Personal specifications in more detail
Robert Seares
Job Title: Partner: Head of Oxford Offices; Head of Oxford Commercial
Department: Commercial
Detailed description of the skills and qualities.
Qualifications:
- Graduate level education or equivalent experience in Urbanland Economics.
- Fellow Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
To show experience in the field of Surveying, and shows that Robert Seares has good contacts in the field.
- RICS Special Diploma in Rating
- Member of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation.
This shows that Robert Seares has relevant knowledge rating and providing valuation of properties.
- Committee Member of the Rating Surveyors’ Association.
Experience and Skills:
- Able to manage business targets to achieve objectives.
Objectives are tasks the business needs to fulfil in order to meet it main aim. Cluttons’ objectives are:
- To give the best property advice they can to their clients.
- To deliver excellent services to their clients.
- To give their clients the best service they can in terms of quality and innovation.
- To help and encourage their staff to give their best.
All partners in a business would be expected to be working to achieving these, and being a partner in the business would mean more responsibilities to achieve the objectives.
- Experience of resource management including budgets.
Part of Robert Seares’ job is to undertake finance and business planning to maximise opportunities and so budgeting and financial knowledge is important. Resources are not just financial, they are tools and staff too, a partner would be expected to utilise these resources and deploy them utilising their skills and experience to maximum effect.
- Experience working in partnership with local councils and statutory agencies
Partners would need to have a lot of knowledge in how the planning process works, be able to establish relationships with the council in order to get planning permission from the council or get some controversial development approved. Local knowledge is also important knowing what’s had planning permission approved or not approved previously.
- Able to provide leadership and motivation in challenging setting both within and outside post holders direct management control.
A partner would be expected to provide leadership and staff would look at him to make decisions and guide them in their work. Partners, must be able to motivate staff to ensure that staff work hard for the company and achieve their objectives, and represent the company in a manner fitting the Cluttons’ reputation,
- Ability to produce accurate work to tight deadlines under pressure
The head of Oxford offices would need to be able to work under pressure, such as by tight deadlines, hard to give advice and important documents. This work would still need to be accurate and of a high standard, to ensure that Cluttons’ reputation is kept.
- Ability to communicate clearly in writing and orally to committees and small meetings
This comes hand in hand with Robert Seares’ position, he would need to be vocally clear, and get across any points he has in the monthly partners’ meetings. He would also need to be able to write any reports clearly, providing an obvious layout and form to the report. He would also need to be able to provide motivation to his staff; this could be though talks and meetings with them.
- Word processing skills/ability to be self-sufficient in terms of administration.
So that any important work that needs to be done, would be done to a high standard that Robert has direct control over, he would need to do this by having good word processing skills, and be able to type up his own reports and ratings reviews, and a HR Administrator isn’t needed.
- Ability to build business by networking and marketing.
To provide Cluttons constantly with new contacts and clients, also to provide a higher quality service, where Cluttons can communicate clearly with clients and enquire any questions. Also having networking provides Cluttons with a larger area they can cover, as they can share resources with any other companies that are further a field then the Oxford services can cover.
- Ability to undertake more complicated work in rating, landlord and tenant, management and commercial property consultancy.
This is the main role of Robert Seares’ job, he will need to have an efficient and fair rating system, that will reflect what Cluttons’ are aiming for, i.e. rating in a fair systematic way all over the company.
Nicola Mirtle
Job Title: HR/H & S Administrator
Department: Human resources
Detailed description of the skills and qualities.
Qualifications:
- Degree education or equivalent
To prove that Nicola Mirtle is up to the high standard of education that Cluttons’ would expect from all their staff.
- Working towards CIPD/part-qualified
Working towards a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development qualification, shows that Nicola is wanting to advance through her line of work, and so would show motivation in her line of work, and work to a high standard that the managers of Cluttons would expect from staff higher up.
- Previous employment.
Having experience in her line of work, knowing what to expect day to day and how to achieve tasks set. This would also provide her with relevant business contacts and experience.
Experience and Skills:
- Providing full HR administrative support to the business that complies with company procedures, best practise, and legislative requirements.
This shows Nicola has experience in performing all the administrative duties that Cluttons would need her to perform on a day to day basis, to the high quality that would set a standard for Cluttons.
- Be able to ensure processing of HR data as appropriate to support operational needs.
Nicola would need to process all the data that people like Robert Seares provide for her. She would need to process these correctly and file this data in the right places, so it can be easily accessed when they’re later needed.
- Able to prioritise workload, and work to agreed timescales
This is very important for Cluttons, as they have large clients that would need figures and advice sent to them as quickly as possible, so that Cluttons is still seen as a high quality company in the eyes of the large companies that would pay Cluttons the most.
- Previous HR administrative experience in similar organisations.
Having experience in her line of work, knowing what to expect day to day and how to achieve tasks set. This would also provide her with relevant business contacts and experience.
- Good PC skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Be able to write up any reports and go through any files and be able to print them off. Also to be able to provide support to more senior members of staff when they are giving presentations using PowerPoint.
- Good communication and organisational skills
To be able to organise herself well, and have everything that is needed for senior members of staff ready for them when they need it.
Sonja Porter
Job Title: Senior Surveyor
Department: Rural
E = Essential, D = Desirable for applicants to meet the relevant standard.
Detailed description of the skills and qualities.
Qualifications:
- Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
To show experience in the field of Surveying, and shows that Sonja Porter has good contacts in the field is up the standard that the institution would expect.
- BSc (Hons) in Rural Land Management
Having a Bachelor of Science degree in Rural Land Management shows that Sonja is educated in this field and knows what she is doing and how to achieve this.
- Degree – accredited course
- 2 years APC
Experience and skills:
- Previous involvement with the farm management including conservation schemes, conversion to organic status, government support etc.
Showing that Sonja is capable of doing her job, as she has done it before, this experience also shows that Sonja can do a wide range of farm management, from Conservation schemes, conversion to organic status and government support.
- To be able to analyse development projects.
This is important being a senior surveyor as they would need to be able to back up any work that other surveyors have done, check they are on the ball and to the right standard and analyse the development project and give advice to the surveyors.
