Patient Experience
1.1. St James’s Hospital is an equal opportunities employer and applies a fair and transparent selection process for the appointment of staff to all positions within the Hospital. To further assist in this process, and to ensure the Hospital’s procedures and decisions in the area of staff selection and promotion meet with leading practice, and comply with Employment Equality Legislation, St James’s Hospital has developed a competency based approach to recruitment and selection. The objective of furthering such an approach is to select candidates who are most suited to the role in terms of their knowledge, skills, and abilities. The competencies that are used to guide selection have been identified through undertaking a detailed research process with both internal staff members and with the assistance of external consultants and organisational psychologists. The result was the development of a Competency Framework specific to the current requirements of St James’s Hospital.
1.2. A competency is defined as the underlying knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics required to be successful in a job role. A competency is described in behavioural terms, and proficiency in a competency can be demonstrated by a candidate through detailed examples of associated past behaviour in various situations. Where a number of candidates are found to be suitable, the candidates that display the closest match to the required competencies for the specified role will be offered the position in order of merit as outlined in this guideline.
1.3. This document outlines the procedures associated with the competency-based approach to recruitment and selection in St James’s Hospital. As well as describing the range of competencies and the proficiency level of each competency, it also outlines the exact procedures that will be used for competency-based recruitment and selection, and the exact requirements from job applicants
2.1. Once a decision is made to fill a post within the Hospital, the vacancy will be advertised on Core E Recruitment and potential applicants will be referred to a “Role Profile”, in order to obtain a thorough description of what the job role entails, including the competencies required to be successful in the role.
2.2. The Role Profile includes a description of the job role, including the purpose, scope, duties and responsibilities of the role, as well as the reporting relationships, salary, and other particulars of the vacancy. The Role Profile also outlines both the essential and desirable educational qualifications, work experience, and technical competencies required to do the job effectively. In addition, the essential and desirable ‘behavioural competencies’ for the job will be clearly identified in the advertisement.
2.3. In making a successful application for the vacancy, the candidate should obtain the Standard Application Form (SAF), which is used for all vacancies throughout the Hospital. The SAF is designed and structured to capture the information relevant to the job and to make screening of applicants objective and reliable. The application form will also act as an aid to the subsequent interview for the short listed candidates.
2.4. Instructions for its completion are outlined on the front page of the Application Form. Applicants are requested to read this carefully, and in particular take note of the following requirements:
2.5. As well as asking the usual biographical information, applicants for posts higher than entry level grade are asked to provide written examples of having previously demonstrated the behavioural competencies as listed on the Role Profile. In this section of the application form applicants may either attach additional pages (if completing application by hand) or expand the boxes as required (if completing application in Microsoft Word as a typed document).
The Role Profile lists a number of behavioural competencies (usually between 3 and 6) that are required to be successful in the role. Both the competency title, and some or all of the behavioural “descriptors”, taken from the Competency Framework, are included. The applicant is expected to describe a previous situation, or situations, per competency, where they demonstrated the behaviours described
An example of when you have previously demonstrated a competency should include:
As a further guide to you, “Descriptors” are listed for each required competency (selected by the Hiring Manager for this post) in the right-hand column of the Role Profile and these should assist you when writing the appropriate example for each behavioural competency.
Should you need to include a second example to ensure you capture all elements of the required competency, this will be acceptable up to a maximum of 3 examples per competency.
To assist you, see attached Appendix 1 which gives examples of written competencies which meet the STARK criteria and another which does not. These examples are for reference purposes only. Applicants should always use their own experiences.
2.6 A section on the application form under Equal Opportunities Monitoring requests applicants to provide details of any special requirements in the event that they are invited for interview.
2.7. The application form must be signed by the applicant when submitting hard copies. Where the application is submitted on-line the applicant needs to make sure they have ticked the appropriate box in the ‘Declaration’ section of the Application Form.
2.8 The applicant can contact the HR Service Team, Human Resources Directorate, St James’s Hospital, Dublin 8 (Tel: 01 4162559, email: humanresources@stjames.ie) with any queries or to request assistance in completing the application form.
3.1 The hospital will apply a shortlisting process to all competitions. To be shortlisted for an interview, an applicant must have adequately demonstrated all of the minimum requirements as set out in the Role Profile. When an applicant does not adequately demonstrate all of the minimum requirements (Listed as “Required” on the role profile), they will not be selected for interview.
3.2. The short-listing process will ensure consistency and reliability across a number of specific and essential criteria against which all applications will be compared.
