Who shall we consider?
Featured in the Recruiting and Keeping the Right People training manual
By Susan Iacovou
Category: Recruitment, Selection and Induction
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
It’s easy to see why many recruiters faced with a huge pile of applications resort to skim reading and making superficial judgements in an attempt to divide good candidates from bad. But judging someone on their style of their handwriting, on the layout of their curriculum vitae or on their age or interest, doesn’t necessarily produce the best candidate for the job. Nevertheless, many recruiters rely on such judgements and fail to use a structured approach to sorting through applications. This training activity focuses on the skill of short listing, and on the use of the person specification to guide the short-listing process. Participants get a chance to practise using a person specification during a short-listing exercise.
You introduce the training activity by explaining to participants that there are many ways in which they could sort through job applications. However, by far the best method in these situations is to use a person specification for guidance. You then remind participants of the uses and headings of a person specification and about the five point plan. (If participants have not yet undertaken the training activity ‘What kind of person do we need?’ you will need to introduce these subjects from scratch.) You then introduce a practical exercise, ‘Emergency Ward 2’, in which participants will be asked to work in pairs to identify the best three out of eight candidates for the position of a ward administrator in a hospital. After the exercise, you debrief participants by explaining who the best candidates would be and why these would probably be short listed from the available applications. Finally, you bring the training activity to a conclusion by reminding participants of the key learning points covered.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to help participants’ select suitable candidates from a number of applications, aiming to familiarise them with the use of the person specification as a means of remaining objective when short listing.
- Themes:
- Benchmarking,
- Planning,
- Questioning,
- Recruitment and selection,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 20 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:40:00 |
| No of Pages: | 21 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers, and can be used on its own, but is especially valuable if used to follow the training activity, ‘What kind of person do we need?’
Download the training activity, Who shall we consider? as featured in the Fenman training manual; Recruiting and Keeping the Right People