- Prepare feasibility reports and instruct other professionals to oversee construction works.
This is important to ensure no ridiculous projects are undertaken that would waste both Cluttons’ and their clients’ time and money.
- Achieve accurate work under tight deadlines.
Being a senior surveyor, Sonja, would need to be able to work under pressure this pressure would be caused by:
- Tight deadlines
- Hard to give advice
- Preparing and writing important documents are reports
- Providing support to other surveyors in times of apparent stress
This work would still need to be accurate and of a high standard, to ensure that Cluttons’ reputation is kept.
- Be able to manage projects and a team.
This would be important as being a senior surveyor, she would be in charge of a team, and she would need to be able to manage this resource effectively and appropriately to achieve their clients’ aims and goals.
Training and development opportunities
There are lots of different types of training that Cluttons would provide, this includes on-the-job training and off-the-job training. On-the-job training would include things like:
Robert Seares
Being a partner in Cluttons would mean that Robert would take-on a variety of roles and responsibilities and so would need the relevant training so that he can maximise his efficiency in these roles. The type of training that Robert has undertaken includes:
- A degree in a relevant subject to surveying. This means that he would have good business knowledge in his line of work.
- Management training. Robert would undertake management training through coaching and mentoring, so that he can learn how to handle his team effectively and maximise their motivation and provide his staff with training they will need.
- Resource management training. As Robert is the Head of the Oxford offices, he would be in charge of managing the Oxford offices resources, both financial and in terms of staff and other tools.
Nicola Mirtle
Being a HR administrator, Nicola Mirtle, would need lots of training so that she can perform her job to the standard that Cluttons would expect. The types of training that Nicola Mirtle would need are:
- Training in secretarial duties, such as typing up minutes in shorthand and word processing.
- Organisational training. Nicola would need to be highly organised and having training in this would help her become organised.
- A CIPD qualification. This would help Nicola with any issues she may have with her job, so she will know how to respond correctly to them. Things like knowledge in data protection are vital for a company like Cluttons, as they would need to protect their advice and publications so that clients pay them.
Sonja Porter
As Sonja Porter is a senior surveyor, she wouldn’t need that much more training. She is already at a high point in her career, and so would already have learnt all the skills needed to be good at her job. If she were looking to get transferred or a promotion she would need extra training in her new role, if any extra training was required. Sonja would currently have undertaken the following training:
- A degree in a surveying. As this is her role at the moment.
- Undergone extra training and qualifications after her degree to gain extra knowledge.
Task 4
A
Motivation is a very important aspect of a company, keeping employees motivated results in a higher quality performance. Motivational and inspirational quotes, poems, posters, motivational speakers and stories, team building games and activities, all develop employee motivation for sales, this is important in Cluttons, as it means that any of their employees that are meeting clients or potential clients come across motivated and present a good image of Cluttons. Motivational and inspirational experiences improve employees' attitudes, confidence and performance.
Robert Seares is an important aspect in Cluttons; he is a partner and also manages Oxford’s commercial team. He would need to be kept motivated by Cluttons, as his motivation doesn’t only affect his attitude, confidence and performance, but also all his staff’s attitude, confidence and performance and so if he is motivated, his staff will also be motivated.
Robert’s main motivations:
Nicola Mirtle is a HR/H&S Administrator at Cluttons, she would be needed to be kept motivated by Cluttons, so that she can perform all her secretarial and administrative duties to a high standard and efficiently. Her levels of motivation would affect:
- How well she provides her full HR Administrative support to the business
- How well she supports HR Business Partners and Advisers in delivering quality service to internal customers.
- How well she prepares contractual documentation.
- How well she processes data to support Cluttons’ operational needs.
- The level she contributes towards the continuous improvement of HR processes, ensuring that the company has appropriate and effective systems in meeting its business objectives.
Nicola’s main motivations are:
Sonja Porter would need to be kept motivated by Cluttons, as she holds a fairly important position in Cluttons. All her work would need to be performed accurately and to a high standard. She is a Senior Surveyor, and so is reported to be Graduate Surveyors and the HR Administrators.
Sonja’s main motivations are:
How do companies like Cluttons motivate their staff? Cluttons managed to motivate their staff to become one of the largest traditional property management partnerships in the UK. How do they motivate their staff to reach their goals?
If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we can learn what factors may be contributing to the lack of motivation of any company. Abraham Maslow suggested that a range of needs, which he presented as a hierarchy, motivates people. He assumed that employees would try to move from one level to the next, striving to move up the hierarchy until they reach the higher-order needs. Working from the bottom up, Maslow defined the five levels as:
- Physiological (basic life) needs such as air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep – key employment factors here are pay, conditions of work
- Safety needs, included the need to seek order during times of change –in work this means protection, security, order, limits and group stability
- Belonging and social needs – group or team work, relationships at work
- Self-esteem – confidence, achievement, status, prestige, recognition, status (job title, job perks such as a plush office), reputation, responsibility
- Self-actualisation – job satisfaction, personal development through growth and fulfilment, control over work, promotion
Cluttons gained their reputation and standing by beginning to take an active interest in his team. They encouraged staff to become innovative with their ideas.
By securing the lower-order needs within the staff, Cluttons had effectively ensured that the employees no longer felt dissatisfied, and were happy with their job. Being un-satisfied is a key cause of demotivation. As the company has grown, employees have begun to feel a greater sense of pride and purpose in working for Cluttons, which meets Maslow’s status and esteem needs. By being encouraged to work to the best of their abilities, at what they’re good at, they also start to meet the higher-order self-actualisation need.
Money
Money is also a big factor in Cluttons, an employee in a job role, such as a partner in Cluttons, would expect to get a high salary and in return they would be expected to work for it. This would provide motivation, as the employee would be motivated to achieve their worth. This would meet Maslow’s self-esteem and self-actualisation needs, as they would have control over their work and a high level of job satisfaction.
Cluttons are constantly searching for motivated staff. For example, and extract taken from their website reads:
“We have a vacancy for a highly motivated sales negotiator to join our successful residential team in St John's Wood.”
