Recruitment, appointment and induction

All manager's must ensure the post specification for the vacancy is accurate and graded correctly before proceeding to the next steps of the recruitment process:

• you can find the official post specification for your vacancy on the pay and grading sharepoint site
• the post specifications on this site have been graded in line with the Cumberland Council job evaluation scheme

What you need to do:

• as a manager you should access the sharepoint site and find the role specification. (Further instructions are available on the sharepoint site if the role specification cannot be located)
• you should review the post specification to ensure it is still accurate, valid and in the correct Cumberland Council template
• if no changes are needed to the online post specification, you should move to step 2
• if any changes are needed to the post specification, these should be made using tracked changes (How to use track changes)
• your changes should be saved and submitted to the pay and grading team to review. To do this, you should raise an HR Advisory ticket on the Service Catalogue - HR Portal, selecting the “Pay, Working arrangements and Benefits” category on the query. You should attach your amended Post Specification to this ticket
• in these circumstances, the pay and grading team will confirm when your amended post specification has been published and you are ready to move to step 2 of the process

Before a vacancy can be authorised, recruiting managers must seek authority to recruit, using the following steps:

1. Recruiting managers should complete the Cumberland Council: Vacancy Authorisation form (DOC 70KB)
2. Once completed, they should obtain initial sign off from their Assistant Director or Director.
3. Once the member of DMT has signed the form, this should be emailed to VacancyRequest@cumbria.gov.uk
4. Finance Business Partners and Strategic HR Business Partners (HRBP) will review the request to ensure it is within budget requirements and align with service and workforce commitments
5. Your Strategic HR Business Partner will act as the point of contact for your requests; their job is to keep you informed of progress and ensure that if it is supported by the service’s Assistant Director or Director, it is then considered for approval by the Jacqui Green, Assistant Director of HROD and then Jo Atkinson, Director for Business Transformation and Change *where required.
6. Once authorised, your Strategic HRBP will liaise with your service’s Resourcing Partner who will raise a ticket on the portal on your behalf and be in touch regarding advertising and candidate attraction. Authorisation to recruit is valid for 4 months
7. You can now move to step 3 of the process

Recruitment freeze

There is an ongoing recruitment freeze in place, as agreed by SLT. Only roles which meet the following agreed criteria will be progressed:

• there is a legal and statutory requirement for the role
• there is a Regulatory requirement for the role
• there is a Health and Safety requirement, including possible risk to life, for the role
• there is time limited funding attached to the role and failure to progress would result in loss of funding
• there are savings targets dependant on the role being appointed to deliver and failure to progress would result in risk to savings delivery
• the role is vital to supporting the council deliver its Transformation agenda

If you have any further questions, please speak to your Service Manager or Assistant Director in the first instance.

Once your post is authorised your service’s resourcing partner will contact you to discuss advertisement options and candidate attraction.  You will be required to provide an advert wording, a closing date and interview date.

A new ticket on the Recruitment administration portal will be opened in your name. You will receive an email confirming this and a link to the recruitment portal where you can keep track and manage your recruitment campaign.

Our central resourcing team can support recruiting managers with advert writing, where needed.

Viewing your applications

• once your advert is live, you and your panel members can view all applications for this role by logging into the Itrent People Manager application
• once logged on, select the “Recruitment” page on the righthand side of the homepage
• you will be taken to a recruitment summary page where you will be able to find your vacancy
• clicking on your vacancy will open a link to all your applicants and their profiles,
• if applicants have submitted any additional documentation, such as a CV, these can be accessed via the tabs on the candidate profile

When an advert closes, a shortlisting email will be sent to the recruiting manager with instructions along with a shortlisting report. This shortlisting report will contain summary candidate information and allow you to record your scores.

Recruiting managers are responsible for coordinating the shortlisting process with all panel members. You should ensure all panel members have access to the applications via ITrent and they are clear on how to score a candidate as per the guidance below.

