Whilst traditional interviews are still the most common approach in selection, we all have questioned whether they tell us enough about whether someone can actually do the job and that worry that we might be missing out on candidates who are not great at interviews but would be perfect for the job.

We’re seeing a growing trend of job auditions.  As you would expect, job auditions are an opportunity to see candidates perform on the job tasks.  Depending on the role, it could be a technical test, role-play scenarios or exercises that mimic what they would  be required to do on the job.  

Here are some examples we love: 

• Citadel use Talent Auditions to find their future data scientists. The virtual ‘Datathon’ is a competition with cash prizes designed around teams of prospective candidates solving real data challenges 
• Automatic have what they call ‘tryouts’ where candidates are paid to do real work projects that can last between 3 to 8 weeks 
• McKinsey give their candidates real client scenarios they’d be faced with in the job 
• Mogul ask candidates to spend a trial day working rather than a final interview

When you’re designing your audition assignment, aim to make it an accurate representation of the type of work your new hire will be doing on a regular basis.

Here are a few examples of auditions you could use when interviewing for HR roles:

HR Business Partner 

The business area you will be working with has just had their latest pulse survey results and it has flagged that career development is a problem. Give us a few ideas about how you might tackle it? 

What you’re looking for?

You’re looking for how they would look for deeper insight into what people want from career development, coach leaders to have career conversations, ideas about how they might ditch internal processes to encourage more movement, introduce new light touch products e.g. Talent Discussions (not the 9 box grid),  informal mentoring (not a policy), job shadowing etc.

Talent/L&D Consultant  

We want to get rid of our traditional annual appraisal so one of your outcomes for this role will be “To design with the HR team/business a fresh approach to traditional appraisals.”  Prepare a short presentation (2 or 3 slides max) to share a few ideas with us about what a new approach might look like, how we might develop leaders, and how you would move it forward”.

What you’re looking for?

That they are on top of the latest trends in PM i.e. employee-owned, team performance, light touch, coaching not assessment, innovative ways to help leaders do it better, and how they would co-design the product with HR/stakeholders.

Data & Insights Manager 

Here is the data from a recent pulse survey we ran about hybrid working.  Can you turn it into a one-page slide that would be shared with our senior leadership team on what the data is telling us?  

What you’re looking for?

Data analytic skills but also able to break data down to show insights so that people understand and have an emotional connection with the story the data is telling.

Recruitment consultant 

One of our priorities is to work on our candidate experience. Take a look at our careers website and the experience you have had as an applicant and give us some feedback on what action we should take.

What you’re looking for 

That they understand the importance of candidate experience, employment brand and they have plenty of fresh thinking ideas about what you could do differently – simplifying process, language, etc. 

HR Advisor

We need to influence a change in behaviour of leaders who are overly reliant on HR or a policy to provide the answers and instead we want to encourage them to use their own judgement. How might you tackle this?

What you’re looking for?

You’re looking for someone who is comfortable/excited by this idea and how they might tackle it e.g. for example moving to principles not policy, wider HR involvement, coaching leaders, learning sessions/clinics etc.

For more resources like this check out the Disruptive HR Club – the online network for HR who want to change outdated practices for good.

The best job descriptions bring to life for the candidate what their day might look like, who they’ll work with, what they’ll accomplish and what the culture is like.

Do you feel that your current job descriptions are a bit tired – a long list of tasks or just don’t reflect your brand? Then we’ve put together some simple tips to give them a refresh and included an example job description to get you started.

1. Focus on outcomes

If you start with the question “What does success look like?” it stops you from listing tasks. Here are some examples:

• Letgo use “performance-based hiring.” Instead of describing the person they want, they first describe the job they want done.  What matters to them is selecting someone with success performing in similar contexts to the ones at Letgo and they have found that they’re recruiting people that wouldn’t normally have got through the selection process.
• Netflix focus on ‘doing’ versus ‘having’ by listing in their job descriptions ‘your expected impact’ which describes what the candidate will achieve.
• Slack do something similar. On their job descriptions, they have what they call “Great to Haves” which is a list of attributes or qualifications that mean you can still apply if you don’t meet them.

2. What’s unique about you?

There will be something special about your organisation that you can shout about in your job descriptions. It might be your relaxed culture, your approach to flexible working, your family-friendly policies, or perhaps career development opportunities.