This would motivate the new member of staff to:
- Be motivated, this is because the personal specification asks for this and they would want to show that they do meet Cluttons’ standard.
- Also as Cluttons have said that they would be joining an already highly successful team, this would provide more motivation, as they wouldn’t want to let the team
- down and cause the residential team to become less successful.
Career progression
A chance of career progression in a job like a HR administrator would provide a lot of motivation to work to a high standard of quality and quantity. Employees within Cluttons would want to work hard to prove that they are able to work at a higher pay bracket and workload. Being a HR administrator would often not be the chosen job of somebody working in Cluttons, they would often want to get promoted or moved across in the company, to get the better jobs and the better money.
Training and development
If Cluttons provide proper training and development opportunities for their employees then this would provide motivation for the employees to work harder as it gives the employees a sense of want. This sense of Cluttons wanting them would motivate staff to, in return, work hard for Cluttons to give something in return. An example of a job that would be motivated by this is a senior surveyor. The senior surveyor would want to develop any skills that could help their job and in return would be motivated to use these newly developed skills.
Task 5
Recruitment process
- A vacancy arises. Sometimes this is due to the creation of a new job, on other occasions it may be because an existing member of staff has been promoted or is retiring.
- The job description is updated and an employee specification is written. The job description lists the duties of the job whilst the employee specification gives details of the experience, skills and abilities needed to carry out the job.
- A vacancy advertisement is written and is circulated and advertised on the Cluttons’ website. Other media can be used including newspapers, internet recruitment sites, specialist publications and the Employment Service.
- Application forms are sent out along with copies of the job description and employee specification and must be returned on or before the closing date that has been set.
- A shortlist is compiled of applicants who are going to be invited to attend for interview. This is done by the recruitment panel who compare each application form with the requirements of the employee specification. Feedback can be provided (upon request) to those not shortlisted and applicants have the right to complain if they feel they have been unfairly treated.
- Interviews are held. The panel will use the same set of questions with each interviewee. The interview may include a selection test. Feedback can be provided (upon request) and unsuccessful applicants have the right to complain if they feel they have been unfairly treated.
- References will be requested. The successful applicant for jobs working in certain areas, including supervisor, HR Administrator and Senior surveyor, will be asked to apply for a criminal disclosure check through the Criminal Records Bureau.
- Appoint the successful candidate and arrange induction training
Executive summary
An executive summary is a brief summary at the beginning of a business plan or business document that highlights key facts, issues and conclusions in the proceeding document. In my executive summary I will be commenting on what factors in the external environment (tax, sociological trends (population), political decisions, the economic environment, new technology etc.) may affect Cluttons’ workforce planning.
External Environment
The external environment means all the factors (conditions, trends, and forces) essentially outside the control of organizational members. Things like tax, sociological trends (population), political decisions, the economic environment and new technology are all part of the external environment in business. These will affect Cluttons’ planning of their workforce in lots of ways, things like:
Tax
Tax can be both a blessing and a hindrance, but most people only see it as a cost that eats out of their profits. In all taxes do several things:
- Taxes lower overall gains
This is where the business cash flows show taxes to take money out of the business’ overall gains are decreased. An example of this is if the total income is £1000 then after a 30% tax the actual profit the business will make is £700. This would mean that Cluttons would have to take into account how many employees they can afford to pay, and to do this they would need to factor in how much money tax takes away from them.
- Taxes also reduce overall cost and expense impacts
Where the business cash flows show that any loss the business makes are taxed too. For example a company that pays 30% taxes on income, a £1000 loss in profits also reduces the company's tax liability by £300. The actual loss in profits, after tax, was only £700. This would mean that Cluttons could afford to make big decisions with a reduced risk. Things like if Cluttons wanted 1000 more employees in a certain market, would it be worth the investment? As they may make more money, but they will cost money to pay them their wages.
Sociological trends
A good way for a business to become successful is to study social and business trends. Social trends, like ‘fads’ create how products are manufactured and sold. For Cluttons this would include how they build their properties and how they’re sold and marketed.
For example back in the 1970s there was no real concern over global warming and other environmental changes and so Cluttons would’ve been able to build their properties how they pleased, included PFCs in their electrical appliances and used asbestos in their walls. Now however, Cluttons would not be able to do this, because of the environmental damage the PFCs are known to cause and because people are more environmentally aware the property would have a harder time of being sold. The same with Asbestos, now it is know to be dangerous people would be much less inclined to buy properties with Asbestos in. also people would want to know the manufacturing processes that Cluttons go through and to be able to see that they are as least environmentally damaging as possible. This would mean that specialist employees would have to be bought in, who are seen to be environmentally friendly and they would have to use special materials. Also any planners that Cluttons employ would have to do this too.
Other social trends include:
Increasing Power of Women - In 1999, the weekly pay of American women with full-time job was 76.5 percent of the men's wages, an increase from only 61 percent in 1974. This would mean that Cluttons would have to re-balance their workforce to lower costs and to still provide equal opportunities for both sexes.
Increasing globalization of business – With things like the internet coming to the mainstream, like they have been doing for the past few years, companies like Cluttons would rely on this as a huge part of their international business. This would include things like communicating with other people at the other side of the world cheaply, through their website and VoIP. This would mean that Cluttons would have to employ staff that can provide a good level of upkeep to the website and have staff that are able to use the internet and other internet based products.
Mass customisation – a very large part of the market today includes companies that are offered customised profits. This includes companies like Dell, for example, who have brought this concept to their interactive online systems that allow customers to design a computer system. Customers can choose from a menu of attributes, prices and delivery options. This means that the customer can have a product that would match their needs and budget extremely well and still cost the same as mass-produced products. Because of this, Cluttons’ work force planning would need to change, they would be more reliant on their employees that can provide this customisation and less reliant on the employees that can’t operate at this level.
Changing Face of the Population – The large increase of immigrants coming in from other countries would change the percentages of English/foreign people in the UK. There was an increase from 800,000 overseas nationals, to around 1.1 million immigrants allowed to immigrate, and there are around 200,000 non-EU immigrants a year. This would cause businesses to have to target these minority groups a lot more. Companies like Cluttons are already taking into account this international community, where countries are become more and more disperse with different ethnicities. We can see this by Cluttons opening offices abroad for people from the UK to immigrate to and vice versa. These local offices would need to employ local people who can speak the local language and English too.