Once all shortlisting scores have been recorded and a panel consensus has been reached, recruiting managers should: 

• update the shortlisting spreadsheet accordingly, recording scores and feedback
• access the relevant portal ticket for the recruitment
• upload the shortlisting spreadsheet to the activity section within the  ticket
• select the “Actions” button on the ticket and then select “Complete Shortlisting”

Recruitment Administrators will notify the unsuccessful applicants and answer any applicant queries.

Shortlisting Guidance – an overview

Prior to shortlisting the panel should agree an initial benchmark score which applicants must achieve in order to be shortlisted.

AEP candidates only need to meet a minimum benchmark for the candidate to be considered a potential match for the role. This means they only need to ‘reasonably” meet the essential criteria and demonstrate a minimum score of 2, across all areas, as outlined below. If this applies, please follow the AEP guidance.

Cumberland Council operates 3 guaranteed interview schemes where, those eligible, only need to meet the essential criteria for the role in order to be shortlisted. The shortlisting spreadsheet will identify if any candidates feel they meet the eligibility criteria for the scheme.

All eligible applications must be shortlisted against the following areas:

• Relevant Knowledge/ Experience
• Skills and Qualities
• Commitment to / alignment with our Values
• Essential Qualifications

Managers should always refer to the person specification for the post when shortlisting.
Scores can be awarded as:

• 0 - No match / criteria not met
• 1 - Insufficient match / information
• 2 - Satisfactory match / reasonably meets criteria
• 3 - Slightly exceeds criteria
• 4 - Markedly exceeds criteria
• 5 - Exceeds the criteria to an exceptional level

Applicants who reach the agreed benchmark should be invited to interview. However, there may be circumstances where there are a large number of strong candidates who meet and exceed the benchmark and it may not be feasible to interview everyone.  It is advised in these circumstances that the panel invite the highest scoring applicants to interview along with those that meet any guaranteed interview criteria.

Interviews can be held in person or using MS Teams.

Recruiting Managers should email the invite to interview letters and Teams Invitations with guidance to on-line interviews (where applicable) to the applicants using the templates below:

• invitation to on-line interview (DOC 23KB)
• guidance to on-line interview (DOC 18KB)
• invitation to in-person interview (DOC 25KB)

It is recommended these are sent by email for speed and ideally the candidate is given at least five day's notice. 

Please include any special instructions in the Invite to Interview letter, including details of date, time, address, presentation, test assessment centre.

What you need to know when interviewing:

• all panel members must agree the interview questions beforehand and all candidates should be asked the same questions
• all interviews must feature a blend of technical and values-based questions. Values based questions should be selected from the relevant question bank. See the guidance below
• recruiting Managers should email candidates the final interview questions one working day in advance of their interviews. Please see the guidance below
• interview scoring sheets and notes should be taken for each candidate and an assessment should be made by each member of the Panel normally before the Panel collectively discuss interview performance
  Interview Scoring Form – Grade 18 and above (DOC 76KB)
  Interview Scoring Form – Grade 17 and below (DOC 76KB)

Values based recruitment 

All interviews must feature a blend of technical and values-based questions to gauge candidate(s) alignment to our values.

Recruiting managers are free to make up their own technical questions but the value-based questions should be selected from the relevant question bank below.

• if the role will line manage staff and is Grade 18 post or above
  You must ask 5 values questions (one question for each council value) from the roles with line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 60% of your interview scoring, meaning candidates should not be appointable where they don’t score well in answering the values questions.
• if the role will line manage staff and is Grade 17 or below
  You should select 3 values and choose one question per value from the roles with line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 50% of your interview scoring, meaning you should consider whether the candidate is suitable for appointment if they don’t score well in answering the values questions.
• if the role will NOT line manage staff and is Grade 18 post or above
  You must ask 5 values questions (one question for each council value) from the roles with no line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 60% of your interview scoring, meaning candidates should not be appointable where they don’t score well in answering the values questions.
• if the role will NOT line manage staff and is Grade 17 or below
  You should select 3 values and choose one question per value from the roles with no line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 50% of your interview scoring, meaning you should consider whether the candidate is suitable for appointment if they don’t score well in answering the values questions.

For more information, please refer to the Values Based Recruitment Guidance (PDF 605KB).