• Kayak use the job description to get across their culture e.g.  “no stupid meetings”
• Redbull’s job descriptions reflect the importance they place on candidates playing to their strengths.
• Zappos show they are not traditional when it comes to recruitment – “1990s [noun|a decade we love, but no longer live in]. Old school cover letters are so 1990. Want to show us who you really are? Create a video cover letter. A flash mob, a comedic monologue… whatever showcases your passion for Zappos and the work you’d be doing! Videos are not required, but if you create it, we’ll watch it.”

3. Be inclusive 

Language really matters. So, be careful about the language you use on your job descriptions – it could be putting off the best person for the job from applying!

• Johnson and Johnson use Textio to make job descriptions more inclusive:  It uses AI to review job descriptions in real-time, highlighting jargon, boring bits, and words that could come across as particularly masculine or feminine. It also predicts how different people will respond to the content and suggests alternatives. Johnson & Johnson, for example, reported an additional 90,000 female applicants (a 9% increase) in its pipeline last year after using Textio to refine its job postings.
• Slack also worked with Textio to ensure they appeal to the widest possible audience. (Slack’s job descriptions feature phrases like “care deeply” and “lasting relationships,” which statistically draw more applications from women. Microsoft’s, by contrast, featured words like “insatiably” and “competing.”

4. Bring out the marketing skills

Think of writing job descriptions as a marketing exercise rather than an HR process. Get creative about how you could bring the job to life using for example social media, video, interviews, graphics etc. You could even ask your marketing team to help!

Galileo a Summer Camp provider uses video to engage with prospective candidates.  It could be a few minutes from the hiring manager or someone in the team who already does the job talking about what a typical day looks like.

Digital Ocean share a written Q&A interview with someone already in the job to explain more about the role

Sodexo use an infographic for their job descriptions.

Finally, here is a template of a job description kindly shared by one of our clients to get you started..

Adult Weight Management Practitioner

Fancy joining us on our journey to empower over a million people to change their behaviours and thrive?

Thrive Tribe delivers a range of healthy lifestyle services and programmes throughout the UK. Our Achieve Oxfordshire service has successfully been providing Adult Weight Management programmes to the county since 2017. We have recently been awarded a contract to deliver even more! Exciting times!

Why join Thrive Tribe?

Check out our employee reviews at Glassdoor. Here is a taster…

“Thrive Tribe really cares about their employees and that is a rare and refreshing value to find. There is a good work/life balance and management try hard to ensure staff feel valued. They provide fun team building activities and encourage staff to come forward if they are needing any extra support. The culture is fun, hardworking and supportive. They truly live by their ethos and there is free coffee/tea and fruit!”

We’re inclusive!

Be yourself. That’s who we’re hiring. Our culture celebrates and supports the difference that makes each of us unique.

More about the role

The aim of the Weight Management programmes is to provide high quality and evidenced-based information, advice and interventions to support local residents that need them most. It will also help people to maintain weight loss, to optimise health, and reduce risk of disease.

Like all roles at Thrive Tribe, you can expect your time at work to be fun, varied and challenging. We don’t like to stick to a firm JD as we know from experience that things change throughout the lifetime of a role and it gives our people the chance to play to their strengths.

How you will make an impact…..

• Help maintain the ethos of Thrive Tribe by driving our organisational culture forward across our services and using every opportunity to embed our values.
• Delivering evidence-based interventions that focus on diet, nutrition, physical activity, behaviour change, and psychological support.
• Working with partner organisations to create referral routes and meet our targets.
• Working in harmony with our policies and governance procedures to ensure excellent and safe client experiences.
• Taking responsibility for your own training and development, that way we can make the biggest impact!
• We need you! New projects and service developments are always on the horizon and so we’re always looking for someone who can contribute to our growth.
• Become part of something bigger and work with colleagues across all of our Thrive Tribe services, we’re always looking to share knowledge and resources!

But, more than anything, we are looking for a team player who puts their heart in to their work. We’ve got some core values that run through everything we do, and we’d love it if they resonate with you too!

Need any more reasons to apply? This is the job for you if you…

• Have the delivery experience of supporting clients to make healthy lifestyle choices.
• Be personable! Capable of working independently and as part of a team.
• Can adapt to changes thrown your way and be innovative to meet targets.
• Are passionate about Health and Wellbeing.

This job is based in …….., with regular travel across the County (car owner desired) & occasional requirements to attend Thrive Tribe HQ in London.

The job will involve remote/home working and flexibility.

Salary range £…..& benefits

If you have any questions regarding this role, please contact…..

Click here to apply.