Political decisions
Any changes of the law in the countries that Cluttons operate in, would result in Cluttons’ having to adapt to meet this new law or standards. This could affect recruitment in two ways:
- Cluttons having to meet a quota of the type of people they recruit, such as gender, age and ethnicity. Also the numbers they employ and how amount of money and holiday they get.
- Cluttons having to do certain services differently may require a different employee who can still provide these services without breaking the law.
Legislation that affects Cluttons
There are a lot of current laws that protect employees. This is so that companies uphold their responsibilities to their employees and provide their needs. Most of the laws about recruitment in business are related to avoiding discrimination and respecting equal opportunities, both to existing staff and to any new members of staff or potential employees.
Types of the legislation include protection against:
- Sex discrimination
- Employment equality, which includes things like religion or beliefs and sexual orientation
- Disability discrimination
- Employment protection, which includes not being able to be dismissed for no reason, without any notice.
There is also more legislation designed to protect the well being of present employees, such as restricting the maximum number of hours that employees can work per week, setting the minimum wage that can be paid to employees, and regulations that take into account leave arrangements, like pregnancy and sick leave.
The legislations that provide this protection are:
Task 6
A vacancy arises. Sometimes this is due to the creation of a new job, on other occasions it may be because an existing member of staff has been promoted or is retiring.
The job description is updated, using a job analysis and a personal specification is written. The job description lists the duties of the job whilst the personal specification gives details of the experience, skills and abilities needed to carry out the job.
A vacancy advertisement is written and is circulated and advertised on the Cluttons’ website. Other media can be used including newspapers, internet recruitment sites, specialist publications and the Employment Service.
Application forms are sent out along with copies of the job description and employee specification and must be returned on or before the closing date that has been set.
A shortlist is compiled of applicants who are going to be invited to attend for interview. This is done by the recruitment panel who compare each application form with the requirements of the employee specification. Feedback can be provided (upon request) to those not shortlisted and applicants have the right to complain if they feel they have been unfairly treated.
References will be requested. The successful applicant for jobs working in certain areas, including supervisor, HR Administrator and Senior surveyor, will be asked to apply for a criminal disclosure check through the Criminal Records Bureau, to see if the applicant has a previous criminal record.
Appoint the successful candidate and arrange induction training
Job description
Job Description - Development Worker Post
The main role of the Development Worker will be to build the capacity and networking capabilities of the organisation to enable enhanced delivery of its research goals. The DW will be working jointly with the staff through set training programmes designed to build their capacity and transfer skills. As research and training projects coordinator, the DW’s role will be able to provide organisational capacity building assistance and training to PWRDC staff to improve its internal operations so as to effectively achieve these goals.
The objectives of PWRDC for this project are as follows:
- To build operational capacity for research and documentation.
- To strengthen the role of PWRDC to serve as an observatory and clearinghouse on information related to women issues in the Palestinian National Authority. Its documentation function includes data bases and collecting researches on Palestinian women, and other virtual resources.
- To enhance policy-oriented research and facilitate the development policy-papers which promote gender equality and the human rights of Palestinian women. The centre will support research initiatives in areas there are proven gaps as well.
- To strengthen the promotion women’s rights and the enhancement of their social positions, the PWRDC lobbies to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women; empowers women through opportunities for the acquisitions and skills; and supports women's participation in development.
- To enhance networking with national, regional and international women's organizations and centres in order to facilitate communication flows, awareness-raising, and advocacy regarding women's participation, rights, and equality.
The objectives of the DW for this project are as follows:
- Training on applied Research and Advocacy with regard social policy and human rights;
- Transformation of research results into policy briefs.
- Supporting the analysis and dissemination of information on the status and condition of women to local women’s organizations, policy makers, legislative and municipal bodies and other relevant partners;
- Assisting in the promotion of initiatives that create a better understanding of the human rights of women and gender equality, including appropriate social policies and the enhancement of women’s political, social, economical participation;
- Consolidation and documentation of all currently fragmented information.
- Support young researchers in applied and policy research on women’s participation and rights;
- Enhance coordination among NGOs working on women's issues to maximise impact of their efforts:
- Facilitation of networking, capacity building and information sharing on women across the Arab region and globally.
The specific activities of the Development Worker are expected to be:
- Internal staff needs assessment to identify training needs.
- Set a training programme which also allows for external participation of partner GO's and NGOs and implement it (9-10 months).
- Conduct a post training assessment to assess impact of the training (before and after).
- Follow up on programmes related to research and training.
- Assist in the producing policy briefs.
- Assist in the setting up of a scientific committee which will evaluate all researches.
- Assist in networking activities related to information sharing and dissemination.
The Development Worker will be supervised by the Director, Ms Zahira Kamal.
This is a sample Job description, I took this into account and did my own for my available position at Cluttons.
Person Specification
Personal specification
Post Title:
Costing & Estimating Officer
Directorate and Section/Unit
Corporate Services; IBS/Design & Print
Post Ref:
Scale:
4
QUALIFICATIONS/TRAINING:
It is essential that the post holder has:
• Accounting technician qualification (e.g. AAT Association of Accounting Technician or equivalent or
appropriate finance training)
• Commitment to further personal professional development
EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE:
It is essential that the post holder has:
• Significant experience of working in a financial and administrative environment
• Working knowledge and/or experience of design and print terminology and related techniques
• Working knowledge of computerised accounting systems and associated computer software knowledge
• Extensive working knowledge of spreadsheets and report writing
• Excellent organisational skills
• Experience of working effectively as part of a team
• Excellent Customer Service standards
It is desirable that the post holder has:
• Experience of working within local government/public sector organisation
• Experience of operating a computer with ‘stock control’
SKILLS AND ABILITIES:
It is essential that the post holder has:
• Effective communication skills both oral and written, including the ability to be diplomatic, polite, firm
and tactful
• Computer literacy using windows based packages including word processing, Excel and Microsoft
Office
• Excellent Numeracy skills
• Good organisational skills and able to prioritise
• Ability to work under pressure, adapt and respond to changing demands and time deadlines.
