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| Image taken from The Vow website |
The bunting was still up across the Huddersfield Road and the Elves at the water cooler were chattering excitedly about the great spectacle of the weekend.
“Well, at least they managed to pick a Saturday for it so we didn’t end up with another spurious bank holiday like the one his brother generated!” the BattleAxe accepted grudgingly.
Hoping to divert her from a well-worn favourite topic the Chief Elf observed how well The Duchess of Sussex seems to fit into the Royal Family already, “It’s almost as if she’d been specifically picked for the job” he said.
“Surely you don’t think that’s some sort of accident?” the BattleAxe replied, “Haven’t you recognised that the Royals have, very effectively, been deploying every modern interview technique in the book?”
Seeing the look of bafflement on the Chief Elf’s face she continued: “They’ve manufactured plenty of opportunities to observe her in what will be her new work environment coupled with lots of soft skills tests leaving the assessment to the public. In reality, it is no different from all you Elves at BattleAxe Towers – it is about dealing with the public, but where ours come in the form of clients Megan’s will be a similarly variegated cross section of people just randomly selected from around the Commonwealth and beyond.”
“Again, you don’t think that her appearance at Sandringham over Christmas was just the family being friendly, do you? Meet the public and see how the press react – it’s a classic example of a job audition, a sort of Royal hackathon to test how she thought on her feet.”
Warming to her theme, the BattleAxe continued, “Actually, a double test as seeing how your best candidate gets on in a casual setting helps bring out their true nature, away from the artificial pressure of a 30-minute interview. I gather, the Queen came up with the ultimate interview test: buy me a pressie. I’m not totally sure how I’d have rated a toy singing hamster but I believe the corgis thought it was the best gift of the day!”
“You’ll be suggesting that they watched episodes of Suits as video interviews next….” the Chief Elf muttered under his breath. Flashing a glare in his direction she responded, “No, but the TV coverage of her appearances and of her UN speech will have been carefully reviewed to ensure that she is sound and can speak as properly as you can hope for, from an American.”
“Yes, all in all, it is a great example of a truly up-to-date selection process - one that businesses could well benefit from copying. Mind you, I’m not sure we want to put on that much pageantry for each new starter here – I mean, does it really need that many people just to make sure the new team member has signed her contract properly?”
“Ah,” said the Chief Elf nodding knowingly, “So THAT’s what Charles was saying to William - “Did you remember to put in the paragraph about 6 months’ probation?”
