Research Case Studies

Research into Recruitment Process

BCL has recently been commissioned by a large government department to undertake a confidential review of the recruitment policy and procedure for a range of specialist roles.

This involved:

Qualitative research : 1:1 interviews with a range of people currently carrying out these roles and their colleagues
Quantitative research: distribution of a questionnaire to a larger sample of job holders and others who work with them.

Qualitative research

We designed a semi structured interview format in close collaboration with the client, in compliance with their internal guidelines and standards. Senior managers were asked to identify a range of job holders based on specific criteria around their experiences in order to ensure that a representative sample was sought. The interviewee focused on identifying and analysing Critical Incidents which the interviewee had been involved in, and then exploring their perceptions of what were the important contributors to individual and team success.

Interviews were written up and content analysed, to identify themes and differences between responses of various subgroups of interviewees.

Quantitative

We adapted an existing questionnaire previously used by the client to assess particular key aspects of the role, focussed around team working in mixed specialist and non specialist teams. The questionnaire was sent to all those known to have carried out the specialist roles in the last few years, and a random sample of those who had worked closely with them in teams. Responses were analysed using SPSS to identify the key influences on effective team working and any differences in perceptions between specialists and non specialists.

For further information on our Research programmes please email sandra.buckley@berkshire.co.uk or call a member of our team on 0118 932 3580.