It's good to talk .. and listen

Sat here on a Thursday evening thinking about ideas for a blog, and knowing I wanted to talk about the importance of dialogue - how 2 way conversations and opportunities for discussion are so vital to the recruitment and talent attraction process. And then these words popped into my head:

"For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals;

Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination.

We learned to talk. We learned to listen.."  Stephen Hawkins        

And that led to 3 hours down the rabbit hole, listening to Pink Floyd songs that I hadn't heard for years, thinking back to climbing trips and late night conversations in remote huts, laughing about the days adventures by firelight, usually with a bottle of whisky somewhere nearby.

If your wondering what I'm talking about and have never heard of Pink Floyd, get on Google now and open your mind. "Keep Talking" from the Division Bell album .

Anyway, back to the point of this blog after that momentary indulgence for my music tastes.

Writing is great, it allows us to communicate ideas and thoughts, to create a permanent record that anyone can pick up at their own convenience to read and digest. It's a physical thin that we can hold on to, to refer back to when things are a little unclear.

But in the fast paced recruitment environment, when people have questions and depend on the answers to influence their decisions, it's not always the best way, and definitely shouldn't be the only way. Job adverts are great for conveying information one way, but they don't allow potential applicants to really understand the team or company, to meet the people doing the work now and ask them questions. and those things are important, they engender trust, confirm positive understanding, and help to keep engagement with the recruitment process.

In late 2020 we trialled a new approach in ONS , recognising that we needed more opportunity to talk to and listen to our potential future employees. We started running a series of webinars about the Success Profiles application process, to give potential applicants a chance to hear first hand how to apply for and succeed in the Civil Service recruitment framework, and to ask questions to help them with their applications.

Since then we have expanded on that series, to what is now a weekly series covering the whole application and assessment process in bite-size chunks, as well as regular webinars to explain our Disability Confident interviews and reasonable adjustments for applicants and employees.

We even won a CIPD award for our approach in 2021.

We also regularly run webinars as part of our application process, offering applicants a chance to meet the teams they would be working with, and ask questions about the role and working at ONS. you can find details of all our webinars here .

And we don't stop there, my colleagues in recruitment and the Talent Attraction team are regularly taking part in webinar and forum events, from universities and college events to professional forums and panels, giving us an opportunity to share experiences with others, attract a wide audience and support them in applying for roles.

I really enjoy these opportunities to talk to people, it is after all why I got into recruitment in the first place. Next Friday I will be speaking at a forum panel event organised by Apolitical , joined by colleagues from across the Civil Service to talk all things personal statements. Not the first event I've done with Apolitical , and always a big attendee list and lots, and lots, of questions, that's what makes it worthwhile.

You can find a taster of what I will be talking about in a past article about Personal Statements here , and can sign up for the event on the link above. but don't delay, there are only 1000 places on each webinar and they go quickly.

And I'm going to leave you now with a personal favourite, nothing to do with webinars and events, but a song that takes me back, and with a lot of meaning.