A statutory commission: Nine roles, three months, a deadline that could not move

The problem

Nine roles at once, across education, policy, practice assurance, regulatory operations, triage, investigations, analytics and frontline enquiries. A new regulatory framework to stand up from scratch. A commencement date written into legislation, which meant it could not move for any reason. All of it under public attention, in an environment of active reform.

The commission's own people were the ones implementing the reform. Every hour they spent on recruitment administration was an hour not spent on the thing the deadline was actually about.

They told us they did not expect it to be done in time.

What we did about it

We did not run nine recruitment campaigns. We ran one program with nine moving parts, which is a different job.

We held all nine at once so nobody else had to. Nine campaigns at nine different stages, each needing something on the same morning. The difficulty of multi-role recruitment is not complexity, it is simultaneity, and no single person can hold that alongside a day job.

We compressed the stage where time disappears. Shortlist to selection report averaged 11.6 business days across all nine roles. In most campaigns that stretch depends entirely on someone finding a clear run of hours, which is exactly the thing nobody has mid-reform.

We stopped the drop-off. Nine simultaneous campaigns is nine chances to lose a preferred candidate to silence or a counter-offer. We kept candidates engaged throughout and held preferred candidates through offer, counter-offer and transition.

We made every decision defensible. Thirty-seven interviews coordinated and nine selection reports delivered, each panel given the documented evidence to decide on merit and to stand behind that decision afterwards.

How the time saving was calculated, so you can check it

The "more than 50 percent" time saving is an estimate and here is the basis of it rather than the headline alone.

We would rather show the working than ask you to accept the number. If the method does not convince you, the number should not either.

What we would tell you honestly

This worked because the commission made decisions quickly. An 11.6 business day average from shortlist to report is not something a supplier achieves alone. It requires panels that sit when scheduled and decisions that come back without a fortnight's delay. Their people were responsive, and that is half the story. If your organisation cannot free up panel members inside a week, the same program would take longer, and we would say so before starting rather than afterwards.

How the process stood up

Nine concurrent campaigns create nine sets of records and nine opportunities for inconsistency. Every applicant was documented, including those not progressed. Questions were structured. A scribe recorded each interview. Nine selection reports were delivered to the commission's own reporting requirements, so that any one of them could be examined on its own terms.