Our Interview Process

The Right Fit

We are extremely proud of our working culture. We foster innovation, creativity and excellence in all our employees.

Recruiting our people is crucial to our ability to support customers, and therefore to meet our own business targets.

We have robust methods for finding potential talent and proven processes for selecting the right individuals to meet our own and our customers’ needs.

Throughout the interview process, we are scrupulous in disregarding anything other than an individual’s fitness for the role and for CPS.

We avoid conscious or unconscious bias of any kind. Where we find diversity in our successful recruits, we are delighted; people’s different backgrounds and cultures can help to enrich our culture.

Starting The Process

Seeking our talent
Depending on the role and urgency to fill it, we search the employment market directly to find quality candidates or work with trusted recruitment partners.

Fair to all
When we go directly to market we use a platform that reaches a wide and diverse range of candidates, easily accessible from all over the UK. We require our recruitment partners to adopt the same approach to their searches.

Reviewing applications
Every application and CV is considered jointly by relevant line managers and HR, and candidates are selected for the first step in the interview process.

Interviewing

Informal exchange with selected candidates
We find that moving too quickly to a formal interview can be unproductive. Sometimes applicants don’t know enough about the role to engage in an in-depth interview. They might even realise too late that the role is not what they want.

To overcome this, we set up an initial Teams meeting with a member of the business team. This helps the applicant discover more about the role and CPS. It also helps us find out if the candidate is likely to fit into our culture.

Main interview
If the candidate ‘feels’ right and likes what they hear about us, they will be invited for an in-depth interview. This will be with a line manager and, if the role is technical, a colleague with competence in that area. Candidates will be asked to prepare a presentation or some other input to help the assessment process.

Assessment and Selection

Talent assessment
Successful candidates are asked to complete a set of behaviour, aptitude and personality assessments and are then invited to an HR interview. This process provides HR with a clearer view on whether the candidate is the right fit for CPS, with strengths to evolve or areas to address through learning & development.

It also sets the bar for a regular assessment that all colleagues have annually, enabling HR to help develop a relevant learning programme. The HR interview gives the candidate the chance to pin down queries about salary, availability, mobility and so on.

Final selection
We now have the depth and breadth of information we need for each candidate. The line manager for the role and HR will discuss whether the applicant has been successful and whether any concerns need to be addressed. If there is an agreement in the team the candidate is appointed.