applicant CV sent to HR. Interview notes passed to Regional Administrator to destroy after 90 days

The Recruitment Process

This flow chart shows the steps involved in the recruitment process. A checklist is provided in Appendix One.

Vacancy arises

Job analysis (nature of role, job description and person specification determined)

Case for appointment form completed and sent to Director, Operations for approval

Panel interview participants and process time line decided

Internal / external advertisements placed

Applications accepted – online recruitment used and automatic reply generated when application submitted

Short list confirmed

Letter sent to unsuccessful candidates at this stage, CVs destroyed

Interviews conducted

Post-interview meeting

References checked

Offer made – verbal

Email HR to send out written offer

Acceptance sent to HR. HR notify Manager of written acceptance

Internal Induction process begins

Unsuccessful applicant CV’s / interview notes passed to Regional Administrator to destroy

after 90 days, or returned to candidates if not sent electronically

Unsuccessful Candidates letters sent

Successful applicant CV sent to HR

Interview notes passed to Regional Administrator to destroy after 90 days

Employment begins

Writing a Recruitment Advertisement

Recruitment advertising is a more complex task than simply announcing available positions. Your goal is to gain the attention of as many members of the appropriate target audience as possible and motivate them to apply.

Recruitment advertising has to sell

Your advertisement must give the reader a very good reason for applying for this job. This becomes the selling point of the advertisement. Virtually every job seeker wants to find challenging, stimulating, rewarding work in an organisation with integrity; an organisation offering advancement, good treatment and a reasonable salary. Your selling point must seek out the best of those prospects, and be substantiated. For example if you were to write that the role is challenging, say why it is challenging.

The tone

The feeling of the ad should be one of people talking to people. Choose the person of the ad. ‘We/you’ (first person/second person) gives a more friendly and warm feel. Whichever person you choose, remember to keep it consistent throughout.

Avoid clichés such as ‘we require the services’ or ‘applicants are invited’ and write in the first person e.g. ‘you will have’ rather than ‘the applicant will have’. Consider starting sentences with:

You will report to

We need an excellent communicator…..