Recruitment Frequently Asked Questions

We are committed to making YHN a great place to work, so as well as competitive salaries we offer a range of benefits to all of our staff.

• Work life balance: We are committed to introducing policies that will enable employees to achieve a balance between work and caring or family responsibilities; benefiting both us and you! Our vacancies are open to job share applicants, although there may be rare occasions where this is not deemed appropriate for the role being advertised.
• Pension scheme: We have a final salary pension scheme which you can join as soon as you start with us. The contribution figures change each year and are currently between 5.5% and 7.5% of your pay.
• Annual leave: We offer very generous leave entitlement that takes account of previous service at YHN or continuous service from certain other employers, leading to a maximum of 28 days leave per year in addition to Public Holiday entitlement.
• Flexi time: With no core times, you can work at any time during office opening hours (typically 07.00 until 19.00, subject to business needs). Once you have worked your contracted weekly hours, any additional time worked can be taken as ‘flexi’ time. Where possible flexi time can be used to take a little extra time off work, or to enable you to start a little later or finish earlier. You can also use your time to take up to 2 days flexi leave in any 4 week period.
• Development: We have a training team dedicated to developing programs that will help you both personally and professionally. When you join us, you will take part in an induction program and will also be enrolled in various training programs that we run throughout the year.
• Continuous service: When joining YHN, if you qualify for continuous service, any time you spent with a local authority organisation or any other organisation covered by the Modification Order, continuous service will be added to your time in employment with us
• Employee Benefits Schemes: We have a whole host of benefits available in addition to the above including our Bike to Work Scheme, Child Care Vouchers, Employee Assistance Programme, Car Lease Scheme. Further information can be found via this link YHN Benefits and Rewards
• Staff Network Groups: Our Staff Network Groups ensure staff can discuss any issues which may affect them in a safe and welcoming environment and ensure equality issues are embedded and included within YHN’s policies and procedures. We currently have four groups:
  • LGBT Staff Network Group
  • Multicultural Staff Network Group
  • Disabled Staff Network Group
  • YHN Allies Group

All our vacancies are advertised on the North East Jobs recruitment portal. You can view our advertised vacancies by clicking on the list of employers on the North East Jobs homepage and selecting Your Homes Newcastle. Please note: we accept online applications only and do not accept CV's or application forms in any other format. If you are unable to submit an online application form please contact us on 0191 211 5203 or at yhnjobs@newcastle.gov.uk Application advice Your Homes Newcastle uses a competency as a framework for assessment in recruitment and selection. The competencies section in our online application form asks you to give details of how you meet the key competencies for the role that you are applying for.

A competency describes the skills and behaviours needed to effectively perform in a role. All of YHN’s job descriptions detail the core competencies that are required in all of our jobs. Our core competencies are split into: Organisational competencies (apply to all YHN roles and employees):

• Personal
• People
• Business
• Management (this will only be relevant if the role has management responsibility)

Position specific competency (apply to the specific job that you are applying for):

• Technical. You have a higher word count for the Technical competency. This is so you can demonstrate fully how you meet the requirements for the role you are applying for.

In addition to the competencies, applicants should demonstrate that they possess an understanding of our five core values (highlighted with a V on the job description). The five core values are:

• Accountability – acts openly and takes responsibility
• Integrity – acts fairly and honestly
• Passion – works positively and with enthusiasm
• Respect – treats everyone with care and professionalism
• Forward-thinking – proactively seeks improvements and solutions

A competency could be knowledge, attitudes, skills, values or behaviours which can be acquired through talent, experience or training. Ideally, examples should be from your workplace experiences but can include voluntary work, sports and social activities, family life, education etc. A good way of answering competency based questions is by using the CAR approach. CAR stands for Context, Action and Result.

Context	Forms an introduction, describing the scenario you faced, date and place.
Action	What action did you take? Try not to focus on what the group or team did without making clear what your own contribution was.
Result	Forms the conclusion. What results did you achieve? What did you learn from the experience?

Example:

Context	In my current role, I tend to have lots of competing deadlines and found that as a result, some deadlines were not being achieved.
Action	I decided to review my work practices, and suggested implementing a ‘traffic light’ prioritisation system; labelling tasks as red, amber or green depending upon their urgency.
Result	My ideas were accepted and implemented by my whole team, and I now find that I (and my colleagues) are now managing to hit 100% of our deadlines.

You will be scored 0 – 4 on each competence as follows:

• 0 - Does not meet requirements
• 1 - Partially meets requirements
• 2 - Meets most requirements
• 3 - Fully meets requirements
• 4 - Exceeds requirements

The technical competence score will include other aspects from the application such as previous employment. Remember when answering the competency based questions not to just say what you can do but tell us about what you have done!