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SuccessProfile

Framework

Success Profiles Defining the job role and selection requirements

| 1Success Profiles - Defining the job role and selection requirements

Defining the job role and selection requirements This product guides the vacancy holder through the beginning of the recruitment process. This includes analysing the job role, defining the role requirements and selecting the relevant elements of the Success Profile for the role. It also explains how to choose the assessment methods and considerations to make when drafting the job description, job specification and job advert.

What are Success Profiles?

The Success Profile Framework is being introduced to attract and retain people of talent and experience from a range of sectors and all walks of life, in line with the commitment in the Civil Service Workforce Plan.

The Success Profile Framework moves recruitment away from using a purely competency based system of assessment. It introduces a more flexible framework which assesses candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. This will give the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, driving up performance and improving diversity and inclusivity.

The elements that can be assessed to find the best candidate for the role are:

• Behaviours - the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job.

• Strengths - the things we do regularly, do well and that motivate us.

• Ability - the aptitude or potential to perform to the required standard.

• Experience - the knowledge or mastery of an activity or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it.

• Technical - the demonstration of specific professional skills, knowledge or qualifications.

Not all elements are relevant to every role, so the makeup of the Success Profile should be different for different types of job to improve the chances of getting the best person for the role.


The Recruitment Process

Before recruiting for a new or existing position, it is important to invest some time thinking about the requirements of the role.

Prior to advertising a vacancy you will need to:

Analyse the job role and define the role requirements. Gather and analyse information about the job in order to clearly determine the responsibilities and requirements of the role.

Select relevant elements of the Success Profile for the role and choose the assessment methods you will use. Work through the Success Profile to decide which elements and assessment methods will give you the best overall picture of candidates applying for your vacant job role.

Draft the job description, person specification and job advert. You should ensure the responsibilities and requirements of the role are clearly communicated in order to attract the best possible candidates.

This guide will help you to understand and complete each of these activities. Undertaking these activities will help you recruit the best person for the role.

By carefully considering selection criteria and using the right shortlisting and assessment tools, the successful candidate will demonstrate all elements of the Success Profi le that are key to effective performance in the role.

Advertise

Phase 1Planning your recruitment campaign

Phase 2Attracting the right applicants

Phase 3Selecting the best candidate

Phase 4Making a job offer

Sift

Provide feedback to all applicants Provide an offer of employment

Assess Select the successful candidate

Having defi ned role requirements select relevant elements to defi ne the Success Profi le for the role. Choose the assessment method(s) you will use.

Analyse the job role and defi ne the role

requirements

Draft job description and advert

If you have not assessed a job before, speak with your HRBP for further advice and support.


Analyse the job role

It’s a good idea to conduct a job analysis prior to advertising a current or new role as it is an opportunity to look at what is required for the role going forward.

This in turn enables a relevant job description and person specification to be developed.

The key areas to identify as part of the job analysis are:

• purpose

• duties

• required skills, knowledge and abilities

• interaction with others (internal/external)

• outputs

• fit in the department’s structure

• activities and responsibilities required.

You can gather knowledge to inform the job analysis from a variety of sources. Common methods include:

• interviews - talk to current post holder(s)/line manager/team leader

• questionnaire - completed by post holder(s)/line manager/team leader/colleagues

• observation - collecting information by observing post-holder undertaking their duties.

You can also:

• compare - look to see if there are other similar roles across the civil service, particularly across a profession.

When gathering knowledge, you should try to get as much information as possible to help you get a rounded picture of the job role and the impact of that role. This will help to give a clearer picture of the qualities you will be looking for in potential candidates and will enable you to identify the elements within the Success Profile that will help you to find those candidates.

You should consider gathering information from more than one source to ensure that you have robust data for conducting the job analysis process.

Think about diversity and inclusion.

You need to take a balanced and unbiased approach when carrying out job analysis, and be impartial in your approach when gathering data. If you haven’t already done so, you need to complete Unconscious Bias Training.

