Recruitment Forum

Competency Based Interview

tomherron — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:31:51 GMT

Hi

We have done various competency based interviews, and even considered the idea of Psychometric testing, however I am really looking for some competency based interview questions to figure out if people have common sense..

Some people may say use questions where we have come across the scenario previously and using a 'what if..' question, however if someone was paying attention to the question they would always answer what you would like to hear.

If any has any ideas or past experience of asking questions to determine whether someone as common sense that would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

Forum: General Recruitment Forum

Is social networking turning you into a geek?

AndyHeadworth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:09:53 GMT

With the exponential use of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, and the therefore large amount of time people are therefore spending online, is there then a danger that we will be seeing an proportionate increase in the geek count sometime soon?

Communication and social interaction are key to employers, especially now as many of them are looking to recruit, so if you think that you may have crossed the line and maybe missing out on new opportunities, then take the Geek Test below to find out!!

Just for reference a Geek is defined by Wikipedia as a person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest.

The Geek Test

Is an Anorak an item of your clothing or an apt description of youself?

Are your CDs arranged in order of record label?

Do you make notes in more than one colour?

When you finally got a girlfriend, did you start looking for her mouse?

Do most of your friends names include @?

Are your socks and underwear embroidered with the day of the week?

Would you be surprised to hear this also comes in a paper-only format?

Are you in a chess club?

Do you alternate between Pizza Hut and Dominos so that you can have a balanced diet?

Is your only item of sportswear a Wii contoller?

If you said yes 8-10 times - definate geek , go and get a life!!
If you said yes 4-7 times - you are on the slippery slope, get help quickly!!
If you said yes 1-3 times - don't worry, it's not your fault you like pizza and chess!!

Forum: Social Networking

Gen Y'ers don't know the meaning of customer service!!

AndyHeadworth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 08:04:52 GMT

When I first started in work in retail many years ago there was one thing that was ingrained into me........"The customer is always right". Of course we know that is not always the case, but as far as the interaction with the customer goes, it is a strategy to keep customers coming back (seemingly old fashioned I know!!)

Over the weekend visiting a number of retail shops, it dawned on me that retailers ARE having problems with their Generation Y workforce.Their seemingly lack of interest and motivation, and 'what's in it for me' attitude doesn't mix with retail customer service too well. They don't like to engage with customers, won't accept they have made a mistake and certainly won't adopt the customer is always right philosophy (sorry Tescos, WHSmiths, JJB and Next but they don't!).

So how do companies with such key customer facing roles change the attitudes of their staff? They can't, but they can look at other companies that I believe get it right - namely Marks & Spencers and Waitrose (John Lewis). They start getting it right at the recruitment phase - knowing what they want in terms of staff quality, and sticking to it - and continue the process with regular training, mentoring, appraising. And this is just for their shop assistant/sales assistant roles!! Have you ever been into either of these stores and had a bad experience with one of their staff? Highly unlikely I suggest.

I think that this problem is just going to get worse, and that the standard of service is just going to get worse - what do you reckon?

Forum: Is all the hype around gen Y justified?

How bad was your own induction process when you joined a company?

AndyHeadworth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:48:19 GMT

What has been your experiences of being inducted into a new company? For me it has ranged from being given a phone, a pad & pen and a telephone directory (pre-internet!!) and told to get on with it (yes a recruitment company- you guessed right!) - to a fully fledged training and formal programme. But did they inspire me or motivate me? Well they were ok, but knowing what I know now, having consulted with different companies on processes, I do wonder why there is such a variance in induction processes.

I would be very keen to know what your good and bad experiences are around your previous company induction processes?

Have there been some real howlers, or ones that you have felt were brilliant?

Forum: Recruitment processes that you have been involved with

Will share options again be a thing of the past?

AndyHeadworth — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:39:09 GMT

Last week the FSA announced that they wanted to try to impose restrictions on bonuses of city workers (financial services), which I think is something that treads on very thin ground (thats for another day!).
I certainly do think that companies will try and pacify shareholders by not paying large bonuses to their employees, but how will they do that? One of the common ways is to provide share options or just straight shares. But with what has happened in the last 3 months is it now a valid negotiating point?

