Getting to the bottom of it. August 24, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , add a comment
In my last post I wrote about a job advertised by Midlothian Council. My hunch was that for whatever reason a mistake had been made when advertising the post.
At the time I had emailed their personnel department to confirm all the details were right and was given the assurance that there was nothing wrong in with the ad, thats why I mentioned it in my blog
Today I was contacted by a technician who had probed a little further. They were sufficiently concerned about the possibility of current Senior Technicians taking out grievances against Midlothian Council that they had been insistent in contacting a senior member of personnel staff to discuss the matter.
They immediately realised that there was a problem and contacted the school. This in turn apparently started a blame war, with personnel accusing the school for the mistake and vice versa.
Anyway, the upshot of it is that the post will be re advertised as a full time post and although their website still states the closing day as Friday the 24th the information pack when downloaded from the website states the closing date as 14th September.
Someone the other day asked why I bothered to mention it in the first place. Well, the reason is that I care passionately about my profession. I feel that if employers cant even take the time to ensure that the correct information for their technical support staff vacancies is available then it (1) shows a lack of respect for the important job we do and (2) shows a lack of organisation within the councils technical support service.
Technorati Tags: midlothian council, senior technician
Should we all be working for Midlothian? August 2, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 2comments
Flicking as I do through the jobs pages of the local councils. I found an advert for a senior technician at Lasswade High School.
Quite amazing really. Over £21k for 30hrs a week and sessional to boot. With no mention of the salary being pro rata that would work out at around £31k a year for a non sessional 35hrs a week post !!!
So whats happened, have Midlothian decided to up its pay rates for technicians? Or have they simply made a mistake? I am guessing the latter of the two.
Advertising for technical support staff within the Lothians has always been something of a hit and miss affair.
Because there’s no one in overall charge of the technician service, personnel departments tend to use outdated job descriptions that hark back to the last technician review nearly twenty years ago. Our posts are often administered by staff who have are not familiar with our jobs and therefore mistakes in the advertising can be made.
So whats to be done? If councils want quality staff then the quality of their advertisments has to be high. That will only happen if and when technical support staff are involved in the recruitment process and outside agencies such as SSERC and STAG are brought into advise about qualifications and duties needed for the post.
If a council cant be bothered to get its facts right at the recruitment stage then it doesn’t give the impression that its trying to recruit the very best person for the job.
Technorati Tags: midlothian, council, support staff
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