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What interview tasks could we use when recruiting senior staff? Drawing on guidance from the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), we describe assignments that can be used in the senior leadership appointment process, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.

Contents

1. 1  Suitability of interview tasks
2. 2  Toolkit of selection activities from the NCSL
3. 3  Meeting pupils
4. 4  Assembly
5. 5  Panel interview
6. 6  Presentations
7. 7  Role play
8. 8  In-tray exercises
9. 9  Additional sources and further reading

Suitability of interview tasks

Appointment interviews for senior leadership positions are often accompanied by practical tasks. It is likely that the appointment process will include at least one panel interview, a prepared presentation by the candidate and a final interview.

Practical tasks include:

• An in-tray exercise to assess a candidate’s ability to prioritise and respond to a range of school issues
• Written tasks, involving budget or data analysis to assess the proficiency of a candidate in financial management, analysis and administration
• Participation in group discussion to assess interaction, listening, knowledge and possible leadership qualities

Leading appointments, NCSL, see page 25 (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/download?id=17248&filename=leading-appointments.pdf

In her presentation on the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) webiste, school governor Clare Collins says:

... find the right candidate for your school and not just the best candidate on the day

It’s important to remember the purpose of the process, which is to find the right candidate for your school and not just the best candidate on the day. To do this, key criteria need to be identified, with interview tasks designed to find the candidates who will best meet those criteria.

Successful recruitment, NCSL
http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/index/leadershiplibrary/leadingschools/leading-an-effective-organisation/successionplanning/recruiting-headteachers-senior-leaders/recruiting-headteachers-senior-leaders-video-audio/successful-recruitment-video.htm?

Toolkit of selection activities from the NCSL

This toolkit from the NCSL provides a breakdown of the tasks outlined below.

Recruiting leaders toolkit (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/selection-activities.pdf

Meeting pupils

Some schools arrange for candidates to hold discussions with the school council or groups of pupils. Pupils are encouraged to prepare a range of appropriate questions. Such meetings could be observed by members of the appointment panel using criteria set out in the person specification.

Advantages

• Less disruptive and easier to organise than a full lesson
• Often highly revealing of behaviours and values
• Can get to see their relationships and behaviour with pupils outside the classroom

Disadvantages

• You will need to brief, prepare and supervise the pupils carefully
• It may be difficult to ensure consistency if different pupils are involved
• Success depends on your ability both to observe the interaction and to elicit the pupils’ views effectively
• Pupils’ expectations about their role and input will need to be managed carefully

Assembly

You may wish to use an assembly to test a candidate's relationship with pupils. Pupils can be divided in such a way that each candidate deals with all ages represented in the school. This also means that pupils do not have to take part in a series of assemblies. You will need to prepare the same brief for each candidate, setting out:

• The theme and objectives for the assembly
• The age groups who will participate
• Whether or not you wish to see written plans
• What resources will be available
• What the normal customs are for the conduct of assembly

You may wish to arrange a conversation with the pupils afterwards. It is important to think carefully about how to structure this debrief to obtain useful information.

Advantages

• May reveal behaviours and attitudes that are neglected by other tools
• Can provide evidence on clarity of thinking, vision and confidence, as well as communication skills
• Provides a good test of rapport with children in the particular school
• Is a means of involving those children in the process

Disadvantages

• Logistically difficult, especially with several candidates
• Requires careful planning, briefing and preparation
• A candidate’s performance at a single event may not reflect performance over a long period of time
• It may not be appropriate for a candidate to conduct an assembly in the context of your school
• You will need to consider carefully what you are looking for and how you will measure it

Panel interview

Mini-interviews with small focused panels can add variety to the process. Questions may relate to specific topics or a combination of topics, for example:

• Teaching and learning
• Curriculum
• Ethos, discipline and behaviour
• Monitoring and evaluating performance
• Working with governors
• Relationships with parents, teachers and non-teaching staff

The panels could be made up of governors or members of staff who are not on the main appointment panel. These people will need to be fully briefed about how to collect and record their evidence. The chair of each panel should collect and summarise their findings and report these back to the appointment panel.

Advantages

• A familiar and conventional interview tool
• Many members of the panel may be familiar with the process
• An opportunity to ask a wide range of questions
• An opportunity to involve a larger group of people
• Effective in eliciting and confirming factual information about a candidate’s background
• An opportunity for the candidate to ask questions

Disadvantages

• Formal interviews do not have a strong record of accuracy in choosing the right person or unearthing evidence of behaviours
• Process can be become overly formal and empty of content
• Panel members may use this forum to expound personal views and perspectives
• Some panel members may feel intimidated by the process     
• Poor questioning techniques will limit effectiveness and may create an unfavourable impression with candidates

Presentations

To test candidates' presentation skills, appointment panels often set a topic in advance. This gives individuals time for research and preparation, but you cannot determine how much advice they may have received.

To avoid this issue you can set the topic on the day, giving time and a suitable environment in which to prepare. It may be useful to enlist help in identifying, in advance, what sort of response to expect. Presentations usually last for 10-15 minutes. They are usually followed by questions from the panel, so active listening is required.

Advantages

• Tests for clarity of thought, strategic thinking and conviction, as well as communication skills
• Easy to organise and light on resources
• Tests each candidate’s resilience under pressure
• You can ask candidates to talk about their experience and thus test multiple criteria

Disadvantages

• It can be hard to differentiate among large numbers of presentations
• The topic needs to be chosen with care in order to elicit the right attributes
• Equipment and facilities need to be provided
• The panel need to be prepared to ask questions

Role play

Role plays in an interview setting can create the opportunity for the unexpected and stimulate observable personality traits under pressure. An actor can be hired to play the roles opposite the candidates, or members of the panel could take on these roles. It is advisable not to be observing and acting at the same time. Ideally, you should limit the role play to 10–15 minutes and ensure that both the actor and candidate have a detailed briefing to create a realistic situation.

Advantages

• Creates close to lifelike conditions
• Enables you to observe behaviour under pressure and in situations of conflict
• Particularly effective for measuring interpersonal skills
• Often produces rich and detailed evidence on behaviours
• You can set the scenario to reflect the challenges your school faces
• Many candidates lose themselves in the scenario, forget the observation and act authentically

Disadvantages

• Panel members may feel uncomfortable playing roles
• Requires careful thought to establish a scenario and prepare briefing notes
• The fact that it is 'only a role play' may create untypical behaviours in some candidates
• You will need to arrange for observers as well as actors

In-tray exercises

In-tray exercises involve asking candidates to prioritise a number of typical issues that a headteacher might find in his or her in-tray, and to outline when and how they would deal with them. Someone will need to put together an appropriate range of scenarios. Marking and feeding back to the panel will require specific professional understanding.

Advantages

• A good test of clarity of thought, creativity, strategic thinking, attention to detail, ability to prioritise and resilience under pressure
• Reflects real challenges and situations
• Candidates can engage in the task with minimal supervision (creating, for example, time to interview another candidate)
• Can include interruptions or new information to test flexibility
• Can be combined with a presentation or discussion to gather additional evidence

Disadvantages

• Behaviour under special test conditions may not be representative of normal habits
• Materials require extensive preparation and careful testing
• Preparation of the materials may require specialist expertise
• The analytical and intellectual skills which come to the fore in this exercise may not be your key priorities
• Can take up a significant amount of time during the interview day for briefing, study, drafting and presentation
• If you require written submissions you will need to arrange time during the process for panel members to read them