To think it's crazy that there is a full day assessment for a band 3 NHS admin post

[freedomer]

I've applied for the job and got an interview which is a whole day assessment. The morning is spent doing some group work and then if they like you they will interview you in the afternoon otherwise you go home.

I think it's a bit much for an admin interview! Dh earns far more than this and the most he's ever done is a short Impromptu presentation!

Not the NHS, but I've tried to get an admin job in Australia in our equivalent. I've got loads of experience. But you need to know the secret hand shake and fart unicorn rainbows to even get an interview. My current role I interviewed twice for, plus a phone interview.

bettys I get that completely. The problems are that it's very hard to attract people to work in the NHS in non clinical roles, especially in the less glamorous departments so balancing attraction and selection of strong candidates with not completely turning them off at application stage is tricky. And the lengthy processes mean that a lot of good candidates simply go elsewhere. Recently witnesses a band 2 clerical process take 2 1/2 months BEFORE the lady got her offer and was able to hand in her notice. From another department in the same hospital. With other non NHS offers on the table, it's a miracle she started at all.

Usuallyinthemiddle I'm intrigued as to what the less glamorous departments are?

That's crazy. I work for the NHS and have just recruited a band 3 admin. We just did standard interviews that lasted about one hour.

It's crazy, it's a 16K job.

The problems are that it's very hard to attract people to work in the NHS in non clinical roles

I find I have the opposite problem and get inundated with applications, I usually have to close the post early due to the volume.

I’m about to recruit again for Band 2 admin and may take some ideas from this thread and try to extend the interview as all the applicants that get to interview stage will have some relevant qualification and experience but what I really want to know is are they going to be pleasant to the patients and not be falling out with the rest of the team all the time?

It's not only crazy but it creates more hassle for existing staff too. Posts lie empty due to the lengthy recruitment and interview processes, whilst the existing staff struggle to cope. Then the problem of trying to get interview panels together where people are free for a whole day!! The red tape and bureaucracy involved in recruiting NHS staff is getting ridiculous and doesn't seem to particularly help with finding good staff - in fact I suspect it puts a lot of good people off.

I remember having to do a whole day thing for my band 6 post, it included a lunch with the panel where you had to sit around sucking up to them! What a bloody waste of time and resources.

Is it to do with the amount of people they're recruiting? I had a brief telephone interview, an assessment afternoon and then a final interview for an nhs job at that level. It didn't feel too excessive to me. They were recruiting for a lot of people.

The only interview process I felt excessive was when I applied for toys r us for a temporary Christmas position. I had a maths test, an English test, and then there was a further 2 hr interview. None of it felt remotely relevant to the job itself.

Marvinmarvinson nope. Just one post.

It's starting at £18813 *SnuggyBuggy"

I went for a band 3 admin role in the NHS in February, was there about 2 hours. One hour of interviewing and one hour assessment.
Got the job but the checks took forever, I still haven’t started!

I had an all day assessment for a job in a library a few years ago. It was also just above nmw. At one point we had to network with all the managers while they observed how we interacted with them and each other!

That's still a ridiculous discrepancy between salary and amount of effort to interview.

I agree for a large employer the NHS is crap at recruiting and HR, it often takes months to start a job and then even more time for IT to give new starters a login

Sounds a bit much, but on the other hand, gives them a good insight in to how you would fit in to the team.

It can really discriminate against introverted types, who can find it very difficult to sell themselves to people they don't know but are fine once they get to know people and often more sensitive and careful of others needs than outwardly more confident types...generalising completely off course but all the HR professionals I know are much more extroverted than me ( and one in particular is very unsympathetic to quiet people).
I honestly think my young adult children are really going to struggle with this...

The irony is at band 3 they probably just want someone who will turn up, keep quiet and just get on with the job rather than an extrovert who can sell themself

Diamondbean that's pretty standard.

I've never known anywhere quite like the NHS for recruitment. We're crying out for staff, yet we make it so difficult for people to come and work for us. The checks are important obviously, but there's got to be a way to streamlining the whole process.

never known anywhere quite like the NHS for recruitment. We're crying out for staff, yet we make it so difficult for people to come and work for us

I have applied for and got several public sector admin jobs but never got past the vacancies site for NHS. There is something about it which is very off putting. I was recommended to go via an agency but they wanted medical admin experience.

They'll have us jumping through hoops of fire next!

wigglybeezer yes, I guess I didn't really think of introvert discrimination but tbh they'd just be looking at how you communicate effectively with others/ interpersonal skills/ team work and that's nothing to do with being introvert.

I have just tried the Truc website but always have trouble when I am on it. You get a certificate number after completing several scenarios but it is pretending not to know my email address even though I logged in with it.

It is all so frustrating - all for poorly paid jobs!!!

Deathraystare what is the truc website?

Urrrggghhhh, that is WAY over the top. Seriously. Our band 7 roles are not much more than an hours interview and a quick presentation.

Having said that, a few of the band 3's in the admin hubs have some, errr, interesting personalities, which frankly gets massively in the way of getting the job done in some cases. So I can understand that they would want someone who gets along with others, but even so it really is overkill.

Admin is such a strange beast, everyone thinks they can do it, managers with no experience think anyone can do it but not everyone can do it! Some of our admin staff have been utterly dreadful (public sector but not NHS). We had one woman who burst into tears when we tried to show her the excel spreadsheet she needed to maintain. I was trying to show her what we did for a specific part of our work and she just wasn't listening to me, totally away thinking about other stuff. She was actually doing my old job (I'd been promoted) and when I had first started someone said 'why aren't you making any mistakes on the finance system!?' I pointed out I'd written the cost centres down, they couldn't believe it! I was quickly promoted up, as was my other competent colleague. Sorry I digress! An all day interview is very odd, I've never known that! A test is useful though to check people can actually use whatever you want them to be able to use like excel or whatever.

That is wayyyy over the top. My band 7 interviews were exactly that - 2 interviews that lasted no more than an hour each. The first had a small task included but I was told what to prep for beforehand.

furryleopard whaat?! What public sector organisation do you work for? How did the lady even get recruited?