One of the most dreaded sentences in general practice at the moment is “I’m handing in my notice”.

It’s the catalyst for a whole host of processes that need to be gone through to get new staff in, train them and get them off and running.

But how often do we take time to consider the recruitment process itself, or whether we actually need to replace like-with-like? How often do we consider doing something differently?

How confident are we in our recruitment process? Do we understand what a good recruitment process looks like, and if not, how can we make it better?

Robyn Clark (aka JacksonR) and Susi O’Brien (HR Help advisor) hosted our lunchtime HR Clinic which focused on recruitment and workforce planning.

Here is a summary of the questions we received, and the answers given.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what is workforce planning?

There are no stupid questions when it comes to HR, so don’t worry about that! Workforce planning is the process whereby we generate information and analyse it to inform future demand for staff and skills so that we can enable our workforce to meet the demands of our services.

The information we analyse might come from a variety of sources – our budget information, feedback from service users, data on how our services are used, feedback from other staff, new services that are being developed, etc.  So, for example, if we’re seeing a massive increase in patients presenting with mental health problems, we might want to consider employing a mental health nurse. We might not have the budget for another GP, but we might be able to afford a part-time paramedic who can pick up some of the minor illness work. GPs might report that they’re drowning in admin and documents that need reviewing, so we might look to set up a workflow team to process these and divert the workload away from GPs.

This is stuff that most of you probably do all the time without realising it!

How many people is it best to have on a recruitment panel?

This can vary depending on the role being interviewed for, but my general rule of thumb is to aim for an odd number – to provide balance – and not just one! You don’t want it to be overkill, though – if you’re pushing five, I think you need to stop and calm down! Remember that you want the candidate to crave the job and you want to get the best out of them; you don’t want them to feel intimidated or as if there are too many people to try and please, as this may put them off the role. Try and have a good variety of people on the panel, though, so that unconscious bias is reduced as much as possible.

How much involvement should GP partners have in staff recruitment processes?

I can hear the mumbles of “none” already! However, you have to remember that it’s their business first and foremost, and they have a vested interest in who they employ. Personally, all of my partners have lead roles, so I would include those partners who have the relevant lead roles in the recruitment process – however, this mostly applies to clinical roles. When it comes to non-clinical roles, unless they are management, I don’t involve them at all. And I get no complaints about this as they’re stretched for time as it is, and, as the practice manager, they trust my judgement. Obviously, if it was a management role, I would involve them, again due to their vested interest.

You just need to ensure they have undergone some form of recruitment training – and I will take this opportunity to promote the recruitment module of the HR Masterclass on Practice Index Learning here as it does cover what not to do in recruitment and how to reduce unconscious bias – something our GP partners tend to be well versed in a lot of the time! If you can’t get them to do that, at least brief them on what NOT to do… which, from my experience, is to make any kind of reference to a protected characteristic or go completely off-piste and ask questions that you haven’t asked the other candidates!

Someone on my team has told me that they’re going to resign soon but are waiting on background checks for a new role. Can I advertise their replacement straight away?

In short, no. Not until you have a written resignation can you advertise someone else’s job – as it remains theirs until they’ve formally resigned.

Is it illegal to take on a new staff member without checking their passport for ‘right to work in the UK’ first?

In effect, yes! You’re legally obliged to ensure that anyone you employ has the legal right to work in the UK, so you must carry out the relevant checks prior to issuing a contract of employment. Usually this means looking at their passport, but there can be other forms of legitimate ID – search on the Home Office website for details. Technically speaking, no one is going to arrest you for not carrying out a check. However, if you’re found to have employed someone without a legal right to work in the UK, and you can’t evidence that a proper status check was carried out when they started, your practice could be prosecuted and fined.

When planning staff needs for the future, is there a nice way to ask an older member of the team if they’re planning to retire soon?

Oh, this is tricky. Instinct as a manager is often to just ask the question outright, and in many cases, this might be fine with the individual concerned. But if they do take offence, it could potentially be seen as harassment or discrimination on the grounds of age, especially if you repeat the question on later occasions after the employee has told you they don’t want to discuss it. My advice is to frame questions more generally, as you would with any other member of staff – for example, asking in an appraisal where they see themselves being in so many years’ time, or asking what particular career goals they’d like to discuss. If the individual has plans to retire in the near future, then they almost certainly will mention that at this point. If they don’t, then assume they either intend to keep working for longer or they just don’t want to discuss the matter yet.

Do you think it’s a good idea to share questions with candidates before interviews?

Oooh, this is a tough one! Personally, I have never done this – the only thing I’ve shared is a presentation topic. I often like to see how candidates respond in the moment, but I’m very aware that this stems from my personality preference and not necessarily theirs!

It’s difficult because we want to respect the individual, and we all know that different people bring different things to the organisation and have different personality preferences. One thing I found from doing a Myers-Briggs exercise with my team was that there are a lot of introverts who don’t like being put on the spot – so interviewing is literally like their worst nightmare. Am I going to get the best out of them in that scenario?

