Premium UK food store Waitrose is using a new online sifting tool which aims to progress the highest calibre candidates through to its graduate Selection Centres.
Waitrose’s graduate scheme has received over 2,500 applications already this year. Graduate Dilemmas from talent management provider A&DC, an online Situational Judgement Test, assesses graduates’ judgement and decision-making skills around common work situations.
Waitrose’s graduate recruitment team is aiming to narrow down the number of candidates getting to its centres to around 150.
Anglie Johns, manager, recruitment services at Waitrose, says: “We anticipated an uplift in applicant numbers this year, and therefore wanted to introduce a new, robust selection tool to our Graduate Assessment Process, to address the challenges of the recruitment market, and the growing numbers of applications.”
A&DC has also created a bespoke scoring key for Waitrose.
Natalie Livings, managing consultant at A&DC, says: “Successful Waitrose graduates are placed into store-based retail management roles and have the opportunity to reach department manager level within 12-24 months.
“It is essential for Waitrose, however, to ensure it is firstly finding future employees who want to work for the company, rather than just ‘get a job’, and secondly, making sure they have the best possible fit for the available roles.”
Source : Recruiter
Checking publicly available information, such as a prospective candidate’s social media page, might be technically lawful but may not be best practice, said Adrian Marlowe, managing director of Lawspeed.
Speaking at a Recruitment Society event earlier this month, Marlowe said that pre-employment ‘processing’ of applicants is covered under the Data Protection Act. This means that looking up information about a potential candidate on a social networking site is classed as processing. And processing would need consent from the applicant. However, the fact that it has been posted on a public site could lead you to conclude that consent has been impliantly given.
Marlowe warned that if employers base their decisions on information gleaned from a social networking site, they could be in line for potential claims of discrimination, should the unsuccessful applicant discover this is the case. Yet he admitted that in the real world, this scenario [where the candidate realised their profile was hacked into] would be rare.
Source : Recruiter
Digital camera phones should be banned from Christmas parties to avoid employees being fired due to photographic evidence emerging of party high jinks this year, according to employment lawyer Jonathan Whittaker.
The firm advises bosses to tell staff that snaps taken with a digital camera are fine, but not with mobile phones.
Jonathan Whittaker of law firm SAS Daniels, says: “The speed with which an embarrassing or even unlawful photo can make it from phone to internet is breathtaking – digital-savvy types can take a photo and post it on a blog, website or social networking site for the world to see within seconds.
“Under the European Convention of Human Rights, everybody has the right to respect for their private life. Employees should seek permission from each individual before posting their photo on a website or blog, otherwise it could give rise to problems for staff and employer.”
Source : Recruiter
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation is responding to a report from Oxfam entitled “Who Cares?” which looks at dealing with exploitation of workers in the care sector.
Anne Fairweather, the REC’s Head of Public Policy, said “Boiling down a series of complex issues, which in virtually all cases involve breaches of the law, to a call for an extension of the licensing of recruitment agencies is missing the point. The REC is committed to an effective enforcement regime and agrees that while the existing regime is not perfect, the Gangmaster Licensing Authority is not a silver bullet which can solve every enforcement issue. If we are going to be serious about tackling issue of exploitation, in both the agency and directly employed sector, then we need to get to the root of the problem.”
Peter Cullimore, Chair of the REC Nursing and Social Care Group which represents 300 agencies in the sector, said: “Social and domiciliary are agencies are highly regulated. In addition to the Conduct Regulations which govern all recruitment agencies, our members have to be registered with the Care Quality Commission and are regulated and inspected by them. Adding another layer to the inspection regime will simply add complexity and cost to legitimate businesses and would not necessary lead to better enforcement against those who break the rules. Care work can be very rewarding and we would encourage better funding to enable the workers in the sector to be better rewarded financially for their work.”
Anne Fairweather concluded: “Initiatives such as the Pay and Work Rights helpline to make it easier for workers to report abuses in the workplace, are an example of a measure that could have a real impact. The REC also supports the extra resource which has been given to the Employment Agency Standards inspectorate. It is vital that those who exploit workers are caught and the REC will be considering how to further improve enforcement in our sector without adding complexity or costs on those operating correctly.”
Source : Recruitment-International
The REC is hailing victory after a new report was published today aimed at boosting standards in social work, which will include the establishment of a new national College for Social Work.
The REC had been invited by the British Association for Social Workers (BASW) to be part of a working group looking into the possibility of creating such a College.
In welcoming the proposal, Raluca Boroianu-Omura, Policy & PR Executive for REC Nursing and Social Care, said: ‘The College would promote the status of social work and would create a powerful voice for the profession. The REC is a strong advocate for raising standards and promoting good practice in social work, and sees this as the College’s main mission.
She added: “Social workers would benefit greatly from having the support offered by a national college. It would provide workers with post qualifying support and career structure. It would allow social workers to have the help they need to deliver first class services.
“This is a fantastic opportunity and to this end, the REC is committed to working closely with BASW and other key stakeholders to ensure that we keep up the momentum in achieving this aim.”
www.rec.uk.com
Source : OnRec
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