• Ability to manage own workload and adjust priorities as necessary
• Ability to maintain confidential and sensitive information
• Good self-motivation with an ability to set and meet personal objectives.
• Ability to work accurately and methodically
ADDITIONAL FACTORS:
It is essential that the post holder has:
• Commitment to working in a customer focused environment.
D
Advertisement
Advertising the vacancy is very important. It is the communication between Cluttons and the potential employee that informs the potential employee of the positions vacancy. There are a lot of advertising mediums that Cluttons could do this with that would communicate the message; different types of advertising for different things is important, so you have to choose your medium carefully and sum up all various options that you have.
Task 6 B
Interview questions
- The following questions are the result of a brainstorm I did to get ideas for questions I can ask in the interview. The questions take into account to job position and what this entails. I have also taken into account that I will need to mark the questions from 1–5.
- What is it about this particular post that interests you?
- What skills and qualities can you bring to the role?
- What sort of office administration and information systems have you used in previous jobs?
- What will your references say about you?
- You would need to be able to help out around the office and work with people under tight-deadlines this will mean that you will also be under tight-deadlines, this task can be tricky. Can you describe how you would go about this?
- What experience have you had of working in an office?
- What has been the greatest challenge for you in terms of working in the office? What happened? What did you do? What was the result?
- Describe a project you have worked on recently. What was your role and what skills did you have to use.
- Think about your first 2 weeks in the role. What would be your priorities?
- How often are you off sick?
- What would you hope to have achieved by the end of 3 months?
- Why did you choose a career in Cluttons?
- How will you know if you have been affective?
- What size company would you prefer to work in?
- What’s your ideal job?
- Can you describe your experience of working in an office environment, and of any other previous assistant jobs/
- How long have you been looking for a new job?
- How well do you find managing office relationships? Would you choose your job over your relationships?
- How would your best friend describe you?
- If you were asked to write your own reference what would you say about yourself?
- Why are you changing careers
- Have you ever been fired?
- Have you considered any other positions at the moment?
- Have you been interviewed recently for a job?
Final chosen questions
The final questions I have chosen are:
- What is it about this particular post that interests you?
I chose this question as I thought it was a good question to get the candidate to think about the job role they’re applying for and for the interviewers to get and understanding of why the candidate wants the job.
- What skills and qualities can you bring to the role?
I have chosen this question as it allows the candidate to show off what skills the candidate has in person, instead of just on the candidate’s CV.
- What sort of office administration and information systems have you used in previous jobs?
This is a good question to show what previous knowledge the candidate has from previous jobs, a good way of seeing how much the candidate has learned from his other jobs and what he can bring to the Saturday Assistant.
- You would need to be able to help out around the office and work with people under tight-deadlines this will mean that you will also be under tight-deadlines, this task can be tricky. Can you describe how you would go about this?
This gives the interviewers an idea of how the candidate acts under stressful conditions or times; this also causes the candidate to decide what he himself should do under these stressful conditions.
- What experience have you had of working in an office?
This is another question that causes the candidate to show off his/her previous knowledge and experience of working in an office environment.
- What has been the greatest challenge for you in terms of working in the office? What happened? What did you do? What was the result?
This is another question that goes into more detail about how the candidate works under stress, this question, instead of being theoretical goes into what the candidate has previously done.
- Describe a project you have worked on recently. What was your role and what skills did you have to use.
I chose the question as it gives a good indication as to how much of a team player the candidate is, and also how much his previous job trusted him, for example if it was only an extremely small project this can show that the candidate wasn’t deemed trustworthy/capable of handling a larger project, but if it were a large project then it shows that the previous job he was in thought the candidate to be trustworthy and capable.
- Think about your first 2 weeks in the role. What would be your priorities?
I thought this was a good question as it causes the candidate to have to look ahead at the job he’s undertaking and to answer the question well, the candidate would need to have a knowledge of what he’s going to be doing in the first 2 weeks and so the candidate would need to already have experience in the job.
- What would you hope to have achieved by the end of 3 months?
This is a similar question as the one above, I chose the question as it forces the candidate the stretch his or her knowledge and go into more depth with his or her previous answer.
- How will you know if you have been affective?
This question causes the candidate to have to explain how he or she monitors him or herself. Meaning how well the candidate see if they’re doing well of not so well and so is able to act upon this.
- Can you describe your experience of working in an office environment, and of any other previous assistant jobs.
- How well do you find managing office relationships? Would you choose your job over your relationships?
- How would your best friend describe you?
- If you were asked to write your own reference what would you say about yourself?
I have chosen these questions because they cause the interviewee to have to elaborate on their answers, and so they can’t just give yes/no answers. They are also the easiest questions to mark on a scale of 1-5 and will provide sufficient evidence of the interviewee’s experience. The questions I didn’t chose were too vague, or relied on other questions to have been answered in a specific way.
Interview Questions
Saturday assistant
Candidate: ____________________ Interviewers:__________________
The candidate will be asked these questions and then marked out of 5, with 5 being excellent and 1 being poor. This will then be totalled and compared to an ideal score of 70. The candidate with the highest score will be chosen.
As well as questions the candidate is going to be marked on appearance, punctuality, communication skills and formality.
Sub Total: ____/70
Sub Total: ____/20
Total Score: ____/90
Cluttons, Chichester
Phone 01243 523723
March 27, 2008
Cluttons Tod Miller
14 West Pallant
Chichester
West Sussex PO19 1TB
Dear prospective employee:
INTERVIEW OFFER
Cluttons is delighted to offer you a job interview regarding your excellent C.V. We hope that you will come along for the interview on the 3rd April 2008.
The interview is going to be conducted at the Chichester office, and it will take around 15 minutes. You are expected to prepare for it.
Here is a map for directions to the office.
Any references for you will need to be given to the Chichester office after the interview, if the interview goes successfully and we offer you the job.