Would you be happy to receive shares/options as part of a bonus package?
For those of you that remember recruiting in the last dot com boom, share options WERE the incentive to join, but probably less than 5% realised any profits from them.

So if you were looking at taking a new job, what would you go for - shares/options (with a big potential upside) or a lower cash equivilent?

Forum: Latest News

How many good/bad recruiters do you know?

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:20:31 GMT

Stephen from Recruitment Views, raised a very valid point in his latest blog post that I would like to pose as a question to you.

In http://www.recruitment-views.com/index.php/funnies/rec2rec-hits-a-new-low/ he highlights how bad a recruiter is, because of his approach!!

So my question is easy. How many good recruiters do you know verses how many bad recruiters do you know?

Forum: General Recruitment Forum

How do you use Twitter to find candidates?

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:08:04 GMT

Well can you do it? Use Twitter to find candidates?

Of course you can but it takes some time investment on your behalf.

1. Pay attention to what the person youre trying to reach is talking about or interested in.
2. If someone from a target company youre thinking about starting to search in starts following you, theres usually a good reason. Maybe they are already 'warm candidates'.
3.If you do get someone following you, thank them publically and make sure you follow them back - that way you can DM (direct message) them at some stage.
4.Homework. Check out targets for their details, who they follow etc. You will learn more about them.
4. Use this information to allow you to start an intelligent public tweet conversation with them - no need to DM at this stage.
5. Build some credibility with them first, don't go diving in there straight away with both feet.
6. Of course if they are making it obvious that they are open to conversations about jobs/careers etc then get your boots on and dive right in!
7. The word is FOLLOW not stalk; follow similar people and you will likely find yourself in similar target groups of people. Most people follow other co-workers at some stage.

As with any candidate searching you need to put some work in first to yield some meaningful results.

Anything you want to add??

Forum: General Recruitment Forum

Jeremy Kyle does recruitment - have the Government gone mad?

AndyHeadworth — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:12:59 GMT

I posted this today on my blog, and I thought that it would make good discussion material here on the Forum!

No, I am not joking!! According to the latest Personnel Today edition, the DWP (Department for Work & Pensions) are in talks with ITV to create a show called Jeremy Kyle Gets Britain Working! They are going to target the long term unemployed, to try and get them back to work. And they are willing to spend (sorry, waste) 500,000 for the pleasure!!

Why is a self opinionated, self righteous pompous day time TV presenter, heading up what should be a much more serious campaign? He makes his living from exploiting those people with troubled lives, just think how many stories he will trawl up with the long term unemployed!! Do the government think he is going to any other than focus on exploiting these people for television?

It would be great to see his credentials in the recruiting space - to see what empathy he will have with both the unemployed and the companies positioned to help them. Surely, the government would be better positioned to invest half a million pounds into other more beneficial schemes, in the areas of highest unemployment. Do they honestly think that Jeremy Kyle can inspire the unemployed?

All that he will be interested in will be getting his ratings up, so that he is in a better position for his next salary negotiation. He won't give a stuff about the long term unemployed then, will he?
Maybe the only reason they have chosen this numpty is that unemployed people actually make up the largest part of his viewers!!

Forum: Latest News

Do people believe the big company processes are the best?

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:39:02 GMT

I have been using Google Adwords for some advertising recently and was surprised to see some interesting search strings appearing, around recruitment process. A range of examples are:

Tesco recruitment process
Asda recruitment process
BT recruitment process
Sainsburys recruitment process
Marks and Spencers recruitment process
PWC recruitment process
Accenture recruitment process
John Lewis recruitment process

I wonder why these have become more prevalent over the last few weeks? Are other companies trying to replicate the process of companies they perceive to have a good recruitment process?
Or could it be grads looking to understand the process of companies they want to join?

Tesco's is at the top becuase it has had the most people use that search string. Just because they are the biggest retailer by far in the Uk, does it make them the most appealing? Does it mean they have the best process?

Forum: Recruitment processes that you have been involved with

Where does recruitment in the city, stand now, after Lehman Brothers collapse?

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:20:17 GMT

I don't work in the investment banking or investment management sectors, but I know many that do.
After the collapse of Lehmans yesterday on the back of all the other bad news in FS companies, is it a market that recruiters will try and extricate themselves from?