Job analysis is different from Job evaluation. Job evaluation is the process of using various tools to rank jobs within an organisation in terms their scope and level of responsibility. It provides a systematic and fair process for determining the grading of a job, relative to other jobs in the organisation. Job evaluation guidance for the Civil Service is published on OneHR. Speak to your HR Business Partner if you think job evaluation is required.


Select the relevant elements of the Success Profile

Once you have analysed the role, you should work through the requirements of the job and use the Success Profile elements as a prompt to think about what behaviours, strengths, experience, ability and technical skills candidates would need to demonstrate in order to fulfil that job role.

When using behaviours the Civil Service Behaviours must be used. When using strengths, the Civil Service Strengths Dictionary must be used. When using ability, the default approach is to use tests and assessments provided by Government Recruitment Service. When using experience or technical skills the relevant profession or function team will advise on the preferred consistent approach.

the aptitude or potential to perform to the required standard.

the knowledge or mastery of an activity or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it.

the things we do regularly, do well and that motivate us.

the demonstration of specific professional skills, knowledge or qualifications.

the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job.

Ability

Experience

Strengths

Technical

Behaviours

You don’t need to use every element of Success Profiles for every job, however, assessing candidates against a range of criteria will give you a more rounded picture and will help you select the best person for the job.


Below are some considerations which should be made when choosing the relevant Success Profile elements.

Behaviours

• Good to use where you are looking to assess effective performance.

• Provide a clear description of what is expected of the job holder at that particular grade level.

• The vacancy holder can identify, and focus assessment on, the most relevant parts of each behaviour selected.

• Past behaviour is a good predictor of future behaviour.

Strengths

• Good to use where you are looking to assess potential.

• Is useful for roles where applicants may have limited work experience, such as apprenticeships.

• Strength based interviews involve less candidate preparation and the more conversational feel can put candidates at ease.

• There is evidence of increased fairness when blended with behavioural questions.

• Where the role fits a candidate’s strengths, they are more likely to enjoy it and perform well.

Ability

• Good to use where you are looking to quickly assess a large number of applications, such as sifting for volume campaigns.

• Uses psychometric tests to predict future performance. These can be a fast, automated and cost-effective approach.

Experience

• Good to use where you are looking to assess candidates’ current level of experience and track record.

• Often used for senior roles or by professions.

Technical

• Good to use where you are looking to assess specific technical skills, knowledge or qualifications required for the job.

• Should be based on the relevant profession’s framework where available. This re-enforces alignment with Career Pathways which facilitate career progression within professions and across departments.

Select the relevant elements of the Success Profile

You do not necessarily need to assess an element in its entirety. For example, the role may only require one key technical skill or particular parts of a behaviour. Being very clear about what you are looking for will help you attract the most suitable candidate


Choosing your assessment tools

Once you have identified which elements make up the Success Profile for your job role, you can then use this to identify the assessment methods you will use.

There are a range of tools and approaches that can be used to assess candidates which will determine their suitability for the role. It is a good idea to use more than one assessment method in order to get a better overall picture of the candidates applying for your vacant job role.

To identify the most appropriate sift and/or assessment tool(s) you will need to think about factors including the type of recruitment campaign you are running, the approximate number of applicants, resources needed and timescales.

For example:

• Volume campaigns, where a huge number of applications are expected, will probably benefit from sifting via aptitude/judgement tests. This approach provides a less resource intensive way to sift initial applications and could be followed by an assessment centre or interview.

• Smaller campaigns for specialist roles, where far fewer applications are expected, may benefit from a sift process where you can review applications in full, such as a CV, followed by an interview.

The Assessment Options e-learning available on CSL can help you to understand the various assessment options and identify the most appropriate approach for your recruitment campaign.

The relevant Success Profile elements, chosen assessment methods and the job analysis should then be used to develop the job description. This will help you to identify the essential and desirable selection criteria for the role in the person specification. The selection criteria and assessment approach should be outlined in the candidate pack so that candidates know what to expect from the process.

Discuss with your HR team if you are unsure of which assessment methods to choose.


Assessment options

The table below shows some of the most common assessment methods used. It shows the stage the assessment method is most likely to be used at and which element(s) of the Success Profile it assesses. The colours used in the table correspond to the colours of each element of the Success Profile.