Yours faithfully
John Anstee
Partner, Chichester Residential
Task 7
Summary of my interview
The interviews were good, I started off by introducing myself and giving a handshake, and a simple explanation of what was going to follow. Apart from one of my candidates being very nervous, the basic interviews went well. I got over the nervous candidate’s nerves by being clear and vocal about my questions and giving encouraging nods and gave an encouraging “yes” when he paused to see if he was going okay. Doing this gave the candidate more support in the interview and he seemed to get better at the end. I think the sheets I used were also very affective at recording how well the candidates were doing, and the interview questions I used were also very affective. I tried to ask a wide range of interview questions so that I covered all the points in the job description and person specification, I also tried to ask questions that would cause the candidate to think about the job and for him to have to think deeper into what the job is going to need from him. I also gave some marks for the general personality of the candidate, such as the candidate was assessed on his appearance, punctuality, communication skills and formality. Although in a real life interview these questions may be illegal because of anti-discrimination laws I thought it would be best to include them so as not to hire a candidate who is may put off Cluttons’ customers.
Evaluation of candidates
Out of the three candidates I chose, the one that got the highest score in terms of answered the questions the best and had a good demeanour about him was David Foxcroft. He had a good portfolio, he came prepared and confident for the interview and this came across well and he also answered most of the questions very well.
On my question sheet I divided up the scores into two sections the first section being the questions part, the maximum marks for this section is 70. This section was about getting the candidate to show that he or she can think under pressure and I marked the answers to these questions out of 5, 5 being the best answer that could be given, 1 being a very poor answer. To score well on this section the candidate would need to be precise with their answers, they would need to demonstrate their general knowledge well and also get their ideas and thought across. If they did this successfully then they got a 5. The other section was general demeanour, which is the candidates general manner. This again was scored 1 – 5 with 5 being excellent and 1 being poor. The general demeanour section was split into scoring the appearance of the candidate to ensure that he was dressed for a job interview and took care of him or herself and so not to bring the formality of Cluttons’ reputation down. Another section was the general punctuality of the candidate, things like was he on time and did he seem organised and ready for the interview. Another section was the communication skills, this is basically how well the candidate communicated his or her answers across the questions, and how he introduced him or herself. The last section was formality, how the candidate addressed the interviewers and how he came across, i.e. not to chatty and talking like he was friends with the interviewers.
David Foxcroft got high marks on most of these sections and so he was deemed to be the best candidate for the job.
As well as the basic interviews the candidates will need to perform basic tests, the tests for the Saturday assistant position I was interviewing for would be:
- Typing speed tests, being a Saturday assistant the candidate would need to be able to quickly type up documents for the other members of staff working.
- Work sample tests, this is where the candidate is given a typical daily task for the position they are interviewing for, and will need to complete the task to the best standard they can.
- In tray exercises, where the candidate will be given a list of jobs and will rank them in order of importance and give reasons why they ranked them in these positions.
- Psychometric and aptitude tests, these test the basic logic and understanding the candidate has, and the candidates’ thinking performance under pressure. The results of this test are then compared to other members of staff working at the same role, or studying for that role.
I didn’t conduct these tests in my interview process as this wasn’t part of my assessment, but if I did then I will use the same format as my questions and I will score each candidate and compare them with each other.
The candidate who gets the highest total out of all of these tests and interviews will be offered the job. In this case it was David Foxcroft.
When interviewing and creating the interview process I had to consider some PESTLE factors.
PESTLE stands for:
Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental
These are all factors that have be taken into account when conducting interviews, they control how I ask questions, what questions I ask and how I conduct any tests. I have to take these into account to avoid getting taken to court over discrimination or any other forms of prejudice.
Political
This entails points like:
- What grants or government funds can I get for employing the candidate?
How much this candidate meets the shareholders’ demands?
- Whether the questions reflect what the shareholders are expecting Cluttons to employ?
- Whether or not employing the candidate keeps to the stakeholders needs?
Economic
Economic factors are important in the interviewing process, examples of these are:
- Would employing the candidate result in paying more tax?
- What trends this candidate meets, for example was he part of a previous company whose global trends increased positively?
- How much the candidate would cost to employ into Cluttons?
Social
Social factors are also important, the points they bring up are:
- How hiring an employee would affect consumers’ view of Cluttons?
- How they can educate the candidate?
- Any ethical issues the have to take into account when hiring a certain employee.
- Any population shifts that Cluttons would have to take into account when hiring an employee.
- Any competition that Cluttons have to match, and how hiring a candidate would affect this.
Technological
Cluttons would have to take into account the following technological factors:
- Any new systems that the candidate could bring in to the company.
- Health care systems that Cluttons’ would have to undertake to meet with a candidate’s health.
- How the candidate can answer phones, work with a computer, use the internet and type.
- How the candidate is going to be transported around the office, or into the office.
- Any new devices or machines that will have to be bought and used by Cluttons so the candidate can work.
Legal
Legal factors are very important when hiring a new employee, the main factors of this are:
- The current legislation of the country of which the candidate will be working.
- Current employing new staff regulations and rules.
- Any future laws that may be brought into place in the near future that may affect the candidate or Cluttons hiring a candidate.
- Any regulatory organisations or processes that Cluttons would have to follow to stay legal.
- Any environmental issues that may occur when hiring a certain employee.
- Employment law.
- Any competitive regulations that Cluttons would have to take into account.
Cluttons, Chichester
Phone 01243 523723
March 27, 2008
Cluttons Tod Miller
14 West Pallant
Chichester
West Sussex PO19 1TB
Dear Candidate:
We appreciate the time you took to come to the interview out of your busy schedule and we thank you for being polite and formal for throughout the interview.
You came across well in the interview and were well mannered.
Sadly we regret to inform you that there were a number of very strong candidates who took this interview and unfortunately this time you didn’t get the job. We hope to hear from you in the future.
Sincerely,
Jack Foxcroft
Cluttons, Chichester
Phone 01243 523723
March 27, 2008
Cluttons Tod Miller
14 West Pallant
Chichester
West Sussex PO19 1TB
Dear Candidate:
JOB OFFER
Partner, Chichester Residential
Cluttons. is delighted to offer you a job as a Saturday Assistant. We trust that your knowledge, skills and experience will be among our most valuable assets.
