NHS shortlisting process and should I follow up?

[Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot]

I applied for a job in the NHS. The vacancy closed on 11th June and I haven’t heard anything yet, just that the application was submitted and received (this is what the trac jobs says on the platform when I look at my application).

I am really keen to leave my current role, so I have absolutely no chill about this process and I am feeling very impatient which is making me second guess myself and everything in horrible paranoia. My questions are:

• how long does shortlisting for interviews typically take? Is my unhappiness in my current job making me feel like it should be done by now irrational?
• would you follow up? If so, what do you say?! I’m so out of practice.

It’s a band six job if that makes any difference, and I am a bit over qualified and over experienced for it - however it is more than my current salary (and slightly less responsibility having looked at the JD and person spec!). Will any of that go against me/work in my favour?

thanks for reading! I am trying to get all the anxiety out here so I don’t do anything rash.

We have a vacancy that closed on 12th June. Shortlisting is scheduled for today and tomorrow. I imagine that means candidates will be informed on Wed if they are being offered an interview. Shortlisting has to be done by 2 people, as in every application read twice. Depending on the number of applicants, getting all that done in 1 day (Friday) might be tight. We have sometimes had to extend past 2 days if we have had lots of applicants. Even if they managed it by 5pm Friday, I expect HR then have to send out the invites to interview, so that would wait for today. There's a small chance you will hear today, more likely Tue/Wed, especially if the person shortlisting doesn't work full time.

Where I am, being over-qualified wouldn't impact shortlisting, so hopefully you would have a chance to explain at interview why you were serious about the role and would plan to stick around. Good luck!

It can take up to a week in my experience as the people shortlisting are usually doing it alongside full time work, so it can take a bit of time for all shortlisters to complete it on the online system. Good luck!

Thank you, that is quite reassuring. Good to consider the point about ensuring I convey that I would be serious about the role if I am invited to interview. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Having someone leave and having to recruit again is expensive and time consuming. We sometimes have candidates where we suspect they don't really want this job and will probably move on in under a year. If candidates have an unusual journey (e.g. we once had someone who had worked as a B8 and happily moved back to a B6 role, as she wanted the clinical focus and not the management responsibility) it's often worth addressing it at the end of the interview. Basically you want to make it clear you would stick around!

Any consensus on following up? Want to look keen but not be annoying. (You can I’m well out of practice here!)

If the post closed on the 11th shortlisting won’t have even started yet in most places. In my work it can take up to two weeks for shortlisting to occur (depending on things like annual leave, service pressures, number of applications etc etc). So I’d chase at the very earliest at the end of June and certainly not this week.

Ultimately as applications are blind rated unless you are the only applicant your keenness won’t help and can risk being annoying! That said if you do have genuine questions about the job then making contact with the shortlisting contact is to be recommended (increasingly so if offered an interview!)

I did LOTS of recruiting for NHS in my past life as a Senior Manager - following up won't make any difference & it is very early days in the whole process. There's all sorts of reasons why short listing doesn't happen instantly.
Patience is a virtue here.

Far too early to have heard anything, maybe follow up if you haven’t heard in 2 weeks. I would find it highly irritating being contacted at this stage.

It has been 4 days. They quite possibly won't even have met yet. It would be irritating to get a "follow up" at this point. When I do shortlisting (NHS) it can take a couple of weeks from closing to invites going out due to slow processes recruitment-side, and sometimes difficulty finding a date to meet when people have leave, part time hours etc.

Please don't do this. Have some chill. You don't want to look needy.

Definitely don't contact just to ask about shortlisting. At this point it will just be annoying and will risk making you look like you don't appreciate the pressures in the NHS i.e. people being busy and complicated systems meaning things can move quite slow.

I wouldn't contact with queries now either as it would be a bit pointless at this stage (already applied, don't know if you are getting an interview yet). Unfortunately you just need to sit tight and wait for a response. Is there an interview date on the job ad? That can give some guidance, as if it's soonish they can't hang around too long.

The two people doing the shortlisting might be PT and need to find time together...when they don't have a meeting. One might on holiday, or off sick...

Your impatience is not their problem. You need to accept it might take time.

Do not chase them. The shortlisters will be balancing countless competing demands and there are multiple reasons why it may take time. It’s also done blind so even if you contacted the department, they won’t know which is your application! If TRAC shows the application has been received, you just need to be patient.

It would reflect very badly on you to follow this up, especially when the deadline for applications was only 4 days ago. I think you will need to adjust your expectations because things do not happen quickly in NHS recruitment. There will probably be 100s of applications that need to be reviewed by more than one reviewer.

Interesting to get people’s perspectives and the consensus seems to be not to follow up. I haven’t followed up - but the trac jobs platform has a button that says ‘haven’t had an update recently? Use the get in touch button to find contact details for this vacancy’. Hence my confusion as to whether this something they would expect candidates to do.

While the vacancy only closed less than a week ago, my application was submitted several weeks ago so I guess I was thinking I fall under the ‘haven’t had an update recently!’. It is good to get other people’s insight.

Whilst you applied several weeks ago, the deadline was only a few days ago. If done properly shortlisting can be quite time consuming. I always try to ensure the short listers have time blocked out after the deadline to complete the process but it’s not always possible for reasons mentioned by PP. The NHS recruitment process is notoriously long and slow and you do have to be patient. For one role I waited over 2 months for shortlisting to be completed, although by that point I had decided the role wasn’t for me if they were taking that long to complete the process.

Haven’t had an update recently, wouldn’t usually mean a job that closed less than 2 working days ago.

For band 6, you should have experience to know this.

Perhaps it’s a cultural difference between private sector and NHS roles here based on other people’s responses about how slow NHS recruitment apparently moves. I am currently in a similar role in the private sector, and the hustle is real. Following up would absolutely be appropriate (and expected) in my current role within several weeks of submitting the application (regardless of closing date). Hence posting here to get a feel for how the nhs works (as I have never worked in the nhs), after seeing the ‘get in touch’ button.

Please heavily adjust your expectations and leave them alone to get on with it.

NHS recruitment is glacial ...at best.

I once waited three weeks for the outcome of an interview, for a job I was already doing on a fixed term contract, in the same department, when I saw all the members of the panel every day!

Everyone recruiting is doing it around their normal full time duties. It takes AGES.

P.S. as long as you addressed each statement in the person specification directly in your application, with examples/evidence of how you meet them, you are most likely going to get an interview so try and stop over thinking it and give them several weeks to get back to you.

I’d give it another week at least. The wheels turn a lot more slowly in the public sector. It might come across as pushy otherwise.

It's just a hunch but if you're thinking it's appropriate to hit that button four days after the application deadline, I really don't think the NHS is for you!

Four days in my current industry is like four months (obviously that’s an exaggeration, but it’s a completely different culture, clearly). I guess until I experience both, I will not know which working culture suits me best!

@SilverBlue4’s experience is not unusual. It can take many months to get a post approved, open for applications, shortlist, interview, offer, get references, await DBS, and only then arrange a start date!

Nothing moves quickly

So closing was Friday so potentially 5pm but also potentially midnight. Yet by 9am Monday you expect people to have read, upwards of a hundred applications and shortlisted?

Go on, give us a laugh OP, which is this magical super industry? I mean I get frustrated with NHS delays, but I’m struggling to believe anyone is that daft.