There is the obvious broker and dealer markets that will be hit for six, but what about all the sectors within the banks like IT, Operation, Sales, Marketing etc that will also be hit. Is anyone actually hiring in the banking community, and if they are, I would suggest they are probably being inundated with direct cv's!!

So what the future of recruiters in the city? I bet that the Balls Brothers establishments have been given a good bashing in the last couple of weeks!

Forum: Latest News

LinkedIn - I hope you are using it

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:10:18 GMT

LinkedIn is a fantastic tool, that you should be using. If you have seen it before and doubted its effectiveness, then have another look, because they have been investing heavily in making it the main business network.

I know there is Xing, e-Academy etc, but I have to say for me LinkedIn is still the best.
For those of you that are new to LinkedIn, and want some help, or if you just want a refresher, then have a look at the attachment, LinkedIn for Beginners, which is something I wrote earlier this year.

And don't forget to invite me to join your network!!

Forum: General Recruitment Forum

Get your career site in order first

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:19:17 GMT

Gen Y'ers are typically between the age of 13-27, and are certainly more orientated to technology than previous generations. They are certainly more comfortable using many more channels to communicate with people such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, texting, chatting via IM, forums, mobiles, email etc.

So to have a chance of reaching your target job seekers, you need to be putting yourself in the places they frequent. So gone are the days when you would rely on papers and job boards to find your candidates.

The first thing you do need to do is to make sure that your own website / career site is appealing to this generation. if they land on your career pages, will they be excited by what they see? Will they want to work for your company? Do your jobs sell themselves or have you just posted boring old job specs online?
If the answer to any of these is a no, then you have found your first major problem.

Just as a benchmark, how does your own website compare to these:
Body Shop, Boots and Three

If you know of any other good sites, it would be great to see them.

Forum: How do you attract gen Y'ers to your company?

Are you using audio or video to recruit?

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:50:03 GMT

There are two mediums that should be used by every company who is recruiting. They are both great ways of communicating with both internal and external job seekers.
But for some reason many companies still seem reluctant to get involved in them. And with all the technology around these days, it isn't cost that should be an issue.
What recruiting companies fail to realise, is that job seekers like to watch videos of the workplace, the staff and different projects. It allows them to instantly get a picture of what it would be like to work there.

Audio, via podcasts, is also a brilliant way of presenting information such as jobs in a more appealing way. In the US there is a company called Jobs in Pods, that have really shown how well this can be achieved.
After all, isn't it more interesting to listen to someone explaining about a job, rather than just reading a job description?

So has your company taken the plunge and started encouraging new job seekers with video or audio?

Why not make it a project for some of your staff?

It would be great to see some examples of company video's and podcasts.

Forum: Video and Audio - do they work for you?

Innovative candidate attraction strategies

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:36:18 GMT

There used be a time in recruitment, when you could rely on advertising in the same places to get your candidates - both offline and online.

Now it is getting harder to put your adverts in front of active job seekers. It gets even harder, when you start to consider the passive market of job seekers!!
So I have started this thread in the hope that some of the more innovative - some would call wacky - methods of attracting candidates come to the fore.

Which boundaries have you pushed in attracting candidates? Have a look at this for innovation when it comes to using the video medium as a recruiting tool. It is just brilliant!

I am looking for innovation.......not things like bus / taxi advertising, airport lounge adverts, sandwich board people.......but things like the video above or clever online viral campaigns etc.

So please share your innovations or even just innovative ideas.

Forum: Any innovative recruitment strategies you want to share?

Bad recruitment process

AndyHeadworth — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:20:36 GMT

From my experiences, I see way too many bad recruitment processes with companies. Alot of the time it is more ignorance than bad process, but it still has the effect of causing candidates to be lost in the recruitment process.

What I find with companies, is that they seem to forget that recruitment should be straight forward process. They are often guilty of completely over complicating things, to the point where line management just lose the will to get involved!!

It would be great to hear of some examples of bad process, if anyone is brave enough to admit them (or if any of you recruiters have seen them), as they act as a great lesson in what not to do.

Just so as you know where I am coming from, there is an attachment to this post of a document showing a generic recruitment process, as a sort of benchmark.

So any takers on a bad recruitment process they have been involved with?

Forum: Recruitment processes that you have been involved with