Archive for the ‘outsourcing’ Category
Top tips on writing person specifications
- Don’t include criteria which are not relevant to the job. Only include skills, knowledge, abilities, and education if they are directly relevant to the job, and be able to justify them. Too expansive or too limited criteria can broaden or restrict applications respectively or reduce the likelihood of certain groups applying – requiring a number of years’ experience may discriminate against applicants on the basis of age and/or gender
- Don’t include criteria that can’t be objectively assessed, such as a good sense of humour
- Don’t overstate the requirements of the job. This may result in suitable candidates being put off or in appointing an over-qualified candidate who then becomes frustrated in the job and moves on. Giving candidates an accurate impression of what is required of them can improve staff retention
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- DO make clear the relative importance of requirements that are essential and desirable and be able to justify them
- DO make clear the importance of any biographical information you request such as educational attainment and validity of certificates (ie those from abroad)
- DO have the person specification checked by someone else, preferably someone responsible for equal opportunities, to remove any personal preferences
- DO review the person specification(s) over time for potential revisions
- DO be explicit about what is required and why
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- Under-qualified, overqualified… what’s a candidate to do? (careermoves.cjwriting.com)
How to Recruit & Select – 5 top tips!
1) Ensure a robust job description/person specification is in place; you can’t recruit without this basic document.
2) Develop a job advert and best place to advertise – on the net, local paper, specialist journal – the role and the target market decides this
3) Develop a structured interview process – decide who is on panel, what will you say about the company and job, questions, ability test (or even an assessment day if it’s a senior manager or graduate position)
4) Short-list using a grid to avoid discrimination, invite chosen candidates to interview
5) Chose the best candidate on the day and provide a structured induction.
Employment Law Updates – Quiz

- Image by Staciaann Photography via Flickr
It’s 2010 – a sigh of relief that we’ve got here.
2009 has been a challenging year for many of us, and despite the recession, lawmakers continue to update and later legislation which affects businesses employing people.
Why not try our quiz and check you’re fully up-to-date?
Questions
In memoriam
1. What statutory rules affecting employment rights died in April 2009?
Births
2. What new arrival joined the employment law world in April, the latest in a long and distinguished line?
3. What new rules affecting those working with children and vulnerable adults came into force on 12th October – but without their central database?
Honours
4. Which bearded businessman was elevated to the House of Lords this year – and hired as enterprise car?
Paying the price
5. Who hired an illegal housekeeper – and paid the penalty?
Moving on up
6. What amount did a week’s pay for redundancy purposes increase to in October?
7. What can employers in the restaurant and other service sectors no longer use towards paying the National Minimum Wage?
8. What, since April, is 28 days or 5.6 weeks?
9. Who, apart from parents of children under 5, disabled children under 18, and carers of people over 18, can since 6th April request flexible working arrangements?
Nearly gone
10. Can employers still lawfully require staff to retire at age 65?
Answers
1. The Statutory Dispute Resolution procedures were abolished from 6th April.
For more information, see NatWest’s news story: New rules on discipline and grievance handling now in force (April 2009)
2. The new ACAS Code of Practice on discipline and grievance handling in the workplace came into force from 6th April.
3. The Vetting and Barring Scheme came into force on 12th October.
4. Lord (formerly Sir Alan) Sugar was hired by the Government as an “enterprise champion” and was given a seat in the House of Lords in June. Read more: You’re Hired – Alan Sugar to advise government on business issues (June 2009)
5. Baroness Scotland – the Attorney General – fell foul of the Home Office’s Civil Penalty Scheme for failing to check the immigration status of a person she hired as a housekeeper. For more information: Attorney General fined for hiring illegal worker (Oct 2009)
6. Statutory Redundancy Pay increased to £380 per week in October. Check details: Redundancy Payments to increase (May 2009)
7. Since 1st October, employers can no longer use tips received by staff towards paying them the National Minimum Wage. Read more: Tips will no longer count towards the National Minimum Wage (May 2009)
8. Statutory minimum annual holiday entitlement increased to 28 days or 5.6 weeks from April 2009. More info: Annual Holiday Entitlement
9. From April, parents of all children aged under 17 have the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employer. Further info: The right to request flexible working
10. Following a recent ruling in the Supreme Court, employers can continue to require employees to retire at age 65, provided they follow the correct procedure. However, the ruling makes clear that changes to this rule may need to be made. Read on: Retirement at 65 legal – for now (Oct 2009)
How did you score?
8-10 Well done! You’ve pretty much kept up to date in a difficult year. But make sure you look up the answers for the questions that floored you.
5-7 Not bad. It’s understandable if some changes passed you by in this busy year. But it is worth doing some homework on getting to grips with the changes you’ve missed.
Under 5 You’ve clearly been very busy “minding the shop” – but you have let some important developments in employment law pass you by. You may be taking risks by not bringing yourself up to date. Many of the changes this year are new minimum rights for staff, or things that mean you risk a financial penalty if you don’t comply with them.
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Outsourcing your Recruitment Isn’t Selling Your Soul
In today’s business environment, you need to be smart to ensure that you stay ahead of the game. Recruitment is one area that is key to your organisation’s success. Maintaining the edge against your competition involves putting together the right teams. Since people are core to your organisation’s overall achievement, so finding, recruiting and managing the best personnel is equally and increasingly important to the success of your business.
The trouble is that within most businesses, the targeting and recruitment of the highest achieving individuals is a costly process. Hiring the right person can become a drain on your organisation’s resources and, even then, you can end up with the wrong individual in the post.
Some people wrongly believe that the successful recruitment of employees is not a process that can be effectively outsourced and that doing so is selling your soul.
While you can appreciate some people’s concerns, outsourcing the recruitment of your next top employee can save your time, money and won’t compromise your beliefs as part of the process.
Rather than selling your soul, outsourcing your recruitment process can make life easier, enrich your organisation and help you to recruit the right candidate without the unnecessary costs of time, money and lost productivity.
When you choose to outsource your recruitment, you’ll:
- Get the recruitment process right first time, which means you’ll save time and money and end up with the best possible candidate for the position.
- Draw up a job description and specification that will ensure that the right candidate has all that you are looking for now and the potential to grow in the post.
- Create an attractive job vacancy, which means you’ll draw a first-class quality of candidate to the position and appoint the best person for the job, rather than being forced to select the person that best matches a generic job description.
- Ensure that all aspects of the recruitment process are compliant with the latest employment law and legislation, which greatly reduces the risk of litigation.
- Benefit from proven, practical strategies to assess the quality and potential of each of your interview candidates, which will make the final selection easier than ever.
- Make your interview selections based on informed decisions, which means you’ll only assess the best candidates and reduce future absenteeism and staff turnover.
- Receive training in how to become a recruitment expert, which means you and your HR staff will gain important experience and knowledge.
- Enhance your organisation’s image with a slick and professional recruitment procedure, which means that top-class candidates will want to work for you.
- Enjoy the best ongoing support throughout the process and after the successful candidate has been employed.
Save time, money and possibly your sanity by outsourcing your recruitment requirements to Assessment4Potential. Our team of HR professionals, Occupational Psychologists and Recruitment Specialists are the Number 1 choice for successfully outsourcing the recruitment of top employment candidates.
Make the right decision; get the best candidate for the job by recruiting Assessment4Potential today.
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