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Making the Right Investment - Recruitment and Selection

The last (we said that last time) blog post about a Conference session, this time around the BIALL Blogger asked Suzanne Wheatley of Sue Hill about her session "Making the right investment - Recruitment and Selection"

BB - Your session is about recruitment and selection, how important is it for employers to get the job description/job title right?

SW - The job description is the key starting point and should always be revisited and amended. I've seen several job descriptions that have come through with "last revised" date at least two years old! Just like your CV, the job description is most likely to keep changing and developing. A good way to keep this up to date would be to look at it as part of the appraisal process. The job title to me is less important, though it does help with team structure and reputation within a company.

BB - Nowadays there seem to be a huge number of job titles used by prospective employers, are there any that have made you laugh or cringe?

SW - One of my favourite job titles is Business Manager - Execution. I giggled at "Knowledge Gardener"!

BB - Training a manager on how to interview candidates must be quite difficult as no situation is the same, where do you start?

SW - I think a great way to start thinking about how to interview is to recall good and bad interviews that you've attended, what was it that made a good interviewer stand out? What made someone such a bad interviewer? Avoid doing the latter and try to emulate the former.

BB - I've interviewed a couple of prospective employees in my time and felt woefully underprepared, what one piece of advice would you give a manager preparing for their first job interview?

SW - Set aside as much time to prepare as you would if you were the nervous interviewee. Preparation really is the key - remember your objective is to find the right person for your time, then the seriousness of the situation will kick you into some serious prep!

BB - It sounds like your session is going to be very practical, what's the one thing you hope attendees will take away from your session?

SW -I always hope that attendees walk away knowing at least one more person and have one practical idea they can implement back at the ranch.

BB - I know you've been to a couple of BIALL conferences, what do you enjoy most?

SW - This is my 5th BIALL conference - where has the time gone?! My first was in Brighton - where it rained. Then Sheffield - much more rain. Dublin and Manchester proved to be (surprisingly for Manchester!) sunnier. I sense more rain in Brighton... To me, the conference is all about meeting people, getting a real sense of community and knowing that other people are experiencing the same issues and successes as you.

Many thanks to Suzanne for answering the questions posed by the BIALL Blogger. The next posts about the Conference will be a summary of Day 1 & 2 and the details of the organisations that have won the Halsbury's Awards.

Full post as published by The BIALL Blog on June 10, 2010 (boomark / email).