In reply to Holly:

Thanks for being so engaged in the thread you started, Holly 

Glad to read the thread. It’s very helpful for me as well. Thanks all

Well it turns out my token meeting and greeting was quite simply that! No one in the decision making process asked me anything meaningful or for any input after - oh well..

They are hiring two people, one will be taking on the same role as me, which came as a surprise, because they're "not good enough for that role, so we'll offer them this" which is always great for the ol' self-esteem 

I am still struggling on the job front, my CV scores about 94% on the scanning tools, I have plenty of transferable skills and am a Foundation member, I feel escape from here may never come

In reply to Holly:

Holly, what are your options in the next six months?

In reply to Steven :

Hi Steven,

With a quick think the obvious options to me are:
1) Stay put
2) Keep actively plugging away at job hunting
3) Return to education
4) Go travelling for a bit then pick up where I left off after

In reply to Holly:

What is your preferred option?

If you chose to stay, you can still put your mind to HR activities. For example, the recently updated handbook, how can it be improved, is it correct on all points, is it written so that all the staff fully understand everything or does it use technical language. Most handbooks and policies are generally awful. They might be technically correct but many are not written in a clear, non technical way and are not user friendly.

What are the ways the recruitment process that you were involved in, could be improved? What do you think the candidates experiences were during this phase and how could this be improved?

In reply to Steven :

Hi Steven,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, I've been snowed under with a whole wealth of stuff.

I would rather find employment elsewhere and/or take on further education, for quite a few reasons. One being, in my appraisal I asked the question of why there is no organisational buy-in with my course when they're the ones who paid for it, the reply being a shrug of the shoulders.

The company handbook is fairly technical and almost reads like an Act of Parliament, so there is definite scope to simplify. The organisation has a haphazard feel about it at times, and this certainly was the case for one of the candidates, who didn't accept the offer we gave them.
I've raised the haphazardness before and it's the culture management accept and don't want to change

In reply to Holly:

Hi Holly,
There are lots of advantages in working for a very small organisation but haphazard/ unstructured is very common. One thing to watch out for if you leave in the near term is any potential payback of training fees.

I would suggest contacting your local CIPD branch and attend as many meetings as possible, networking at your local branch can be a very efficient way of securing your next role. I would also read as many of the posts on here and take note of the answers, do you agree with the responses and why? It is possible some of the responses are not correct or could be argued in a different way. Build up your LinkedIn profile by commenting on posts with interesting ideas or suggestions - at the very least this means if someone searches for you, they will find lots of helpful posts which shows applied (HR) technical knowledge.

Good luck.