One of the main parts of my job role is recruitment. We have a very strict and thorough process that gets followed for every single candidate.
First off is our application process. We advertise on indeed with a link to our internal application form. We will only consider you for interview when you have fully completed and submitted our own form. So many people miss this and only apply via indeed with a CV. We only recruit via our application form as we feel this is a fair and consistent way to recruit. All information from our forms can be fed into our systems if candidates are successful and It also ensures if a client has specific requirements, we have it all covered on our form. A general CV may not provide the detail required.
Next, we have the sift stage, where we go through the completed applications forms. This involves checking they have the correct and valid SIA licence. We do this via the SIA site where it gives us expiry dates or tells us if a licence has been suspended (yes people will try and get away with working with a suspended license). If there are specific requirements, for example, first aid qualifications and also any relevant experience of similar sites. We can then put together a short list of individuals to invite in for an interview.
Our interview process involves two steps. Firstly, an observation exercise that simulates an incident in real time where we require notes to be made to report back to clients and/or police with. Secondly, a question and answer section involving scenarios built around the site we are interviewing for.
Once all interviews are completed, we then have a review process for all those who attended. We have a pass mark firstly on our observation exercise and that needs to be hit before we go any further. Once the video exercise has been reviewed, we move on to the question section. Who gave correct answers to suit the site being interviewed for.
Once we have informed a candidate they have been successful we start our vetting procedure which meets British standards BS7858. This involves collecting five years employment history off them and contacting all these ex employers to confirm employment dates with them. We also require two character references to get a more insightful view of the candidate.
This can be a frustrating process as unfortunately we come across people who think they can blag it for so long and provide us with false information in the hopes that we will let them pass vetting without the correct checks. Some examples of this I have come across is:
- Using false e mails, such as royalmail@hotmail.com, amazon@gmail.com.
- Using a fiancée as a personal reference giving her previous address 150 miles away, after being told it cannot be provided by an immediate family member. Despite giving them a chance to declare it and change the details for another reference they still insisted she was a friend of the family. (Good old social media, just one of the reasons we always check your profiles).
- Seeing the same mobile number being provided for each employment reference.
- Someone claiming to be selfemployed yet they cannot get hold of their accountant for a reference and has no record of any of their tax returns.
We also require ID checks, so proof of address and photographic ID needs to be provided.
Once all this information has been gathered and inputted on our system, we have a check that confirms there is no gaps that we have missed. Finally we then complete a consumer information check via Experian before we confirm vetting is complete on the system.
