Supporting individuals

Ensuring individuals are able to develop their own selection criteria is one way in which you can work in partnership with your customers to recruit new staff.

Offer to develop the criteria alongside the individual; by collaborating with and supporting the individual in this process you are creating a shared vision in the recruitment of new staff members.

It’s important to determine how to make this work for each individual; remembering that each person may differ in their approach and involvement, and that their level of involvement is likely to change with time as they gain confidence in the recruitment and selection process.

Be clear about what is meant by the term selection criteria and its importance when recruiting for a position. For some individuals this may be the first time they have heard of the term or been involved in the process.

Be upfront about the selection criterion that is non-negotiable; this criterion may be due to legal constraints or aspects of your organisation’s recruitment and staffing policies. Alternatively, it may be linked to the capability requirements of the relevant job level as outlined in the Workforce Capability Framework. Being upfront will reduce potential misunderstandings or disagreements throughout the interview process.

Talk through the process that your organisation usually uses when developing selection criteria to provide some ideas or a starting point for individuals.

Assist the individual in creating a list of the various supports they want and need from their staff. Once listed ask the individual to rate each item by what is essential versus desirable; this process is particularly helpful when the individual has an extensive list of criteria. The individual criteria can be used as a starting point when creating the position description.

Encourage others involved in the process to address the things that are the most important to the individual, both now and into the future, and also to include the person’s goals and aspirations, as well as specific support needs.

Utilise the matching staff tool as a way of capturing information about ‘who’ and ‘what’ individuals are looking for – this information can then be used to inform the selection criteria.

Use the Workforce Capability Framework to assist in determining the selection criteria with the individual. For example, the framework can be used to clarify the skills, knowledge and experience to be demonstrated on the job at different job levels.

Ask the individual to think about any current gaps in the service they receive. This will assist you in discovering particular areas they wish to focus on.

If you have used the donut tool to define the required roles and responsibilities you can use the core responsibilities identified in this process in the selection criteria.

When recruiting staff for more than one individual, look for common themes. If there are no commonalities this may mean that the individuals you are recruiting for require different staff to fulfil the roles. The selection criteria should reflect these differences.