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As our Recruitment Manager, you will support the delivery of Public Practice’s recruitment activity across the organisation.

The role is split across four connected areas of work. You will use your people and communication skills to build meaningful relationships with prospective clients throughout their journey. You will use your organisational skills to manage our candidate recruitment, assessment and selection processes, and support occasional event management. You will use your attention to detail to match successful candidates with placement opportunities to a high and consistent standard. You will also use your technical confidence and data management skills to support the development and embedding of artificial intelligence (AI) across our recruitment processes.

You will be managed by the Head of Recruitment and will work closely with the Programmes Team to ensure alignment across recruitment, delivery and organisational priorities. You will also regularly meet and collaborate with colleagues from across the organisation.

This role comes at an important point in Public Practice’s development. Over the next three years, we plan to expand our recruitment and organisational design services to drive deeper systems change through our work. This role will help us sustain the quality and consistency of our existing recruitment activity while improving our systems, processes and use of technology.

Customer Service and Relationship Management (25%)

Respond to prospective clients at various stages of the client journey and progress them through our matching process.

• Building rapport and credibility with contacts at local authorities
• Booking meetings for the Head of Recruitment and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
• Logging and tracking activity, meetings, follow-ups, candidate engagement and outcomes

Business Development Support and Collaboration (15%)

Support broader proactive business development activity and cross-team collaboration.

• Contributing to lead-generating activity, including email and digital campaigns, webinars and events
• Preparing proposals, presentations and written materials
• Following up consistently to nurture relationships and move prospects through the early stages of the pipeline

Recruitment and Assessment Management (10%)

Support the delivery of our bi-annual online assessment process for the Associate Programme. From the initial online application and assessments through to their entry into the candidate pool.

• Conducting eligibility checks on applications
• Managing the marking of applications across a team of markers
• Supporting the delivery of candidate information sessions
• Recruiting and scheduling assessors from our community of Alums
• Scheduling assessments and supporting adjustments
• Creating and updating website and Applicant Pack content

Candidate Communications and Engagement (15%)

Manage communication with our candidate pool, ensuring candidates are informed, engaged and have a positive experience.

• Acting as a key point of contact for candidates
• Communicating clearly about opportunities, timelines and next steps
• Building trusting relationships through responsive and supportive communication
• Responding to candidate queries and escalating where needed
• Maintaining accurate candidate records in the customer relationship management (CRM) system

AI and Continuous Improvement (20%)

Ensure systems and digital tools are used effectively to manage relationships, track activity and support reporting. You will proactively design AI into our workflows and processes with the Head of Recruitment.

• Using digital tools confidently to manage information and workflows
• Maintaining high-quality, accurate data for reporting and forecasting
• Identifying opportunities to introduce AI into recruitment processes, then helping to design, monitor and maintain these improvements

Reporting and Performance Support (5%)

Support the Head of Recruitment with reporting, forecasting and improving outreach effectiveness.

• Producing regular reports on outreach activity, meetings booked, pipeline health and candidate engagement
• Supporting collaborative forecasting
• Using data insights to refine outreach approaches and improve conversion rates

Team Contribution (10%)

The other 10% of your time will be covered by central business activity, such as planning, team meetings and professional learning and development.

Each team member has individual quarterly objectives that they are responsible for delivering and reporting on during our weekly team meeting. Your line manager will work with you to set and achieve these objectives, and will provide regular one-to-ones to ensure you have what you need to be successful in the role.

We care about what you can do now and how quickly you can learn. It does not matter how you got here, which is why we do not ask for CVs, degrees or educational background.

For this role, we are specifically looking to see the following skills and attributes, and will assess all candidates against the following core skills.

Alongside these core attributes, we would also value:

• A genuine interest in Public Practice’s mission and values, and motivation to build ethical, purpose-driven partnerships.
• An interest in the built environment and public sector. While you may not have a background in the sector, you are motivated by the impact that great places and public service can have on communities.
• A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. You understand the value of inclusive practices and are committed to supporting equitable cultures, processes and experiences.
• Please note that Public Practice, as a micro-organisation, cannot offer visa sponsorship. Applicants must have the unrestricted right to work in the United Kingdom at the time of application. Candidates requiring visa sponsorship are not eligible for this role.

• We work a 9-Day-Fortnight for ten months of the year, which means you get every other Friday off with no reduction to your salary.
• We work from our office in Clerkenwell, London, two days per week, on Mondays and Wednesdays.
• 27 days of holiday per year, excluding bank holidays.
• A flexible working policy that allows employees to work the hours that work for them.
• A remote working policy that allows employees to work abroad for two months of the year, in August and December.
• 5% employer’s pension contribution.
• Enhanced sick, maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
• £600 annual training budget and up to four professional development days a year.
• Employee perks budget provided by With Juno monthly.

Our hiring process assesses a candidate’s ability to meet the attributes we think are necessary for someone to do well in the role. We are also interested in a candidate’s motivation and interest in working at Public Practice and in a small company team.

We do not review CVs or a candidate’s educational background when making hiring decisions.

We remove as much bias as possible during our hiring process. Candidates remain anonymous to assessors at the written application stage and are marked against pre-set criteria. We also aim to collect and provide as much feedback as possible to applicants at each stage of the process.

Please email info@publicpractice.org.uk with any questions you have about this opportunity, applying for it, or arranging a time to speak to the hiring lead.

We try to make our hiring process as inclusive and accessible as we can. This includes providing everyone with:

• The themes of each interview question in advance
• Closed captions for online interviews
• Questions in written as well as verbal format
• A range of interview times where possible, to work around work, caring and religious commitments
• A wheelchair-accessible venue for in-person interviews
• A quiet space before and after the in-person interview, where possible

When completing your application, you will be asked if you would like any additional access adjustments we offer, or whether there is something not listed that you would value.

Please note that we do not accept applications outside the online application system unless this is needed for an access requirement. Please email info@publicpractice.org.uk for more information.

The first stage of the application process asks candidates to answer four questions, which will then be scored anonymously by three Public Practice colleagues.

The online form also asks for some additional information to be submitted. This data will not be shared with those assessing your application.

The four questions are:

1. Why do you want to work for Public Practice, and what motivates you to apply for the role of Recruitment Manager at this point in your career?
   1500 character limit, approximately 250 words.
2. Can you share an example of when you used your people and communication skills to build meaningful relationships with prospective clients? How did you approach this, and what did you find the most challenging aspect?
   1000 character limit, approximately 180 words.
3. Can you share an example of when you used your technical confidence and data management skills to improve a process? What steps did you take, and what was the outcome?
   1000 character limit, approximately 180 words.
4. What do you think might be one of the key challenges of working with clients in local government, and how have your experience or knowledge shaped your perspective?
   1000 character limit, approximately 180 words.

Whilst we are looking for a candidate who can use the latest tools and software to deliver high-quality work, in our hiring process it is important for us to get to know candidates and assess their skills and motivations.

We strongly recommend that candidates who use software to help check the grammar and structure of their answers also ensure that AI software and support do not inadvertently turn answers into generic responses or remove their tone and authenticity.

Be aware that when assessors review applications, they will compare them to examples produced by AI.