Some extra information about your job:
-
Salary: Annual gross starting salary of £10,500, per year
-
Benefits:
- Child daycare assistance
- Education assistance
- Health, dental, life and disability insurance
- Sick leave
- Vacation and personal days
To accept this job offer:
-
Please come into the Chichester office or call us with on the above number, by the 10th of April.
If you accept this job offer, your hire date will be on 16th of Apil 2008. This will be your induction and training to the job. After this you’re on 6 month probation.
Cluttons hope that you'll accept this job offer and look forward to welcoming you aboard. Your immediate supervisor will be John Anstee, Sales supervisor. Feel free to call the Chichester office if you have questions or concerns, this number can be found in the letterhead
Sincerely,
Jack Foxcroft
Task 8
How have documents and processes contributed to the recruitment process?
All the documents and processes leading up to my interview were also very important. They all contributed to the overall deciding factor of who I was going to employ into Cluttons. I think that generally I was quite successful in my recruitment process and that I had hit all major criteria that are needed to employ somebody that would have been suitable for the job position I was recruiting for. The major factors that I needed to take into account when undergoing this recruitment process are:
The documents
These are all the documents needed to successfully undergo the recruiting process, and these include things like:
- Job description
- Person specification
- Advertisement
- Application form
Job descriptions
Job descriptions in the recruitment process are very important, they’re a guide for the person specification, and they account for all aspects of the job you’re hiring for. I think that my job description was a bit brief, and that I could’ve expanded more on the brief description of the job and more on the duties and responsibilities, like the example job description I included had done. I think that if I had done this it would’ve benefited my recruitment process more, by having a better idea of what the job would entail and make other documents like the person specification easier to write. I can measure how effective my job description is by seeing how relevant my person specification is to it and how well the person I hire for the job role is suited for it. I can measure this by the level of happiness the employee has after a few months in the role, and how productive the employee is, this will decided whether or not I wrote a suitable job description for the role.
Person specifications
Person specifications are also important in the recruitment process; they decide, based on the job description, what qualifications are suitable and needed to carry out the role. They also give an appropriate target to recruit. I think that my person specification was quite successful at this, I gave a lot of detail about what was required for the job and this can be reflected by seeing how suitable the person I hired was to the job position. I think that one point I could’ve improved on would be the layout, I could’ve laid it out like how the Cluttons person specifications were laid out, I think that doing this would make my person specification easier to read, which would result in better quality questions that are based on my person specification. How well I did my person specification can be measured by the level of productivity and whether or not I retain the employee.
Advertising
Advertising is a large part of the recruiting process, to get the message out that Cluttons was recruiting I created my own advert for the job role. I think that the advert I did was good, it was bold and it got to the point, but it didn’t really have enough information on it, for example I could’ve included more about what sort of job the Saturday assistant was and I could’ve written more contact details and instructions of how to get into contact with the recruiting department by including more information other then “please come inside with a copy of your CV.” A good way of measuring the success of my advertising would be the amount of applications for the post I get, and how many of them are relevant.
Interview processes
The actual interview processes are also important. They form the main filtering out of unsuitable candidates and then allow the suitable candidates to get the available position. They also determine what training the candidate would need before starting his job role and what knowledge the candidate already has. These processes are everything like:
- Interview questions
- Interview techniques
- Documents involved in this, i.e. interview performance sheets
I think that my interview questions were very well thought out and written. They asked exactly what I wanted and forced the candidate to show a lot of their present knowledge and skills. My questions also determined what they had previously done in their job and the type of people they worked with and what conditions they worked under. I think that these are all important questions and they reached most of the relevant criteria that is needed for the job. I could see how successful I was at this by seeing if my questions reached all the appropriate points on the person specification. This in turn could be measured by how well the person I hired fits in with the job role and how they perform in the position. The interview questions contribute a lot to the recruitment process, they make up the final decision of who gets the position.
I think that my interview techniques were very good. I tried to give a positive feel to the interview by nodding my head and giving “yeses” at appropriate moments just to keep the candidate motivated and a bit of reassurance that the candidate was going along the right lines. If the candidate didn’t understand the question I rephrased it and if the candidate missed the point I didn’t dismiss what the candidate said, I then the rephrased the question so that should reach the same points. I could measure how successful I was at this by seeing how well the candidates responded to my questions and how many candidates answered the questions successfully. The interview techniques are quite important to the recruiting process as they benefit how I ask the questions. They also give good support to the candidates who may be slightly nervous, and this will cause them to perform better in the interview, whereas if they were nervous, they could be a very good employee, but may not perform well in the interview.
The performance rating sheets are very important in the recruiting process. The whole final decisions gets judged on how well the candidate did and how he performed in the interview and the performance sheets need to judge this. They need to be easy to use and also give a precise, accurate and detailed description of the candidate’s abilities. I thought that I made this balance well, my sheets were easy to use, but also gave a good indication of how well the candidate did when I wanted to review all my interviews later. I also think that my performance rating sheets were good because I included other criteria about the candidates, such as the candidate appearance, punctuality, communication skills and formality, while these are all important in recruiting a candidate, I only gave these scores a small percentage of the candidate’s final score, as the ability to answer the questions well was more important. How successful these performance sheets can be measured by using feedback from how well the candidate is doing in his or her role, and from this I can tell how well the candidate matches the position and therefore I can know whether or not I was successful in picking the right candidate from my performance rating sheets.
Training and motivational methods
I think that these are very important, people would want to join Cluttons for a variety of different reasons, and so would require different motivations to apply for the job, and Cluttons generally supply this motivation well. The motivational techniques Cluttons use are:
Development opportunities, a lot of people want to apply for a job early in their career to receive their training that would better them along their career path. A measure of whether this motivational technique works is how long the candidates work at Cluttons, if a lot of hired employees leave to go onto another job after they’ve received their training and had a few years experience, this usually means that this is a main motivational factor in recruiting employees to work for Cluttons.
Base salary pay is a large encouraging factor in recruiting people for Cluttons. There will be a number of people that would want to apply for a job at Cluttons as they are interested in the money they get. A measure of this would be a being able to observe a trend in the level of motivation and the salary, if the trend for Cluttons is that the higher the salary the higher level of motivation then Cluttons must have hired more employees that are more motivated by money then by other factors.
