Our principles when recruiting staff are similar to how we run the company;
- Clear expectations
- You’ll know what we’re looking for in a role from our Job Ad, which matches the Position Description, and work you’d do if employed.
- You can ask to see our process documents when you visit for an interview, and to read our internal policies online.
- Solid processes
- You’ll always know what to expect and when to expect it when moving through our recruiting process – no surprises or moving goal posts – here and from emails we send you to help you prepare. Every prospective employee for a given role follows the same process.
- Open discussions
- We’ve got nothing to hide, and we know we’re a long way from perfect! We’re open to discussing pretty much anything about our company with prospective employees. We recognise that prospective employees will be interviewing us just as much as we’re interviewing them!
- Ok, we say “pretty much anything”… but specific details about our Clients and what we charge for Jobs may be considered “commercial in confidence” (which means we’re not allowed to discuss that stuff!)
- Professional, engaged and passionate interviewers
- People at MPH who interview prospective employees are passionate about the company – what it does, and how it succeeds. You’ll find them engaged in the recruitment process, well-prepared for meetings, and professional throughout (meeting our “Principles of Professionalism”).
Our recruitment process
Internal preparation: First. we recognise the need for the role. We craft a new (or polish the existing) Position Description so it’s clear in our heads what we need. We create a Job Ad (or polish the previous one we used for this role) and prepare interview questions we think will let candidates show their best attributes.
Advertising: We may choose to advertise the role internally first for a week, allowing our employees to be considered for advancement. Then, we post the opportunity on our preferred recruitment platform, Seek – but also on our site (Current Opportunities), on our social media, and to our Careers mailing list.
Assess Applicants: We assess applicants based on their resume and cover letter. Some we can “rule out” right away, the rest go into the “Interesting” pile.
Phone screener: We call each “Interesting” candidate and ask a series of questions over 15 minutes. This helps us get an idea of their approach. We typically find that some people are not suitable at this stage (we’ll let you know after the call).
Face-to-face interview: You visit our office (or maybe by video call), and we do a more extensive series of questions and activities together. Typically, the role’s manager and a peer of the role will be present at the interview, but you’ll always know in advance. We’ll ask a series of open-ended questions about your approach to problems and your skills and experience.
We suggest you come prepared with questions for us – this is a good way for you to learn more about the responsibilities and how we roll to get a better sense of if we’re right for you (and also demonstrates to us that you curious, open to learning, and engaged in the process). We have some suggested questions to get your creative juices flowing, but you are most welcome to ask your own questions too!
Towards the end of the interview, we’ll ask about your salary expectations for this role, if you have any offers from other employers on the table currently, and when you would be available to start in the role.
Typically, we find some people are not suitable for the role after the f2f interview, and we let those candidates know.
General Aptitude Assessment: As part of the face-to-face interview meeting, we’ll ask you to complete some Numeracy, Literacy, and IT fluency assessments, so we can get a sense of your skills in these areas. You can choose to have these assessments administered verbally or in written form – we allow you ample “quiet time” to complete the assessment if you choose to do the assessment in written form (IT Fluency is always delivered in verbal form). We’re not any kind of “personality”, “character” or psychosomatic assessment here – the questions do not have any deeper meaning.
The “difficulty” of the questions matches the level we require for the role (as specified in the Position Description and Job Ad; “Basic”, “Intermediate”, or “Advanced”). You can see some sample questions (from the “Basic” level). The assessments are all done on paper. Your answers to these assessments are unlikely to “make or break” your chance of employment alone – instead they help us understand what support you’d need if we were to employ you.
For more senior roles, aptitude testing may take up to 2.5 hours (we estimate how long you’ll be with us when we book the appointment with you). It’s fine to take breaks and use your smartphone’s calculator, but it’s not ok to “phone a friend” or look stuff up on the internet.
Completing the aptitude testing is required to proceed in your application, but it’s not required to complete if you decide the role is not for you.
A second face-to-face meeting: For some roles – you’d always be notified in advance – we do a “second round” of face-to-face meetings. This is likely to have a practical component, for example, if you were a carpenter, we might supply you with tools and hardware to build a roadcase from a set of plans. If you were a bookkeeper, we might ask you to organise some financial data and present it in a meaningful way. A Senior Lighting Technician might be asked to configure and patch some lighting fixtures. This would typically take a few hours and is paid at an hourly rate. We may find some people are not suitable at this stage.
Offer and acceptance: We make you an offer with a copy of our Employment Contract that specifies the start date, salary, and other employment conditions. We strongly encourage you to read this and we’re available to discuss your questions.
Hopefully, you sign and we work together for many happy years into the future!