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. 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 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 staff 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: 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 – then determine their suitability for the role.

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  Openings), on our social media, and to our 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 10 minutes. This helps us get an idea of their approach. We typically find that some people are not suitable at this stage (we’ll always let you know).

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. Typically, we find some people are not suitable at this stage.

General Aptitude Assessment: as part of the face-to-face interview meeting, we’ll ask you to complete some basic 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.

The “difficulty” of the questions matches the level we require for the role (as specified in the Position Description and Job Ad). You can see some sample questions. Answers to these assessments are unlikely to “make or break” your chance of employment – instead they help us understand what support you’d need if we were to employ 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!