Suc

cess

Pro

file

elem

ent

Sift Assessment(s)

App

licat

ion

Form

CV

/Sta

tem

ent o

f S

uita

bilit

y

Exp

ress

ion

of

Inte

rest

Apt

itude

Tes

ts

Civ

il S

ervi

ce

Judg

emen

t Tes

t

Tele

phon

e/V

ideo

In

terv

iew

Inte

rvie

w

Pre

sent

atio

n

In-T

ray

Exe

rcis

e

Writ

ten

Ana

lysi

s/E

xerc

ise

Per

sona

lity

Test

Civ

il S

ervi

ce

Judg

emen

t Tes

t

Ass

essm

ent

Cen

tre

T T T T T T T T T T

A A A A A A A A

B B B B B B B B B B B B B

S S S S S

E E E E E E E E


Job Description

A job description outlines the main requirements of the role.

It’s purpose is to:

• define the role

• attract candidates

• help the successful candidate and manager understand what is required in the role.

The job description comprises:

• Identification Specific information about the role, including title, grade, location and reporting relationships. There will also be information about the recruitment campaign, including timescales (closing date, dates of assessment(s)) and contact information.

• Job summary Provides a descriptive summary of the job. This is the opportunity to attract candidates. It should include a brief overview of the department, team and role. Think about what make the job interesting/unique.

• Duties and responsibilities Provides a more detailed look at the main duties and responsibilities. This should not be an exhaustive or overwhelming list of duties but should give candidates a flavour of the day-to-day activities, particularly any key elements of the role. This helps the candidate to determine whether the role appeals to them and is the right fit for them.

It is important that any information you send to candidates, including the job description, person specification and job advert, are written in plain English. Documents that are lengthy and/or contain jargon/acronyms may deter suitable potential candidates.

A job description and person specification can be combined but set out in sections, so that they can be independently updated as needed. Check your departmental / profession approach as there is a usually a template to help you.


Person Specification

A person specification outlines the skills, knowledge, qualifications, attributes and relevant elements of the Success Profile (such as certain behaviours/strengths) required from successful candidates. It should directly map from the job description.

It enables candidates to think about whether they have the required qualities before applying for the role. This helps you to attract the right people for the role.

The person specification comprises:

• Essential criteria Those that are critical for the satisfactory performance of the job. It is expected that applicants will meet all the essential criteria to be considered eligible.

• Desirable criteria Those that enhance a person’s capacity to do the job. These can be acquired once in the role. For example, while specific knowledge of the organisation could be of benefit, it can also be learnt.

These enable assessors to differentiate between the people who would be able to do the role at a satisfactory level and those who would be able to exceed the requirements of the role or take less time to become familiar with it.

Think about the type of person you want to apply for the role, rather than listing all the qualities of the ‘perfect candidate’. For instance, is a particular qualification really essential or could they be ‘qualified by experience’ or willing to work toward the qualification when in role?

Clearly defined objective criteria enables a transparent and fair assessment process. It also enables applicants to prepare well for assessment and provide enough relevant information to show they are able to do the job.

The criteria should not be overly prescriptive. This may discourage suitable candidates from applying (for instance if they don’t have some of the desirable criteria) and would not allow flexibility for the role to change over time.

Be careful that the criteria you choose does not disadvantage any protected characteristics. For example, specifying a required number of years’ experience or using terms such as ‘mature’ could discriminate against younger applicants.

You should be careful not to use more essential criteria than needed as you might be excluding a great candidate unnecessarily. You don’t need to ask for criteria from all five of the Success Profile elements.

If using strengths, you might want to use some of the language in the strength descriptor when writing your job description/specification to help candidates understand what is required in the role.


Job Advert

Once you have completed the job analysis, built the Success Profile, identified the assessment methods and written the job description and person specification for the job, you are ready to write the job advert.

The job advert should focus on the essential criteria for the job, set out in the person specification, this will ensure you are clear on expectations right from the start and will help you to attract interest from a wide group of suitable candidates. You can then use the desirable criteria to distinguish between candidates at later stage of the process. The job advert should include enough information about the job role to attract interest without being too detailed.