Recruitment by ‘speed dating’
I have recently been invited to declare my candidacy for a post at a gateway community housing association, which includes attending a speed dating-style recruitment event [involving tenants].
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On balance, I decided I have no wish to submit to what may well be considered an outmoded and discredited process, serving only to potentially humiliate and degrade applicants, who may well feel obligated to subjugate themselves.
I also question whether ‘speed dating’ as a recruitment method represents a prudent disbursement of what is, to all intents and purposes, public money.
In my view, the speed dating approach is a way to provide a scapegoat: if it goes wrong, blame can be apportioned to the tenants who sanctioned the appointment.
This sort of bureaucratic approach has no place in the future of affordable housing.
Steve Sitch, independent housing consultant