Can I start with your interview process?

I'm confess I'm bemused by the idea of showing candidates the questions they'll be answering before the interview and I'm not sure what you intend to achieve by this. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, I'm just curious as to how it came to be your process.

Generally, there are two broadly recognized philosophies of effective interview technique. The most established is "competency based" interviewing in which candidates are asked to provide evidence from their own experience of handling situations equivalent to those that would be asked of them in the role. If a question starts "Tell us about a time when..." or similar, it's competency-based. The standard format for answer a competency-based question is STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

The main down side with the competency approach is that it tests for experience rather than potential and fails to speak to cultural fit.

The alternative is values-based interviewing, which begins from the assumption of competence (based on CV and qualifications) and seeks to establish a natural fit with the organisation's values. The questioning approach is similar, but seeks examples of a person's values in action rather than necessarily problem-solving or task completion.

It sounds like you are taking an approach that mixes these with an emphasis on the values. In a competency-based interview, you don't want candidates to know the questions in advance because it becomes too possible for accounts to be invented. Similarly, the video approach, which seems like a values measure, provides them with too much information in advance, as it establishes the framework of values you are seeking before asking them questions about it.

As a piece of induction, I think the video would be great. As an interview method... I'm less persuaded. I have a big, important rule for interviews which is "don't ask questions that encourage the candidate to lie" (a classic being "so why do you want to work here?", when "because I need a job and you have a vacancy" is considered the *wrong* answer).

As to induction, you do have to go back to first principles when developing an induction plan and ask yourself what it's trying to achieve. The more explicit, measurable outcomes you can enumerate, the more constructive your induction plan will be. The basics are: verify their right to work, put them on payroll, make them safe. Everything else needs to be articulated as an objective of the process and measured in a way that confirms whether or not they meet the objective.

In reply to Robey:

Thanks for your reply.

Our idea with showing the interview questions beforehand was just to give the candidate some indication of what the interview is going to be like.  No one like interviews and they can be quite stressful, especially with our workers, who for some may be their first “real” job.  So giving them sight of the questions is just a nice way to ease them into it.  I really love the idea of it and if it was me being interviewed, I’d really appreciate it.

The actual interview process I’m not too worried about, we ask a mixture of value and competency-based questions and I like that on the panel we also try to include a service user, as afterall they are the people they will be working with. 

I think showing the video at interview stage is useful for both parties- it gives them a better understand of what we do and then gives us an opportunity to get an idea of their thoughts. 

We do of course go through all the “boring” bits of the induction like you stated, so DBS, training and information etc.  which is essential but it’s just the bits around all this that makes them feel welcomed and like they’ve made the right decision in working with us. 

One idea I thought of was extending the service user video to doing interviews with a variety of staff, so different roles, service length etc.  to get their views on what it’s like working for us and also gives them insights to all our different services. 

It sounds like you are already doing some really good stuff Harriet

2 things you might want to consider adding into your onboarding process:

- understanding the language used in your service (whether that's jargon, acronyms or the slang service users will use) - this could be short videos if you wanted

- exploration of staff's personal development goals and how you can support with them (e.g. via the apprenticeship levy)