Interviewing

What you need to know when interviewing:

• panel members must agree the interview questions beforehand and all candidates should be asked the same questions
• all interviews must feature a blend of technical and values-based questions. Values based questions should be selected from the relevant question bank. See the guidance below
• recruiting Managers should email candidates the final interview questions one working day in advance of their interviews. Please see the guidance below
• interview scoring sheets and notes should be taken for each candidate and an assessment should be made by each member of the Panel normally before the Panel collectively discuss interview performance
  Interview Scoring Form – Grade 18 and above (DOC 76KB)
  Interview Scoring Form – Grade 17 and below (DOC 76KB)
• any interview notes taken must be sent to the Recruitment Administration Team using the People Management portal. These notes will be retained for a period of 2 years in line with information retention guidelines
• any photocopies taken of the successful candidate's personal documents, such as qualifications or right to work in the UK, should be attached to the Recruitment Ticket
• where there are no suitable candidates and you would like to discuss your next steps or alternative options, contact resourcing@cumbria.gov.uk

Values based recruitment 

All interviews must feature a blend of technical and values-based questions to gauge candidate(s) alignment to our values.

Recruiting managers are free to make up their own technical questions but the value-based questions should be selected from the relevant question bank below.

• if the role will line manage staff and is Grade 18 post or above
  You must ask 5 values questions (one question for each council value) from the roles with line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 60% of your interview scoring, meaning candidates should not be appointable where they don’t score well in answering the values questions.
• if the role will line manage staff and is Grade 17 or below
  You should select 3 values and choose one question per value from the roles with line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 50% of your interview scoring, meaning you should consider whether the candidate is suitable for appointment if they don’t score well in answering the values questions.
• if the role will NOT line manage staff and is Grade 18 post or above
  You must ask 5 values questions (one question for each council value) from the roles with no line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 60% of your interview scoring, meaning candidates should not be appointable where they don’t score well in answering the values questions.
• if the role will NOT line manage staff and is Grade 17 or below
  You should select 3 values and choose one question per value from the roles with no line management responsibility question set. The values questions should account for 50% of your interview scoring, meaning you should consider whether the candidate is suitable for appointment if they don’t score well in answering the values questions.

For more information, please refer to the Values Based Recruitment Guidance (PDF 605KB).

Emailing candidates the interview questions

Recruiting Managers should email candidates the final interview questions one working day in advance of their interviews.

As interviews are a blend of technical and values-based questions, recruiting managers have the discretion whether to share some or all of the interview questions with candidates.

At minimum, the chosen values-based questions must be shared with all candidates. It is within manager discretion whether to share some or any of the technical questions in advance.

Please use the below email template to share your final questions with candidates.

• Template: Sharing Interview Questions with Candidates (DOC 23KB)

Value-based Interview Questions

• Roles with line management responsibility questions (PDF 124KB)
• Roles with no line management responsibility questions (PDF 123KB)