Kind recruitment

I am doing recruitment for the first time in a while. I have a lot of love for lots of parts of our process — it embodies some things that I think are really important in our organisational culture. Namely, I know that it has been deeply considered at many stages and that it works really hard to be inclusive.

Here are some things that come up for me when recruiting. Lots of them are well written about so I’m not suggesting they’re new! But they’re my recurring themes…

1. I love having a specific list of criteria well thought out from the beginning — I have been shocked to support with interviews at other organisations where the discussions feel much looser than that!
2. Written applications and interview skills are learned skills that are not culturally universal and it’s fascinating to “enjoy” reading an application and then realise that it hits no skills you need. It makes you think about how much that’s happening in every day communication…
3. I see time and time again that a skills not experience focus brings a wider range of candidates through. I’m done with thinking “this ideal candidate has probably had X job before” and I’m all about “they need this skill and they could have got that in so many ways”.
4. My last point was hugely reinforced by watching my partner Angus look for jobs. Deputy Heads do a lot of interesting things and have many skills and experience. “Must have worked in the third sector” cut him out of so many jobs and (I’m biased but!) I often thought they were missing out as he could have been great.
5. Looking after people is so important and takes a lot of time — recruitment takes a lot of time! And I have to often chant to myself “THIS IS TIME WELL SPENT IT IS BETTER THAN APPOINTING THE WRONG PERSON”
6. Whenever you reject someone they have usually already spent hours putting themselves in the world of the job, as well as hours writing and preparing. That’s just worth remembering. We do not have infinite resource to give detailed feedback but we can always find enough to be kind.

Emily would want me to be honest: I took an extra two minutes to pick my picture and press publish!