Long term incentives are another large factor in encouraging people to work for Cluttons; these include incentives like chances of career advancement and benefits like company cars. The people that are interesting in these incentives will be the employees that work for Cluttons in the long run, and their highest level of motivation is when they receive these long term incentives, or when they are working towards receiving them. This can be measured by the rate of work that the employees achieve compared to what the employees achieve at other times.
Having these training and motivational methods advertised is quite important in the recruitment process; people not only have to see the adverts but be motivated enough by them to want to know more about the position and what benefits the position would have over their previous jobs. I had to provide sufficient motivates to do this, to get people interested in the job enough to consider going for the job.
Relevant PESTLE factors
There are a lot of PESTLE factors that I had to consider when undergoing the recruiting process. PESTLE would form a large part of how I targeted the types of candidates that they want and how they recruit for these target candidates. The PESTLE factors are as follows:
Political
Political factors played a large part in how I encouraged people to apply for the job. For example, I had to take into consideration any government change soon to take place, like a change in parties during general elections, any intra-country relationships, or any government policies, that may affect my recruitment process or who I aimed to recruit for. I took this into account when undergoing to recruiting process and I checked if there were any political changes or any other political factors may affect my recruiting process.
Economic
Economic factors also played a part in my recruitment process. For example I had to take into account any taxes or costs that may arise when undergoing to recruiting process, and adjust my recruiting process accordingly. I took this into account in my interviews and tests, I knew that I couldn’t do any tests that would cost a lot to do and I also knew that I couldn’t do any tests that would involve allowing candidates to have actual company accounts and clients and could cause damage to Cluttons if went wrong. An example of an economic factor that I had to take into account is the new heavy fines regarding tax evasion; I had to acknowledge that I did have some costs to consider undergoing to recruitment process.
Sociological
A large factor in the recruiting process is social factors. This is one of the main factors that have to be taken into account. For example any ethical issues that may arise when undergoing to recruiting process, any tests or interviews that may affect consumers’ attitudes and opinions of Cluttons. When undergoing the recruiting process I had to make sure that any tests I did were ethical and fair, and that I didn’t do any tests or interview techniques that may affect the consumers’ opinion and attitudes of Cluttons. I had to take into sociological factors when undergoing my recruitment process, for example I had to understand the population trends and un employment levels if I was going to plan how many applications I was going to get, in the end I estimated that I would get around 30 applications from the local area. I got to this estimation by taking into account where my adverts were, who they were targeted at and what percentage of whom I targeted the adverts at were in the population, using this figure I could estimate how many suitable candidates would view the advertisements and be interested.
Technological
Technological factors can also affect the recruiting process. I had to consider any new technologies that I could use in my recruiting process, for example I had to consider what technology for the candidate to use when performing any typing tests or when the candidate has to show what computer skills the candidate has.
Legal
Legal factors are a very large part of the recruiting process, in every step of the recruiting process I had to consider and make sure that what I was doing was legal. For example when writing up my document on the interview questions I had to make sure that the questions I asked were legal, for example I couldn’t ask about the candidates sexual orientation and marital status. I made sure that I didn’t do anything that was illegal by reviewing what I did several times with the government set recruiting rules, regulations and laws. I had to take into account:
- The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
- The Equal Pay Act 1970
- The Race Relations Act 1976
- Disability Discrimination Act 1995
If I didn’t take these laws into account when undergoing to recruitment process then I may violate them, which would result in legal action against me.
Environmental
I considered environmental factors during my recruiting process. For example during the recruiting process I tried to produce all documentation on recycled paper, and I organised the candidates to be able to come into the Cluttons’ office by bus. I also tried to keep all tests I did on recycled paper, and when conducting tests on the computer, I turned off the computer at the switch after use, and turned the light off in the room afterwards.
Factors that contribute to the recruiting process
Report
REPORT
To: Managing Director, Cluttons
From: A Student
Subject: Our recent recruitment of David Foxcroft went rather well, I feel that the documents I used were affective and well thought out. I also think that the interview process went well too, as I employed a very well qualified and well spoken man, who I feel is going to be very good for the job.
Documents:
I feel that I set out and planned the recruiting process well, I knew exactly how to set out my interview when interviewing and I also knew what tests to conduct and what tests to plan for.
I think that my job description could’ve been larger and more in-depth I could’ve also improved and expanded on what I had previously done as back ground research.
I think my person specification was quite good I had gone into detail of what I required of the candidate and I made sure it fit my PESTLE factors.
I think my advertisement was quite good it was bold and eye catching and went straight to the point I included all the factors that were required and that I previously planned for. I also did a table deciding how to advertise my advert and why I chose these advertising mediums. I think that this went well and I chose good strong advertising mediums that will be eye catching and result in a large selection of candidates.
I think my questions were good and got straight to the point and required the candidate to go really in depth to answer them well, as he did so. I think that some questions could’ve been improved as they may have been slightly illegal and irrelevant.
I can measure the success of my documents by observing how well qualified my potential candidates are, and how suitable they are for the job, if they are suitable I know that my person specification has been matched successfully and that my advertisements managed to reach out to the right people. I can also see how well my person specification matched with my job description by seeing how well my hired employee copes with his new role, and if the required skills from the person specification matched up well with the job role as described in the job description. I can also measure how successful my job description was by the amount of people I get applying for the job, if the level is high I know that I have described the job well and given a good impression of it. I can also see if my job description was good by measuring how happy the new employee is after a few months of working at Cluttons, and how the employee’s actual job role matches to what the employee expected to be doing from the job description.
Interview process:
I think that my interview process was affective. I think this because the successful candidate was very good and some of the other interviewees were also very strong and so I had a large choice of good candidates to choose from. I think I could’ve improved on some factors such as given a bit more time for candidates to prepare for questions and tests, and so then I would get an idea of how well the candidates prepare for certain events. Other then this I think that my interview process was good.
I could further measure this using my retention rate at the end of the year, and see how well I have
Yours sincerely Jack Foxcroft
