In accordance with Clause 29 of the JSE Policy, JSE candidates must be considered and assessed using the Robust Assessment Guidelines prior to consideration of external applicants. This requirement only applies in the case of immediate concurrent advertising and not when the role has been advertised externally in parallel with the JSE as a second round. This clause will be reviewed at the end of June 2022 to determine if it needs to be continued.
The Robust Assessment Guidelines states that applicants that meet 70% of the overall requirements of the role, including all mandatory requirements, at the completion of the assessment process (i.e. post referee checks) and are first in the order of merit must be deemed suitable for the role.
Whilst the completion of the assessment process is said to be ‘post referee checks’, assessment can take place at shortlisting, interview and when completing reference checks. There is no obligation to continue assessment beyond shortlisting (or interview, or reference checking) if it becomes evident that a candidate does not possess the required skills and/or potential for development. At that point, the assessment is complete, and the external candidates can be considered and assessed.
Conversely, a JSE candidate who is considered and assessed after reference checks to meet 70% of the overall requirements of the role, including all mandatory requirements and are first in the order of merit must be deemed to be suitable for the role and external candidates would not then be considered.
The selection report should detail the merit-based selection process, justify the selection outcome and define the criteria against which the successful candidates met the requirements to a greater extent than other shortlisted. In circumstances where the recruitment process was unsuccessful in selecting a candidate, the selection report must outline how a shortlisted candidate not recommended for appointment fell below 70% of the overall requirements of the role. The report should also provide a statement summarising the key reasons why other candidates were not suitable.
When a suitable candidate has been identified, unsuccessful JSE and external candidates should be notified of the proposed appointment and the 7 day grievance period will commence for all unsuccessful VPS candidates.