3.3. It is intended that the Role Profile will specify all minimum requirements for the job. However, if a candidate needs further clarification, they are advised to contact the recruiting manager identified as the contact for enquiries, and/or a member of the HR Service Team within Human Resources.
3.4. A short-listing criteria will apply to all competitions, therefore the applicant must show on the application form that they possess the required short-listing criteria (e.g. educational qualifications, work experience, technical competencies, etc.) and also adequately describe how they can demonstrate that they have experience in the essential behavioural competencies at the required level, as outlined on the Role Profile.
3.5. Applicants who fail to submit the application form on time, or do not meet the minimum requirements, will not be short-listed for interview.
4.1. Short-listed candidates will be called for interview.
4.2. Interviews will be conducted normally by an interview panel of two to five persons.
4.3. Interviews will be standardised (i.e. they will follow a pre-planned format) to ensure a fair process for all candidates, as well as to aid consistency and objectivity in the board’s overall decision-making. The standardised process also helps to eliminate interviewer bias.
4.4. During the interview, candidates will be rated on how well they demonstrate that they meet all of the requirements for the job, as set out in the Role Profile.
4.5. Firstly, candidates will be asked questions about their qualifications and relevant work experience, and a percentage of the marks will be allocated to candidates where they exceed the minimum requirements in this part of the interview.
4.6. There will also be questions that ask the candidate to demonstrate their proficiency of the technical/clinical competencies required for the job as outlined in the Role Profile. The candidate will be asked to talk in greater detail about their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the areas already described on the application form. The interview panel may also enquire into the candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities of the competencies listed as ‘desired’ in the Role Profile.
4.7. The largest portion of the interview will be allocated to assessing the candidate’s experiences of the behavioural competencies identified in the Role Profile. The examples that have been provided on the long application form may be explored and probed in greater detail by the interview board. Candidates (entry level grades) who have completed the short application form, will be asked for examples of when they have previously demonstrated the behavioural competency during the interview. Questions will be job related and based on the candidate’s past behaviour in given situations, for example, “can you tell me a little more about the situation you described on your application form in which you were faced with a difficult problem and what you did to resolve this?. Typical examples of probing or follow-on questions would be:
At this stage of the interview, the panel will be trying to establish the candidate’s level of involvement in the situation described on the application form. For example were they directly involved firsthand, or did they play more of an observer role?
The Interview panel may, in some instances, ask for alternative examples of where an individual has demonstrated the required behavioural competencies. The interview panel may also explore areas that are listed as ‘desired’ but not ‘required’ on the Role Profile, and the candidate can gain additional marks from these questions. In most cases, the largest portion of the marks will be allocated to the behavioural competencies section of the interview.
In order to be well prepared for the interview, candidates are encouraged to research resources on ‘Competency Based Interviews’ which are readily available online. It is further advised that candidates prepare thoroughly which competency examples they will refer to during the course of the interview. Candidates should review examples they have included on the completed application form and prepare alternative examples that the interview board may ask for during the course of the interview.
Note: Where a candidate is assessed to have “demonstrated little or no evidence of the behaviours under one or more competencies”, they will be deemed to have failed the overall interview.
4.8. The interview board will likely take notes throughout the course of the interview. This is normal procedure and should not distract the candidate from answering the questions as well as possible. At the end of the interview, the panel will allocate marks for each section of the interview on a pre-determined rating scale. This ensures a reliable and consistent method of rating of each individual interview candidate is applied.
4.9. Following the interview, the notes, as well as the individual scores assigned against the competencies, experience and relevant additional qualifications held by the candidate, will be combined to award an overall mark and final result.
4.10. Successful candidates may be placed on a panel from which subsequent vacancies may be filled from the panel within a specified timeframe from the interview date.
5.1. All interview candidates are entitled to request and receive feedback on their interview performance, once the post has been filled and the unsuccessful candidates have been notified. The notes taken and scores allocated during the interview will be made available, if requested via Freedom of Information office.
5.2. Post-interview feedback is usually provided by the Chairperson of the interview board and the purpose of this feedback is to provide constructive advice and to guide both successful and unsuccessful candidates in the areas most in need of improvement and development.
6.1. The full competency framework, comprising the different competencies and the behavioural descriptors for each competency level, can be accessed by staff on the St James’s Hospital website here.
This Competency Based Selection Guide for Job Applicants was compiled with the assistance of a representative group of staff within St James’s Hospital, the Human Resources Directorate and external consultants Polaris Human Resources and Leisha McGrath of McGrath & Associates