- All council jobs are advertised on the national recruitment site MyJobScotland. When we post a job there, it is also shared automatically on several other recruitment websites including S1Jobs, TotalJobs, FindaJob and ForcesFamilies. Other jobs boards may also pick up jobs from MyJobScotland who wish post them.
- When an applicant clicks ‘View’, they are taken to the iTrent systems recruitment portal to complete their application.
- Job adverts are published every day. Education posts close on a Friday.
- Services can choose to advertise jobs on additional websites, such as professional or industry‑specific publications. These extra adverts must be organised and paid for by the service.
- All council services can contact the Communications Team for advice on using social media to promote vacancies (for example, LinkedIn or Facebook). Help creating and promoting your vacancy – My Council Works
- Other ways to promote vacancies include community newsletters, professional online groups, or contacting local schools and colleges. The Developing the Young Workforce Team can help promote “Growing Our Own” roles such as Modern Apprenticeships or Trainee posts. The HROD team also represents the council at career events, which can be a good way to advertise jobs.
- For HSCP (Health and Social Care Partnership) posts, promotion is also carried out by the NHS Communications Team, and services should contact them for support.
Job adverts are not routinely placed in local newspapers or publications, but you can choose to do this in required circumstances. It is your responsibility to arrange and pay for the advert in the local press or publication, and to decide on an appropriate closing date.
If you do want to advertise a job in the local press or other publication, you should notify HR by email to ensure that the advertising dates are aligned.
Email HR‑recruitment@argyll-bute.gov.uk and include:
- The Job title
- The requisition number
- The start date of advertisement
HR will match your email with the authorisation in iTrent and will contact you before they process the vacancy.
You must use PECOS to place and pay for the advert with the publication you choose.
- You should write your job advert at the same time as reviewing and updating the JDPS. This helps make sure the advert highlights the most important parts of the role.
- To help you write the advert, supporting information has been created. This includes required wording and suggested wording to help promote both the job and working for Argyll and Bute Council. (Insert link to the guidance on MyCouncilWorks.) Within iTrent there are prepopulated templates which contain highlighted areas for recruiting managers to update or remove as appropriate.
- Your job advert must also include the dates or timescales for interviews.
- All job adverts must include the recruiting manager’s contact details so potential applicants can get in touch with questions. These enquiries should always be handled fairly and consistently.
All vacancies are created and managed in the iTrent system.
Every vacancy must go through an approval process. This includes; Third Tier Manager, Finance and HROD.
Everyone involved in approving posts should be aware that delays slow down the whole recruitment process. Approvals should be completed as quickly as possible.
HSCP council vacancies have a separate approval procedure. This includes completing an authorisation to recruit form, which must be sent through the appropriate Social Work Admin Officer. Recruiting managers can access this form on the HSCP SharePoint site under HSCP – Recruitment & HR – All Documents.
Teaching posts follow separate recruitment procedures, which are managed by the Education support team centrally. Vacancies are added by the central team.
- The application form is designed to help applicants show clearly how they meet the criteria in the person specification. Each requirement has its own section where applicants explain how they meet it. There is also a section where they describe how their behaviour matches the Connect for Success principles.
- There is a separate application form for teaching posts, and it also includes a section for applicants to show how they meet the Connect for Success principles.
- Modern Apprentice and Summer Student posts also have separate application forms, which focus on the skills level and remits of these roles specifically.
Under the Council’s Equality and Diversity Policy, the Council promises to offer an interview to any applicant who:
- confirms they have a disability
- asks to be considered under the guaranteed interview scheme
- and meets all the essential requirements for the job
As the recruiting manager, you must carefully check the application forms of any disabled applicants to make sure they meet these conditions. iTrent will highlight these applicants with a flag at the shortlisting stage.
If you decide not to invite a disabled applicant to interview, you must record the reason as part of the shortlisting process.
- Under the Equality Act 2010, as an employer, we must make reasonable adjustments for disabled applicants, so they’re not put at a disadvantage during recruitment. This applies to every part of the process, including interviews.
- Reasonable adjustments are changes we make to remove or reduce barriers for applicants with disabilities. There is no standard list of adjustments, each request should be considered individually, based on the person’s needs.
- You should refer to the Reasonable Adjustments for Recruitment Guide for support and can contact the Employee Relations Team if they need further advice.
- If a job has been recognised as hard to fill, you can request permission to offer a short‑term incentive to help attract applicants. At the moment, this includes the option to offer a Market Supplement.
- For more information, please see the separate Market Supplement Guidance
- The council can also offer a relocation package to successful applicants, as allowed by HM Revenue and Customs. This can be offered for any council job if it will help address recruitment difficulties.
- If a relocation package is being offered, this must be stated clearly in the job advert and must follow the council’s Relocation Policy.
- For full details, please refer to the separate Relocation Policy.
- Information for applicants must be attached to every job vacancy. The old “information for applicants” document has now been replaced with online content, and the link to this information should be included in the job advert: Our employee benefits | Argyll and Bute Council