Factsheet: Five strategies to support better practice recruitment

Overview

Robust, well-considered recruitment processes assist hiring managers to select the best person for a role. This factsheet provides five strategies that APS HR practitioners can adopt to support recruitment capability in their agency.

1. Provide visibility of agency recruitment

Providing business areas with visibility of upcoming, in- progress and recently concluded recruitment activities can help facilitate joint processes and maximise the full use of merit lists, to reduce duplication of effort.

Agencies who are growing their reporting capability should consider providing a regular recruitment update to managers within their organisation. Agencies who are maturing in their reporting capability should ensure recruitment activity is included in their established reporting channels.

2. Take a strategic approach to merit list management

The use of merit lists and pools provides many benefits to candidates and agencies. However, the creation of lists and pools that reach expiry with a large number of candidates remaining on the list or pool is an inefficient use of resources and may result in a negative candidate perception of APS recruitment.

Recruitment areas should consider evaluating agency recruitment outcomes. Where large numbers of candidates are consistently remaining on merit lists and pools, consider working with business areas to ensure merit lists and pools lists are appropriate for the number of anticipated vacancies.

3. Develop an agency-wide approach to selection panel capability

Selection panel capability is critical to running efficient recruitment processes. Agencies seeking to achieve an overall uplift in recruitment capability should consider:

• Is there clear guidance on planning a recruitment process for business areas to follow? 
• Are there clear pathways for business areas to ask for guidance throughout the recruitment process? Are agency policies and resources easily accessible?
• How is the current HR service offering working to support agency recruitment? For some agencies, an advisory service for managers may be effective. Alternatively, agencies should consider having a HR representative on each selection panel.
• Consider implementing an agency-wide approach to selection panel training and pairing less experienced panel members with more experienced panel members to promote skills transfer.
• Consider developing example assessment questions aligned to key behaviours, such as integrity.

4. Support recruitment to anticipated vacancies

Using workforce planning tools to help hiring managers anticipate vacancies can help agencies take a more proactive approach to recruitment. Understanding staff movements over time including attrition, promotions, mobility and redeployment can help agencies plan peak periods of recruitment and employee onboarding.

5. Proactively manage risks

Where there is a need to fill vacancies urgently, hiring managers may be tempted to take short-cuts in the recruitment process. Departing from obligations under the APS Employment Framework creates integrity and reputational risks that may ultimately lead to further delays in the recruitment process. 

Establishing clear and effective agency processes that explain why each step in a process is required helps mitigate these risks.