Policy 8.5 : Employee Recruitment and Selection

Community Enterprise Inc. is a non-profit organisation established for the purpose of supporting people with disabilities and their families living in the Shire of Hidden Valley.

The services offered by Community Enterprise include group home accommodation, in-home respite, out-of-home respite, home help and community access.

Community Enterprise is a non-profit, community organisation which is governed by a management committee elected annually by the members. Community Enterprise receives all of its operating funds from the Western Australian Government in the form of an annual grant.

The purpose of this policy is to set out recruitment and selection procedures for the agency. The policy recognises the agency's legal and moral obligations under the Equal Opportunity Act (1984), Disability Discrimination Act (1992), Sex Discrimination Act (1984), Racial Discrimination Act (1975), Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act (1986), Workplace Relations Act (1997), Minimum Conditions of Employment Act (1993), and Standard 8 of the Disability Services Standards (1993).

This policy applies to all of the agency's programs and activities.

The following procedures are to be implemented to ensure that the agency meets its policy objective of recruiting the best employees.

The agency will:

1. Maintain written duty statements and selection criteria for all positions in the agency.
2. Except at the discretion of the Management Committee, advertise all vacant positions in the newspaper that has the widest circulation in the agency's area of operation.
3. Provide all prospective applicants with a copy of the relevant duty statement and selection criteria along with a brief overview of the agency's operations.
4. Require all applicants to address all of the selection criteria in their written application.
5. Assemble a selection panel of no less than three persons drawn from the Management Committee, staff of the agency and/or clients of the agency or their family members.
6. Short-list all applicants for interview who have demonstrated in their written application that they meet all of the selection criteria that are essential to the position.
7. Establish a standard set of interview questions that enables the selection panel to establish the degree to which the short-listed applicants best meet the selection criteria.
8. Conduct interviews in an appropriate setting and, as far as practicable, on the same day or consecutive days.
9. Make summary notes on applicants' responses to questions.
10. Consider all short-listed applicants' responses to prepared questions and recommend the candidate who best meets the selection criteria for the position or, if no candidate meets the required standards, re-advertise the position.
11. Contact at least two of the recommended candidate's referees explaining the nature of the agency's activities, the position that is being sought and seeking the referees' assessments of the recommended candidate with respect to fulfilling the duties of the position and to verify the recommended applicant's claims against the selection criteria.
12. Prepare a brief referees' report on the recommended candidate's suitability for the position.
13. Subject to satisfactory referees' reports, prepare a conditional offer of appointment to the recommended candidate including a commencement date, conditions of employment, commencement salary, and asking them to provide a current police clearance.
14. Subject to satisfactory police clearances (in accordance with the Policy on Police Clearances for Employees and Volunteers), invite the successful applicant to formally accept the offer of appointment under the conditions described in the letter.

The following performance standards must be met to ensure that the procedures specified in Section 4 are implemented effectively:

1. All new employees have been provided with a copy of the agency's Policy on Employee Recruitment and Selection and a staff copy of the policy is kept in each service outlet.
2. Duty statements and selection criteria for all positions are kept in an appropriate human resources file.
3. Vacant positions were externally advertised in the appropriate newspaper, unless otherwise authorised by the Management Committee.
4. Prospective applicants were provided with a copy of the duty statement and selection criteria for the position along with a brief overview of the agency's operations.
5. A selection panel has been formed for each vacant position.
6. Applicants were short-listed by the selection panel on the basis of their written applications.
7. All short-listed applicants have been formally interviewed by the selection panel and a written record of interview responses is kept by the agency in the appropriate position vacancy file.
8. The most suitable candidate has been selected by the panel on the basis of merit and in accordance with the agency's Policy on Equal Employment Opportunity.  If no candidate was found to be suitable, the position was re-advertised.
9. Two suitable referees of the recommended applicant have been contacted by the chairperson of the selection panel and a summary referees' report has been completed.
10. Police checks have been undertaken in accordance with the agency's Policy on Police Clearances for Employees and Volunteers.
11. A formal offer of appointment has been sent to the recommended candidate and a signed acceptance of appointment has been received from the recommended candidate.
12. All documentation related to the position has been collated and is stored in the vacancy file.