Further to the Belfast agreement 10th April 1998 the Independent Commission on Policing was established. In September 1999 the Commission (chaired by Chris Patten) made various recommendations, which were enshrined in the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 outlining how the recommendations should be implemented.

The Patten report recommended that recruitment "should be done by human resource professionals and that the police should contract out the recruitment of both police officers and civilians in the police service". As a result bids were accepted from independent organisations in a public competitive tendering process with the aim if identifying the company capable of providing the best value for money balanced with quality, performance and delivery.

Following rigorous assessment Grafton ESP was awarded the contract for the recruitment of civilian staff to The Police Service of Northern Ireland and the HR account team was established.

So who are the HR Account Team?

The HR Account Team manage the recruitment of civilian support staff for The Police Service of Northern Ireland in order to fulfil the recommendations of the Patten report to outsource recruitment for The Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Reporting to the HR Account Manager, are a team of professional HR Advisors. The HR Account Manager and HR Advisors have a wide range of experience in Human Resource Management in both the public and private sectors.

Each HR Advisor is assigned to manage a recruitment campaign and some of the main areas of responsibility include:

• researching roles
• preparing job descriptions and personnel specifications
• placing advertisements in the media and on our website
• issuing application packs to candidates
• short listing of returned applications
• interviewing candidates
• feedback to candidates
• preparing a merit pool of appointable candidates for The Police Service of Northern Ireland

The HR Advisor ensures each recruitment campaign is fair, consistent and conforms to best practice.

The HR Account Team work closely at every stage of this process with The Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Supporting the HR Account team, the Administration Team, led by an experienced Administration Manager, ensure the smooth daily running of the office.

The HR Account Team are assisted as required by external experts such as Occupational Psychologists who advise on assessment and interview design to ensure that these are closely tailored to the requirements of the role.

The recruitment and selection process carried out by the HR Account Team is subject to regular and rigorous auditing carried out by independent, external auditors to ensure fairness and consistency and that our recruitment procedures are maintained throughout every stage of the process.