I wouldn’t want to share questions that have a concrete answer, because they could just go and look that up, and to me that is effectively cheating! But if most of your interview questions are competency based – i.e., ‘tell me about a time when you did this’ – then is there any danger in posing the question in advance? There’s almost nothing worse than interviewing someone and hoping for a really good answer but in the stress of the moment they’ve gone blank and forgotten what would have been an amazing example. If you give the candidate time to prepare, will you get those great examples every time?

Is there a middle ground? Could you explain the types of questions you’ll be asking so they know to come prepared with examples or information that’s relevant? That sounds okay to me. I’d be keen to hear what you guys think on this, though, so please pop your thoughts in the chat!

A candidate for a reception role has told us she’s dyslexic on her application form. Should I do or say anything about this in the interview?

Under the Equality Act, it’s unlawful to ask questions about health matters prior to a job offer, unless it’s part of equal opportunities monitoring or about making reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. So, if a candidate openly discloses issues, unprompted, during the application or interview process, it can feel quite awkward! Ideally, if you’ve been in touch with the candidate prior to interview, you would have referenced the disclosure to see if there were any adjustments needed for them at the interview – for example, if you were going to do a typing or a written test, would they need additional time to complete this?

If, however, there’s to be no test and just a simple panel interview, my advice would be to wait until the point that you offer the role, when you can ask them how their dyslexia affects them and what the surgery can do to support them. You can also refer them to Occupational Health for an assessment, which may provide further suggestions on the support you can offer.

If you do choose to address it, make sure you do so in a positive manner, framed in the sense of adjustments, and that you document this discussion on your interview notes. The concern here is if the candidate is unsuccessful, you don’t want them to be able to claim discrimination as the reason for rejection, so ensure you have strong evidence as to why this was not the reason.

Just a final note on this – if the disclosure is made as part of an equal opportunities monitoring form rather than on the application form itself, check what your own procedures say about how that information should be treated. For example, if your equal opportunities monitoring form says that interviewing managers will not have access to this information, and then you bring it up at interview, the candidate may not be very impressed!

One of the GP partners wants us to ask questions about previous absence history in interviews but I think this is discriminatory. Do you agree?

I certainly do! Also, this is not what this part of the recruitment process is for. As I just mentioned, there are legal restrictions on what health-related questions you can ask prior to a job offer. I would reassure the partner that this subject would come up as part of referencing, post job offer, and if there were any concerns at this point, you could discuss these with the successful candidate. Highlight that bringing this up as part of the interview process could lead to a claim of discrimination if the candidate were unsuccessful and they were classed as disabled. And then point them to that training module I mentioned…

Why doesn’t anyone complete reference forms anymore? Do you have any tips to get completed forms back? It slows down our recruitment process massively.

I feel your pain. I personally don’t understand why some people are so reticent about providing a reference. A reference is factual – so if you have factual evidence to back up anything you say, then there isn’t an issue. Days off sick are factual. Disciplinary action – if proven – is factual. If you have documented discussions with an employee about their performance, attendance or conduct, as part of your management or appraisal, then the evidence is there and it’s factual. Nobody has a problem providing a positive reference, do they?!

If a current or former employer isn’t providing anything other than a confirmation of employment and I feel the need for more information, I will often ask the candidate to provide a reference from a peer or colleague to see if that sheds any light.

I know how frustrating it can be, but in these circumstances, you at least have your probationary period to fall back on. It can be little comfort when you think of the time spent onboarding a new member of staff, but sometimes it’s all we have.

Any tips on places to advertise for job candidates?

It depends on the role! I use NHS Jobs as a default because it’s free, it has wide reach and people who are looking often set up job alerts so they get notified if a vacancy has been posted. Practice Index Jobs Board is the best way to advertise for APMs and PMs, it reaches only the target audience, and attracts the right type of candidates for the roles. For clinical posts, I also use LinkedIn – sometimes I might search for people in my area with a particular job title and send them a little message to let them know I’m hiring!

For reception staff, we’ve had our best luck using Facebook! Way more applicants are using Facebook to look for roles, in the last six months, than NHS Jobs. For GPs, we use the LMC but as we’re also a training practice, we advertise through the local deanery or get our current trainees to spread the word for us. I’ve always avoided places like Indeed and Reed and local job boards as I don’t always feel we get the right candidates or the reach we want for the money we pay. I’m always open to ideas, though, so feel free to pop in the chat anything that’s worked really well for you!

How do you involve the staff in planning and communicating changes?

This will largely depend on the changes you’re making and how your team is made up. I like to try to engage early in the process, if it’s appropriate – as otherwise it can appear as if the decision has already been made. It won’t always be appropriate; some staff might use any changes as an opportunity to work in a way that suits them and not necessarily the practice. So, you need to consider in advance who you should engage with, if at all.

In terms of communication, most people don’t like change so I’d encourage you to communicate as soon as possible and use a variety of methods. If you have a staff newsletter or regular team meetings, use these, or just pop in on people and have a quick chat. If someone’s role is likely to be impacted by a change, arrange a one-on-one conversation with them so that you can explain it fully in a protected space.

Useful links

Practice Index Recruitment Service
Recruitment policy and procedure [PLUS]
Interview packs [PLUS]
Retirement policy [PLUS]
Equality and diversity policy [PLUS]
Right to work in the UK – Guide to checks [PLUS]
Reference request form [PLUS]
Home Office right to work checklist