Recruiting Managers should:

1. verbally offer the preferred candidate(s) the position and outline it is subject to pre-employment clearances. Whilst making the offer, the manager must determine the type of Right to Work in the UK documentation the candidate holds and advise the Recruitment Administration Team via your recruitment ticket. The Recruitment Administration team will then advise the manager if there are any additional steps to undertake this check. 
   An official start date must not be arranged until the Recruitment Administration Team have notified you that all pre-employment checks are complete.
2. if the applicant verbally accepts, the recruiting manager must complete the appropriate appointment form (for external candidates and additional positions) or transfer form (for internal candidates).
   Cumberland Council - Appointment Form (DOC 50KB)
   Cumberland Council - Transfer Form (DOC 54KB)
3. go into the ‘Applicant’ tab in the ticket on Service Now and select the successful applicant(s), then click ‘Actions’ and ‘Make Offer (Appoint)’ in the right-hand corner of the blue banner. You do not need to mark other candidates as unsuccessful.
4. submit the interview information, including the Appointment / Transfer Form and copies of essential qualification documentation taken from the candidate at interview to the existing ticket.  If the interview was a virtual interview, you will need to arrange to meet with the successful candidate to see a physical copy of their essential qualification. You will need to make a physical photocopy of the documentation and then scan and upload this to your ticket.
5. please do not obtain or retain copies of DBS certificates. Any copies sent from candidates to recruiting managers should be immediately deleted and should be recorded as a data breach.
6. call the unsuccessful candidates to let them know the outcome.  Candidates may ask for feedback on their interview performance at this time and panel members should provide this and thank the candidate for their interest.
7. if no applicants have been successful, please update the main recruitment ticket to inform the recruitment team. Please indicate if you would like a Resourcing Partner to contact you to discuss your next steps or alternative options.

What happens next

1. the Recruitment Administration Team will send a formal offer letter to any successful candidates, along with details and associated documents needed to progress the relevant pre-employment checks. The Recruitment Administration Team will issue the requests for references.
2. the ticket will be updated as pre-employment checks are completed and Recruiting Managers can access all information and attachments via the portal (applicant tab).
3. the manager should keep in contact with the successful candidate throughout this pre-employment period to help answer any questions, troubleshoot any issues and ensure candidate paperwork has been completed.

Once all pre-employment clearances have been satisfactorily received:

• managers can confirm that all pre-employment conditions have been met and arrange a start date with the candidate
• recruiting managers should update the activity tab within their recruitment ticket to let the Recruitment Administration Team know.  
• the recruitment team will arrange for the individual’s employment contract to be issued and ensure the individual is set up on Itrent and payroll.
• once a candidate is set up on Itrent, managers can arrange the relevant ICT kit and access.
• additionally before the individual starts, managers can refer all candidates to our suite of policies, procedures, terms and conditions and encourage them to access our career’s site where they can get a flavour for our organisation. Home page | Careers
• managers should keep in regular contact with their new team member before their start and take the necessary actions to ensure that day 1 (and beyond) runs smoothly.

Please refer to the induction toolkits below for detailed guidance on what to do next.

• Staff induction - new employees (PDF 4MB)
• Staff induction - line managers (PDF 2MB)

The recruitment, appointment and induction procedure (DOC 239KB) should be applied when dealing with vacancies and appointments.  

The guidance and templates (PDF 711KB) provide more detailed background information and factors to be taken into account when recruiting and making appointment decisions.

This procedure and guidance should be used in conjunction with the recruitment, appointment and induction policy (PDF 219KB) along with the process map (coming soon).

The Council also has a Guaranteed Interview Scheme (PDF 165KB) for Veterans where an applicant meets the criteria set out in the HR procedure and for external appointments only.

If an applicant has previously been employed within the Fire and Rescue Service and is in receipt of a pension, the Reengagement and Abatement Policy should be referred to. 

