Ministerial appointments to public bodies: training pack for selection panel chairs

6. Some tips to help your appointment round get the best outcome

Planning

Where succession planning on boards is working successfully, the board will already be working to promote and highlight upcoming appointment opportunities, tying this in with its overall outreach activity and community engagement.

Wherever possible, the Commissioner will allocate a PAA to a round as early as possible and they can be utilised by any of the panel, Public Appointments Team or sponsor team to aid with providing early good practice advice and guidance on improving diversity

The more time and preparation that happens in the earliest stages of the round, particularly in relation to positive action planning, the more straightforward, less time consuming and more successful the later stages become. This impacts positively on the applicant experience which also becomes shorter and more appealing.

The panel will need to translate Ministerial requirements into a person specification and once this is set, cannot be amended later in the process.

Role descriptions and criteria for appointment

Focus on the functions that the successful appointee will need to do on the board and the qualities needed to contribute to the board as a whole. If panels use very detailed and specific criteria, a large number of criteria, and requests for specific qualifications this will narrow the range and number of applicants. Interrogate carefully exactly what is needed for the board and why e.g. is a specific financial qualification actually required or can a criterion about experience of financial governance, perhaps gained in a specific setting, be designed?

Indicators of criteria

It can help applicants and the panel if the person specification also describes what aspects of a criterion the panel are looking for. Indicators are simply "what good looks like" e.g. a description of how the experience might have been gained, or particular types of challenges faced, or how an issue was dealt with. This can also help when the panel assesses applicants. Panels should avoid using the indicators as a checklist whereby applicants must meet every indicator listed.

Assessment methods

The criteria can be tested at different stages of the process and in different ways. An application via a tailored CV might be suitable, for example, where a specific qualification or experience is sought. Applicants are then shortlisted on whether they have that qualification or experience and at the second stage of assessment other criteria can be assessed via, for example, an interview and/or an exercise. Exercises might include consideration of a board paper and a discussion to draw out how the applicant would approach a governance issue.

Interviews

The Code is not prescriptive about the type of interview panels should use, or even that any interview must be used; therefore, panels should choose the assessment method that is most appropriate to what is being assessed.

Some common techniques for interview questions include:

• Situation, Task, Action, Result, (Reflection) (STAR(R)) is most used within the public sector and is also commonly known as competency-based assessment. Anecdotally, this can prove to be a barrier to applicants from private sector backgrounds.
• Started, Contribution, Amount, Result (SCAR) whilst similar to STAR(R), this assesses the extent to which someone has taken ownership of an issue and taken a particular course of action to improve a situation.
• Performance based interviewing (PBI) commonly known as "the one question" interview, this technique asks candidates questions about the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics they have. Consequently, this is less susceptible to rehearsed responses and/or sectoral background bias.
• Strengths based interviews (SBI) looks at what a candidate enjoys doing and has a natural aptitude for. The approach is predicated on the understanding that people will be more motivated to fulfil roles effectively when the activities that are be required to perform match those they enjoy doing.

Simulations and practical exercises

Simulations and practical exercises, particularly when used in combination with structured interviews can be very effective means of assessment. These can take the form of:

• Applicants being asked to make a presentation to the panel on a specific subject.
• Applicants being asked to speak on a topic to the panel, who may or may not follow this with questions.
• Applicants being asked to consider a board paper and answer a question/or questions related to the content.
• Simulating a real life situation, usually with someone specifically trained to undertake the role required with the panel observing and assessing the applicant's response to the situation presented (e.g. role play of a press interview).

Draw on the skills and experience of the people around the table

• Draw on your own knowledge from other training you have undertaken in recruitment, diversity and inclusion and bias mitigation and apply that to the public appointments process.
• Ensure that fellow selection panel members also contribute to the development of an open process that will attract a diverse range of suitable applicants. Use the knowledge and experience of the Public Appointments Manager and the Commissioner's representative, where allocated, to support you.
• The Commissioner also has a host of useful information on their website, including guidance on the relative validity of different assessment techniques.