Case Study:

Successfully delivering our Assessment Centre for Halton Borough Council

There are particularly difficult challenges at present when it comes to the recruitment of key personnel. With many factors playing into this challenge, notably the ever-growing skills gap, financial restrictions, policies and job versatility from competing organisations, our clients in the public sector require comprehensive support with their recruitment endeavours.

The ever-changing circumstances that are affecting organisations, particularly in the public sector, are front of mind when it comes to the service and solutions we offer, and this awareness allows us to cater our services to support client needs in a focused and effective manner.

Halton Borough Council

Halton Borough Council, an organisation we support across the breadth of our service offering, has had key requirements over the last 18 months predominantly focused on the need for the recruitment of senior/executive roles. With our speciality as an organisation being to facilitate comprehensive and effective recruitment processes, Gemma Haining, the Recruitment and Resourcing Team Leader at Halton Borough Council, reached out to our team for support:

“We have held several significant recruitment opportunities for the council over the last year or so to appoint senior roles that have the capacity to transform and meet the objectives of the council and more importantly, deliver for local constituents. With these processes being of such importance, we know to put our trust in North West Employers who respect the gravity of these appointments and work determinedly in collaboration with us to assist us in making a confident decision” 

The Roles

The roles we supported the team at Halton in recruiting for require specialist support with them being predominantly for senior positions including:

• Chief Executive

• Director of Environment and Regeneration

• Director for Adult Social Care

• Director for Children’s Social Care

• Operational Directors for Adult Social Care

The roles outlined are very significant in which a thorough process was required for the elected members to make a confident decision about. To ensure each candidates capabilities and notable strengths were identified and where they had room to develop, our team got to work devising a process that would achieve this.

The Process

The initial stage for each role’s recruitment process was to review applications received against a set criterion devised by our in-house team after a consultation with the team at Halton that would identify those most capable of progressing to the next stage of the process. Our assessment along with the initial review of applicants allowed the team at Halton to confirm those that would progress to the subsequent stages of the application process.

We created a well-planned timetable to ensure all candidates could complete the set tasks. Our team were on hand throughout the day to answer questions, support and chaperone the candidates so that the day runs smoothly and comfortably for all. This allowed us to allocate dedicated time for feedback and reviews of each candidate with panel members, elected members, the recruitment team at Halton and ourselves.

A Bespoke Approach

With each role, we acknowledged the key skills and competencies that would be required and what was expected from candidates should they be successful. This allowed us to use our expert knowledge in devising specific tasks for each role in the Assessment Centre stage that would allow candidates to have the opportunity to spotlight their specific abilities and allow us to assess their performance.

Key examples of this were the Children’s Panel included in Director of Children’s Social Care assessment centre. We thought it a useful exercise for children of varying ages in the local area to ask the candidates key questions outlining what good education and care looks like to them and what working with young people has taught them in their careers. This allowed us to see how they would interact with children and more so display their passion and intuitive ideas to tackle key issues facing the locality at present.

The media exercise we included in the assessment centre for the Director of Regeneration and Environment role was a crucial part of the process that allowed us to analyse the capability of candidates to respond to the media challenging a hypothetical high-value regeneration project but also facing critiques and concerns from residents, businesses, and conservation groups. This was a great way for candidates to experience what could be frequent engagements with the media and if they had the ability to communicate effectively how the council would progress with the plans whilst mindfully and cautiously considering points of contention with a calm and professional demeanour from the public.

When assessing candidates for the Chief Executive role, we ensured that the Stakeholder panel challenged candidates’ awareness and understanding of numerous local groups, organisations and broader priorities that would need to be considered when in post should they be successful. This included questioning how they would work collaboratively with community, voluntary and faith sector groups to benefit Halton and how they would develop the local industrial strategy to ensure this works towards the council’s climate change commitments.

“The team at North West Employers are excellent at catering to our criterion and devising assessment centre tasks that really get to the core of candidates understanding and abilities. This informs us thoroughly when it comes to deciding who can excel in the roles we are recruiting for and more so move the council forward with our current endeavours. Their ability to manage the day was incomparable and the positive feedback from not only elected members and panel members but also candidates, even those who weren’t successful, is a testament to this”

As an organisation, we deeply value the strong relationships we hold with our councils and the recent opportunities we have had to build an even stronger relationship with Halton have significantly emphasised this. The team know we are here to assist and provide a tailored service that meets all aspects of what is required for their recruitment processes.

“I would highly recommend colleagues to reach out to North West Employers with any recruitment needs, their service is ever so reliable and has helped us to successfully appoint 6 key senior roles in the last 18 months. They are diligent and there for you every step of the way, even with last minute requests”