Retirement, Re-engagement and Abatement - Fire Service (DOC 258KB)

Politically restricted posts

Politically Restricted Posts (PDF 496KB)

This charter sets out the council's approach to the recruitment of volunteers and our commitment to both them and the professional staff within the service.  This charter also sets out the expectations of the council in terms of the role of volunteers to supplement and complement the delivery of council services, how they will be supported and the responsibilities of all parties.

Volunteering Charter(DOC 257KB)

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees, volunteers and the Externally Provided Workforce (EPWs) to share this commitment.

The safer employment pages provide information relating to 

• Safe and fair recruitment,
• The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
• Safer employment and;
• Matters arising due to criminal convictions, cautions, or an individual's actions that may be the subject of a police investigation.

Suitability of Ex-Offenders (DOC 355KB)
 
Safer Employment pages 

All reference requests should be sent to the HR Admin team. The HR Admin team will provide an employment reference as required.

You can request a reference from the HR Admin team via the HR, Payroll and Recruitment Administration portal

Alternative Employment Programme (AEP)

An internal transfer is where an employee is appointed to a new job within the council on a fixed term or permanent basis. For more information, contact your People Management Service.

A secondment is where an individual (the 'secondee') transfers on a fixed term basis, for a specific purpose, either

• into the council from another organisation ('inward' secondment)

or

• out of the council to another organisation ('outward' secondment)

For more information refer to the secondment guidance(DOC 344KB).

Continuous service on transfer back to the council (PDF 224KB) explains how your continuous service is  affected if you transfer out of the council to work for another organisation and then transfer back. 

Resourcing options for managers

Guidance on resourcing options for Managers (DOC 667KB)

Career grade scheme

The Career Grade Scheme is available to Managers to support the recruitment and retention of appropriately skilled staff where jobs are hard to fill or to enable the transition for Apprentices or a person engaged through an agency / consultancy (Externally Provided Workforce) into employment with the Council. There are key principles detailed in the Scheme which must be followed and the employee is expected to commit to working for the council for a minimum of 3 years after successfully achieving the required standards in the full role. The manager must obtain approval and ensure that the appropriate training (including qualification training if applicable) and other support is available before progressing with a career grade. 

Career Grade Scheme (DOC 286KB)

Career Grade Scheme Managers Guidance (PDF 249KB)

Relocation expenses may be paid to new or transferred employees were they meet the eligibility criteria. 

Relocation Assistance Scheme (DOC 288KB)

Application and Authorisation Form (DOC 21KB)

Relocation Expenses Claim Form - This form will now be completed through MyHR

Induction

Staff induction - new employees (PDF 4MB)

Staff induction - line managers (PDF 2MB)

Probation

All external appointments will be subject to a six month probationary period irrespective of any previous continuous service.

Probation period in employment (DOC 635KB)

A market supplement is an additional payment that enhances a basic salary. It can only be applied where there is evidence that the post cannot be filled or occupied at the current rate of pay.

Market supplement scheme (DOC 256KB)  

Casual workers

Casual workers are workers as opposed to employees. This means that they have a limited set of employment rights. The document below provides guidance on the use and management of casual workers.

Casual workers guidance(DOC 475KB)

Externally provided workforce

The Council uses third party providers - employment agencies - to engage agency workers, interims, self-employed consultants or contractors (the 'Externally Provided Workforce', EPW). The document below provides interim guidance for managers on how to engage these individuals in line with procurement and employment legislation and the Council's rules and procedures.

Externally provided workforce guidance (DOC 724KB)

Externally provided workforce Business Case (DOC 220KB)

For each new or extended EPW's the manager must complete an IR35 assessment to determine how and when their tax and NI contributions are paid. Please see the guidance below for further details:- 

Externally Provided Workers IR35 Guidance (DOC240KB)

Settled status

Settled Status is a legal status for EU and EEA citizens that means you can continue Iiving in the UK after Brexit. If you are an EU or EEA citizen currently living in the UK, you can apply for Settled Status.

Process for applying for Settled Status (PDF 80KB)

To find further information on the process and the application form please visit the GOV website. 

Or download the EU settlement status application app (please note this must be done on an android phone)

EU Exit: ID Document Check App 

For more information, contact your People Management Service.