How we hire
You'll already share our commitment to making a difference to education. Beyond that, what else do you need to have? We look for a number of key competencies depending on the role you're applying for. They could be problem solving, creative thinking, leadership, adaptability or even listening.
Here you'll find hints and tips to help you perform at your best all the way through, so it's worth taking some time to become familiar with them before selection starts.
Our selection process
Click each section to reveal more details.
Your application
Once you've found a role you want to apply for, just click on 'Apply Now' at the bottom of the job advert and you'll go through to our online recruitment system. You'll need to fill in a short application form with some additional details and attach your CV.
Really look into the role you're applying for and check that your skills and experience are what we're looking for.
Make sure your CV is accurate and up to date and check it for spelling mistakes and any other errors.
Read the questions and answer them as accurately as you can.
First interview
If we want to find out more about you, a phone call is the next step. We'll email you with a link so that you can book a time on our system. The call will take up to 30 minutes and will be as much about our behaviours as it'll be about your own skills and experience. We'll also ask you what interests you about the role and working for us.
Look through the job description and your CV before the call. We'll ask you questions relating to both, so it'll be helpful to have positive work experiences and key personal achievements fresh in your mind.
Why not see if your friends and family can ask you some interview questions in preparation? It's good practice and gives you the opportunity to make sure you talk about and highlight the best work examples.
Treat it like a face-to-face interview. It may be a phone call, but it'll determine whether you go through to the next stage.
Remember to research us, what we do and our culture. We'll ask you why you want to join us and why your skills and experience are a good match for the role.
Ask questions. It shows you're genuinely interested in our business, and gives you the chance to make sure the role is right for you.
The second interview
This usually starts with a role-related scenario or series of work-related challenges or questions which we will send you before your interview. We're not necessarily assessing your presentation skills; the task is really designed to let you apply your own skills, experience and know-how to the work context we're recruiting for. The rest of the interview will mostly be exploring your skills and experience through behavioural based questions. We'll also tell you more about the role and your responsibilities and you'll have plenty of time to ask questions too.
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Please ensure you bring any requested documentation or certificates with you to the interview. We'll let you know if there are any specific documents we need to see, but for all candidates we require proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. Please also bring copies of any certificates for relevant qualifications for the role.
The recruitment team member who's handling your application will be more than happy to give you feedback on your earlier phone interview and guide you through what to expect on interview day.
Refresh yourself on the questions from the phone interview and the answers you gave and look at the key requirements of the role so that you can think of examples that you can talk through on the day. Use the STAR system:
Situation: Describe the situation and what happened.
Task: Outline the task you were given and describe the role you took to complete the task.
Action: Detail the specific and relevant steps that you took and/or the things that you said that ensured a positive outcome.
Result: Explain the outcome of your actions and your learning points.
Think about the examples you gave during the phone interview and whether you have any stronger ones. It's fine to change them. Remember that it's usually best to say what you did and not what 'we' did. Specifics are good.
Be ready to talk about your career aspirations, education, strengths and weaknesses. Clear, concise questions at the end of the interview will help you understand much more about the role.
Finally, we're interested in you and your personality. Don't keep it to yourself on the day.
Whether you are successful or not, we'll give you feedback and ask you for feedback too, so that we can all identify areas that we could improve on. We will let you know the outcome of your interview by email initially so that you can access this information at a time and place convenient to you; we are conscious that the majority of candidates may be at work in their current role when we first contact them. We are also very much aware that you may want time to digest the decision before finding out more. We appreciate the time and effort you will have invested in our process so we would love the opportunity to provide you with more detailed interview feedback if you would like us to. We will endeavour to provide detailed feedback within a week of your request.
Offer and Onboarding
If you're successful, we'll make you a verbal offer of employment and follow up with an offer letter and contract. Once you have accepted our offer, our People Services team will contact you to arrange your onboarding. There will also be some short tasks you have to complete through your Recruitment portal and we'll carry out several checks before finalising your employment. We take the security of your personal data very seriously, and information on how your data is managed and protected can be found in our Privacy Policy.
Your offer will be sent via our recruitment portal where you can review the details and sign. If you have any questions, please contact your Recruitment contact.
We will ask you to complete some tasks that are needed for us to get you set up as an RM employee including next of kin details, contact details, and for the UK, provide your P45.
Your pre-employment checks will depend on the role you will be joining us in. All roles require a Right to Work check and we use a third party, Zinc (UK) and Trackcheck (India), to complete these on our behalf.
We can consider sponsorship for certain roles on a case-by-case basis. Generally, our job postings will indicate if a position will not be considered for sponsorship.
For our colleagues who are school-based or regularly in schools, we follow a Safer Recruitment process so we will require an Enhanced DBS and additional background checks and again Zinc will complete these for us. You will receive an email from Zinc to create a profile with them and to complete your checks.
We will only complete these a DBS after an offer of employment has been made, If you have any questions about these or what to expect, your Recruitment contact can talk you through this.
We also have other roles which may require additional checks depending on the nature of the role. We will talk you through what the requirements are for your role.
At the onboarding stage we will request details of your references. One of these must be your current or most recent employer or educational establishment. With your permission, Zinc will contact these references to confirm your employment.
We won’t contact your references until a formal offer of employment has been made and accepted.
If you have any more questions on this, you can speak to your Recruiter or contact peopleservices@rm.com.
Once all your pre employment checks have been completed, we can confirm a start date and your exciting journey with RM is ready to start!