Selection Methods and Criteria

Selection criteria should be based on the skills, knowledge and experience required for the job, as described in the Person Profile section of the role profile. This ensures that candidates will be measured against the standards which have already been identified as being required for effective performance, enabling selection panel members to select based on the best fit with the role.

It also means that the Person Profile (which is reproduced in the Further Information document from the role description) will accurately communicate to potential applicants how applications will be assessed.

Positive indicators should be constructed for each criterion to assist members of the Selection Panel to make objective and consistent assessments. Positive indicators are examples of how a candidate would demonstrate that they meet the required standard. Indicators are not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive list but a tool to aid effective assessment. Positive indicators are published for the University's behavioural attributes; these may assist you in developing positive indicators for your selection criteria.

Examples of positive indicators for effective planning and organising skills might be:

• Constantly monitors and assesses progress;
• Identifies important activities and milestones, establishing importance and urgency;
• Plans alternatives and contingency;
• Knows the status of their own work and any spare time or resources to do other work;
• Assesses new information and reorganises the workload to meet new demands.

Reducing the risk of discrimination

Selection criteria must be measurable, objective and defensible. They must not be either directly or indirectly discriminatory (unless an Occupational Requirement is being applied). The following types of criteria routinely arise in relation to indirect discrimination claims and should be avoided:
 

• Length of service.
• Willingness to work hours outside the normal working day.
• Preference for full-time as opposed to part-time experience.
• Acceptance of UK academic or professional qualifications only.
• Age restrictions.

Please see the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion section for further information on occupational requirements and discrimination.

Recording selection criteria

It is important that you keep a record of the selection criteria that you use in your recruitment process. This will help ensure that you can justify your decisions, explain the process by which they were reached, provide structured feedback to applicants and respond to any claims of discrimination.

The HR6 Selection Criteria template is provided for you to capture your selection criteria, positive indicators for your criteria, whether they are essential or desirable, any weighting given to the criteria and how they will be assessed.

Departments / Institutions are welcome to use an alternative form of the HR6, however, it must be ensured that the relevant information is captured.

Once you have constructed the selection criteria for your vacancy, you need to decide which selection methods you will be using to assess how far each candidate meets these requirements. Various selection methods exist and they vary in the information that they provide, their reliability in predicting performance and how easy and expensive it is to use them.

The Guide to Selection Methods provides an overview of the most common selection methods. Which ones you should use will depend on the type of position being filled and the selection criteria being assessed.

Using more than one selection method gives a more rounded assessment of candidates and increases the likelihood of an effective selection decision being made. Some of the decisions you will need to make are outlined overleaf. The HR6 Selection Criteria template is provided for you to record the methods you will be using to assess each selection criterion:

Scoring Systems

Scoring systems determine how each applicant's performance against the selection criteria will be assessed and decision guidelines determine how these scores will be used to decide who will be invited to proceed to the next stage of the process.

The role of the assessor in the selection process is to assess reported experience, skills and behaviour (e.g. from application forms or interviews) and observed skills or behaviour (e.g. from tests or simulations) according to the selection criteria. Scoring systems are commonly used as a systematic means of indicating how well a candidate has met a particular selection criterion. The use of a structured scoring system can, at first, appear complicated. However, it can help simplify the process, as well as making it more consistent and objective.

The scoring system should be agreed before in advance of the selection process and applied consistently. If you choose to use your own scoring system, please amend the HR10 Assessment Record (the document which is provided for assessors to record the scores given to candidates) to reflect this. A suggested scoring system for you to use is provided below:

Score Assessment:-

• 0 = Does not meet the requirements / no evidence provided
• 1= Meets the requirements in some respects
• 2= Meets the requirements in most respects
• 3= Meets the requirements effectively
• 4 = Exceeds requirements

At each stage in the process, applicants should be scored separately before a final mark is discussed and agreed by the assessors/selection panel. This is to prevent unfair biases from influencing decision-making.

Decision Guidelines

It can be helpful to agree and record in advance decision guidelines confirming who will proceed to the next stage of selection and who will be rejected. Having such guidelines can help ensure objectivity, provide a structured framework to facilitate decisions and retain focus on what a particular stage in the process is there to achieve.
 

Examples of decision guidelines are:

• ‘X number of applicants with the highest total scores will be invited to proceed the next stage of the process.’
• ‘Applicants who score 0 or 1 in more than two criteria will be eliminated from the process.’

The guidelines agreed should reflect what is required for the job. For example, if acceptable performance is required in all areas then the decision guidelines should reflect this. If you have categorised your criteria as essential or desirable, your decision guidelines should reflect this. That is, by basing selection decisions on the scores given for essential criteria except where you need to use desirable criteria to distinguish between candidates who appear equally suitable for the position.

When planning how candidates will be assessed, the selection panel can consider whether or not it would be appropriate to apply positive action provisions if two or more candidates are assessed as being equally suitable.

Certain conditions need to exist for positive action measures to be used and evidence needs to be gathered to demonstrate that these exist. Therefore, it is important that it is agreed well in advance of the start of the selection process whether positive action might be taken, if required. Please see the Exceptions to Equality Law pages of the Equality and Diversity section for further information.

The HR11 Selection Results Grid provides you with a section for recording your decision guidelines.

You should agree in advance how you will reach a total score for your candidates so that the process is as objective as possible.

Where a combination of selection methods is used and more than one score has been assigned for each selection criterion, there are a number of ways in which scores can be combined:

• Average the scores given for the selection criterion to give a single score.
• Assessors discuss the evidence for each rating of the selection criterion and agree a single score.
• Add all the scores allocated to a candidate together to create a single overall score.

Whether you will add the scores together for the selection methods employed in a particular stage of the process only or for the whole process so far will depend on whether you decided to take a hurdle or whole picture approach when planning your selection process (see the Overview page in the Choose selection methods section for further information).

Weighting Criteria

Some specific criteria may not be of equal importance to the overall selection decision. If this is the case, you may choose to prioritise certain criteria by weighting the scores given to candidates for these requirements. A simple means of doing this is to allocate percentages to each criterion so that the total comes to 100. An example is provided in the table below of how such weightings can be used to multiply the initial score given to a candidate to reach a weighted total score. You can read more about scoring in the Agree scoring system and decision rules section.