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One way of helping to avoid employing people who will not cause the organization problems in the future is to recruit from as wide a talent pool as possible – an approach that sits easily with the full range of diversity and equal opportunities legislation.
I advise my clients to place job advertisements where they will reach as many candidates as possible. Advertising in women’s magazines, for example, will not attract large numbers of male applicants, while recruiting over the internet may exclude some older or less affluent people who do not have easy online access.
Firms should send all applicants a full job description, details of key duties and background information about the company. This can discourage potential employees who may feel uneasy about aspects of the organization’s policies and culture from taking their application any further.
Well before the interview, companies should ask all short-listed applicants to prove their identity and entitlement to work in Britain. This should provide the firm with plenty of time to make adequate checks.
The Government lists the documents that employers must check to avoid prosecution for employing illegal workers and a fine of up to £5,000. Employers need to see the original of the applicant’s UK or European passport, national identity card or UK residence permit. Alternatively, employers must ask to see two original documents from a list that includes birth certificate, Home Office letter, work permit, immigration status document or official document bearing a national insurance number.
Firms may also wish to consider asking all short-listed applicants to disclose their sickness record and the reasons for any absence in the previous 12 months. But companies that adopt this approach must obviously be careful to avoid falling foul of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
In general terms, interview questions should focus on job requirements. Questions should be asked about personal circumstances only if these could affect job performance.
Nevertheless, an employer may wish to give interviewees workplace scenarios to consider and discuss, so that the recruiter can explore whether they appear to have any aggressive tendencies or might have problems settling into a team environment.
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