Hiring better teams

The recruitment process usually starts with decisions about the suitability of a candidate made based on written CVs or application forms, however, the final decision you and the candidate make will almost certainly come from the actual interview experience. We appreciate that everyone has their own style, but there are a few areas where you can easily enhance the interview experience for everyone.

Conducting effective job interviews not only helps identify candidates with the right skills and experience but also showcases your organisation as a desirable place to work. Interviews are a two-way process, while you assess candidates, they are evaluating your organisation. Success in this aspect builds strong teams, reduces turnover, and addresses skills shortages in the built environment sectors.

This checklist style guide highlights some of the key areas we recommend you focus on:

​Preparation
Understanding the role
Before the interview, have a clear understanding of the role, including technical competencies, key deliverables, and team dynamics. Identify must-have skills, preferred attributes, and cultural alignment.

​Crafting an Employer Value Proposition (EVP)
Your EVP should encapsulate:

• Who you are: define your organisation’s identity.
• What you offer: highlight key benefits like flexible working, professional growth, and mental health support.
• The benefit to employees: showcase how your organisation empowers employees to grow and succeed.

​If you do not have an EVP as defined by your HR team, then consider the same for your team. Use your EVP as the foundation for your elevator pitch and embed it into interview questions.
For example:

 “How would you take advantage of our flexible working practices to balance your work and home life?”
 “Tell us about a time you introduced a creative solution to a complex challenge.”

Choosing the right interview style
Different roles and objectives call for tailored interview formats.

Question techniques and types
Situational Questions
Focus on how candidates would handle hypothetical scenarios:

“You’re tasked with implementing a highway safety improvement under a tight deadline. How would you prioritise tasks?”

Behavioural Questions
Explore past experiences to assess problem-solving and interpersonal skills:

 “Describe a time when you encountered a conflict on a project. How did you resolve it?”
Competency Questions

Gauge specific skills and how they apply them:

“Can you provide an example of how you ensured compliance with UK highway safety standards?”​

Additional question types

• Job knowledge: evaluate technical expertise (e.g., “What transport modelling tools are you experienced with?”)
• Self-evaluation: understand motivations and work preferences (e.g., “How would you describe your management style?”).

Creating a comfortable environment
Build rapport

• Greet candidates warmly and introduce yourself.
• Start with easy, open-ended questions to set a positive tone.

Active listening
Demonstrate engagement using techniques like:

• Echoing: reflecting on candidate responses to encourage elaboration.
• Paraphrasing: restating answers to seek clarification.

Body language
Non-verbal cues like nodding, maintaining eye contact, and leaning forward signal attentiveness and interest.
​
Assessing for cultural fit
A candidate’s alignment with your organisation’s values and culture can be as important as their skills. To evaluate:

• Use behavioural questions (e.g., “Tell us about a time you made a decision based on your values under pressure.”)
• Involve team members in the process to observe interactions.
• Provide office tours to help candidates visualise working with your team.

​Following up after the interview
Communicate Clearly
Provide timely feedback to all candidates to show respect and maintain a positive employer reputation.

Feedback for Unsuccessful Candidates
Deliver rejections sensitively, focusing on encouragement and future opportunities:

“While we’ve chosen to move forward with another candidate, we were impressed by your skills and encourage you to apply for future roles.”

Maintain a talent pipeline
Stay connected with strong candidates who may fit other roles in the future.

The recruitment market experiences peaks and troughs, reflecting wider economic conditions and sensitive to many external factors. This can make hiring challenging and there is a tendency for the process to be largely reactionary. When candidate supply outstrips demand, organisations can ease off certain attraction and retention strategies as they feel they can “have their pick”, and conversely, when there is a talent shortage, there is a tendency to invest more, just at the same time as the competition is doing the same.

This ebb and flow of the market is something that is not unique to any particular industry, but there are nuances. In the built environment sector specifically, in the past few years we have seen a skills shortage in engineering, planning and surveying for example. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for that to change, as we continue to lose people to retirement at one end of the spectrum, and struggle to find and attract suitably qualified professionals to enter the professions. The key to organisation’s success it recognising that hiring is only part of the process, without developing and engaging with our people, they will not thrive.  

This may all sound like a pretty straight-forward strategy, especially if you are an experienced hiring manager or HR professional. But where we believe hiring organisations, can make a significant difference, is to understand the relationship between HR and marketing. Putting measures into place to ensure that the skillsets from each discipline maximise engagement with your current and future employees will only yield positive results. Most importantly, this is an ongoing process and relationship, not something that is wheeled out when the hiring market is tough.  

Employer branding  
Responsibility for employer branding normally sits with HR departments, and in large companies, there may even be dedicated employer branding marketers. However, for SMEs especially, the value of bringing together HR and marketing can be exponential. In our experience, there is a clear delineation of skills that is easy to maintain, but by bringing marketing into the HR process early we have found that the employer brand message is stronger and more authentic. On a practical level, the ROI on talent acquisition and engagement spend is developed jointly and as a result maximised. The company vision and values are more likely to be lived and breathed if they are jointly woven into both departments’ strategies. It has become more of an organic alignment rather than a conscious process driven plan that we have found has resulted in our employers being proud to work for us and are advocates of our values.  

