Does anyone know a good scribe? This is a question I heard so many times when working in government. I didn’t know anyone at the time and neither did my colleagues.

Recruitment panel scribing is one of my services at On The Same Page Consulting. I know how valuable it is to busy managers and recruiters in government. 

When I was planning to start my business, I asked my best friend, who has done her fair share of scribing, whether she remembered being asked “does anyone know a scribe?”. She pulled me up and told that me that a KEY word was missing. She said that the question is “does anyone know a GOOD scribe?”.

In that conversation she told me that there were plenty of stories of others finding a scribe, paying the money to save time, and then having to re-write the report themselves anyway. I was flabbergasted. We have both done scribing at work but I didn't realise this actually happened. 

It would be annoying to go to the effort to outsource the work and then have to fix it anyway. 

Another HR professional I know offered me some advice about the main points to produce good products when scribing. He is a great guy and so generous. 

But these opinions got me thinking.

Not all scribing is outsourced.

Sometimes it is done by Executive Support staff (like I was) or HR staff (like my best friend was). So how do those people know what to put in the reports? How do they learn how to scribe?  

So I decided to write this blog and share my knowledge. Hopefully it will be a help to someone. 

So, let me share some of my knowledge. 

I think the chair of a recruitment panel needs the following in a good scribe:

• recent experience in recruitment

• understanding about the responsibility on the chair of recruitment panels

• understanding that the chair is usually in a busy role and has a lot of other work to do, let alone this extra work reading, analysing and assessing applications against the criteria

• ability to offer guidance and support when the process is not going smoothly or is complicated

• ability to see gaps in the applications and process and confidence to raise with the chair

• understanding of concepts of natural justice and procedural fairness

• understanding of the special measures processes and requirements

• ability to get the report to the quality required for submission within required timeframes.  

That’s not an exhaustive list. Other things that are helpful are knowing the process back to front; developing templates for the panel members, questions for referees and interviewees; and following up on those hard to land pieces like appointments, referee reports or signatures on the final report.

If you are interested in being a scribe for a recruitment panel - I highly recommend that you volunteer yourself. It is a very interesting process where you will learn a lot. 

However, scribing is not just writing down everything that is said. The key to being a good scribe is taking the gold nuggets out of the conversation and using them to match the applicants with the selection criteria on the job description and to the job itself. Conciseness is the key. 

I have a good stepped out method that I have developed over the years that I have been involved in recruitment panels. Drop me an email and I’d be happy to share it with you.

If you are reading this because you are looking for a GOOD scribe, I ‘d love to help. (Unless I have a conflict of interest that is - and then I am going to refer you to a colleague. #integrity is one of my business’s key values).

If you do engage me, you can see what I think is important and I guarantee you will receive a report ready to submit and I will do the reworks needed to get it there.

If you are recruiting (or calling for tenders) now, or in the future - give me a call on 0419827967 or email me at conni.warren@onthesamepageconsulting.com.

With a few quick questions, I can provide you a quote and then off we go. 

Conni