I am informed by publicjobs that they carry out the recruitment for many roles across the civil and public sector. publicjobs does not carry out all the recruitment across the public service, and different sectors and departments may use their own approaches or processes when carrying out their own recruitment depending on the role in question, numbers of applications, availability of different assessments, etc.
Typically, the general service roles for which publicjobs recruit have a large volume of applicants. Questionnaires and tests are used as an initial stage to assess candidates objectively and in a way that is shown to predict performance. For its entry level clerical roles, e.g. Temporary Clerical Officer and Clerical Officer, as part of the application process candidates are asked a range of questions about their skills, preferences and situational judgement items which are scored. These questions may be completed on a mobile phone. Candidates for senior roles fill out detailed application forms which are typically shortlisted and these may also be completed on a mobile phone.
For some other roles such as Executive Officer, Higher Executive Officer, Assistant Principal and Principal Officer, aptitude tests are used and completed online. These may include a verbal test, numerical test and/or situational judgement test. These tests are “proctored” or supervised to ensure that they are being completed by the candidate without assistance which would render the process invalid and unfair. Either the candidate is recorded taking the test and this is reviewed at a later date, or the tests are live-proctored, with someone observing the candidate for the duration. Access to a personal computer with a webcam is required for proctoring; it is not possible to proctor on a mobile phone. This approach allows publicjobs to assess many thousands of candidates without requiring them to come to in-person testing but while ensuring the security and fairness of the tests and is a very common approach used in recruitment.