Talent attraction 
We have a slight advantage here, in that we recruit on behalf of our clients, so we are fully versed in the world of finding candidates and everything that entails, including activities such as job board advertising and career events. By involving marketers in the recruitment process, they develop a skillset that is invaluable when applied to developing your message and finding creative and innovative ways to reach your own talent pool. Even something as simple as using copywriting skills to take a great job description and make it into a great job advertisement yields improved results. Another example is how you can jointly manage your careers page and Glassdoor profile or how to focus on winning relevant awards, and local PR to perpetuate a talent attraction message. It is a symbiotic relationship at every stage.  

Employee engagement  
Employee engagement strategies normally sit with senior management and HR, but the missing link is that communications can be enhanced by marketing. The relationship here is more of a linear process, whereby marketing, and other teams such as administration or office management, are brought into the fold when engagement plans are deployed. However, the importance of collecting feedback to ascertain and then improve engagement means internal communications is a two-way process which is the key to encouraging a positive culture. Continual collaboration perpetuates vision and values so they stay at the heart of what you do.  Without collaboration you can’t create a culture of transparency, share and celebrate success across the business or have an inclusive work environment where our employees feel trusted to be and do their best.  
There are many more examples of how marketing and HR should work closely together but they key is to disciplines sit together easily where they need, whilst preserving the integrity of the individual roles and expertise.  

In recent years, skills-based hiring has become a significant talking point in the world of recruitment, especially in sectors like engineering, town planning, building surveying, and other technical roles. But as the UK’s built environment sector grapples with a persistent talent shortage, could this approach be the answer? Let’s explore what skills-based hiring is, why it is gaining traction, and whether it can genuinely help address the talent gap in this critical industry. 

What is skills-based hiring? 
Skills-based hiring is a recruitment strategy that focuses on a candidate's skills and competencies rather than traditional markers such as degrees, job titles, or years of experience. Instead of filtering candidates based on their educational background, employers assess whether candidates can perform the tasks required for the role. For the built environment sector, this might mean testing a candidate’s proficiency with a certain type of software such as CAD software for architecture, evaluating spatial analysis skills for town planning, or assessing a surveyor’s practical knowledge of building pathology. 

Why skills-based hiring is relevant in the built environment sector 
The built environment sector is inherently skills-driven. Engineering demands proficiency in problem-solving and the use of specific software. Town planning requires spatial analysis, knowledge of planning regulations, and community engagement skills. Building surveying relies on a solid understanding of building pathology and regulatory compliance, while architecture is heavily dependent on creative design skills and CAD proficiency. 
These technical competencies are critical for success in these roles. But with the sector facing a talent shortage, traditional hiring methods that prioritise degrees or years of experience may be limiting access to a broader talent pool. Skills-based hiring offers an alternative, potentially enabling employers to find capable candidates who may not have followed conventional career paths. 

The acse for skills-based hiring 
Advocates of skills-based hiring argue that this approach has several advantages. First, it opens the door to a wider talent pool by attracting candidates who may not have traditional qualifications but possess the skills needed for the job. This is especially important in a sector where demand for talent often exceeds supply. 

Secondly, it can enhance diversity. By moving away from a focus on specific universities, degree types, or rigid experience requirements, employers can create a more inclusive workforce. This is particularly beneficial in an industry that has historically struggled with diversity. 

Moreover, skills-based hiring has the potential to improve job performance. Candidates are chosen based on proven abilities rather than assumptions about their capability based on their CV. As a result, employees are more likely to succeed in their roles and remain with the company for longer. 

Finally, it fosters adaptability. In a sector like engineering, where technology and practices are constantly evolving, hiring candidates with proven skills means that teams are better prepared to keep up with industry changes. 

The challenges of skills-based hiring 
However, skills-based hiring is not without its challenges. One of the biggest hurdles is designing effective skills assessments. Poorly designed tests can lead to misleading results, and there is a risk of introducing bias if the assessments do not account for different learning styles or backgrounds. 

Another concern is the potential for skills gaps. Focusing solely on technical skills may mean overlooking candidates who lack theoretical knowledge or critical thinking abilities, which are often developed through formal education. This is especially relevant in fields like architecture, where a deep understanding of design principles is essential. 

Additionally, some employers may resist this approach, especially in sectors like architecture or surveying, where professional qualifications are highly valued. These employers may question whether candidates who bypassed formal education have the depth of knowledge required for complex projects. 

There is also the challenge of ensuring that skills-based hiring supports long-term career development. A candidate who is hired solely for their current skills may struggle to progress if they lack the foundational knowledge needed to advance in their field. 

Can skills-based hiring solve the talent shortage? 
So, can skills-based hiring help overcome the talent shortage in the UK’s built environment sector? The answer is partly. 

Skills-based hiring has the potential to open up the talent pool, making it easier for employers to find capable candidates who might otherwise have been overlooked. It can also support greater diversity and lead to better job performance by focusing on what candidates can do rather than where they have studied or how long they have worked. 

However, it is not a silver bullet. To be effective, skills-based hiring must be part of a balanced approach. Employers should combine it with other hiring methods, such as considering professional qualifications, work experience, and a candidate’s ability to learn and adapt. 

In the end, the solution to the talent shortage in the built environment sector is likely to be multifaceted. Skills-based hiring is an important tool in the recruitment toolkit, but it should be used alongside other methods to ensure that teams are not only capable but also well-rounded and prepared for the challenges of the future.