Recruitment process and costs relating to the role of Head of Scotland House: FOI release

Information requested

You asked:

Could you supply the full costs of the recruitment process to select the new head of Scotland House London, as well as how many applied and who was selected, with a full breakdown of the costs?

Response

The answer to your question is:

The Head of Scotland House (SCS1) role was advertised in August 2024. The role was advertised internally and therefore there was no advertising spend. The recruitment and promotion of Senior Civil Servants must include a robust selection process. Standards for hiring Senior Civil Servants (SCS) are set by UK Cabinet Office. These include the use of additional forms of assessment including psychological assessment, which have supplemented interviews for SCS for over 10 years. Academic research suggests that interviews alone are a poor predictor of future job performance, and supplementing interviews with other forms of assessments, including psychological, strengthens hiring decisions. The Scottish Government have a contract with the Keil Centre for Psychometric Assessments - the spend for assessment and post-assessment feedback for this campaign was £3,810 + VAT.

A total of 5 applicants were received, 3 people interviewed and the successful candidate was Mark Boyce.

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