Recruitment Procedures – Employment Law

Recruitment Procedures – Employment Law

What are the main principles involved in the recruitment of employees?
Recruitment is a critical process, and it’s important to ensure compliance with the law while striving to hire the best candidates. To help you avoid mistakes and enhance your recruitment outcomes, this guidance outlines key principles for a smooth, legal process. If you’re an employer in the Nottingham area, AHACCOUNTANTS can provide assistance or additional information to help you navigate recruitment effectively.

Most claims for discrimination in recruitment have no maximum limit.
Can your business afford compensation of up to £20,000 for a simple mistake? How can you ensure you don’t break the law? Below, we outline the key principles of employee recruitment. This factsheet is designed to be accessible and understandable, though some issues can be complex. Professional advice should always be sought before any action is taken.

Good Recruitment Procedures
Employers can make simple but costly mistakes when recruiting staff. Adopting sound recruitment procedures helps you avoid legal pitfalls and ensures a better hiring process, improving the quality of staff you bring on board.

Where can things go wrong?
Mistakes can happen at various stages of recruitment, potentially resulting in losing a case at an Employment Tribunal. Some key stages to be mindful of include:

• Defining the job or identifying the right candidate
• Advertising to attract candidates
• Assessing candidates
• Making the selection decision
• Offering terms of employment

In addition to the cost of hiring the wrong person, there’s a risk of an Employment Tribunal claim if a candidate feels discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010. Compensation may be awarded for actual and future loss, as well as “injury to feelings.”

Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 consolidates previous equality legislation and covers the following “protected characteristics”: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy, and maternity.

Discrimination
Discrimination occurs when someone is treated less favorably due to a protected characteristic. There are four types of discrimination:

• Direct Discrimination: Treating someone less favorably because of their protected characteristic.
• Indirect Discrimination: Having policies or practices that, while applied to everyone, disadvantage people with a protected characteristic.
• Associative Discrimination: Discriminating against someone because they associate with a person who has a protected characteristic.
• Perceptive Discrimination: Discriminating against someone because others perceive them to have a particular protected characteristic.

Examples of Indirect Discrimination:

• Setting job requirements that are not essential but might disadvantage certain groups, such as requiring qualifications that are not relevant to the role.
• Using assessments that are irrelevant to the job but may disadvantage people, such as language tests for manual labor jobs.
• Asking different interview questions based on gender or other characteristics.

If indirect discrimination occurs, an Employment Tribunal can review the employer’s general practices and the facts of the specific case to draw reasonable conclusions.

Genuine Occupational Requirements (GORs)
While direct and indirect discrimination are generally prohibited, there are limited exceptions where a certain protected characteristic is essential for a role. These are called Genuine Occupational Requirements (GORs). However, GORs must be clearly justified and reassessed whenever a position becomes vacant.

Examples of GORs:

• Sex: In certain roles like modeling or privacy-related jobs (e.g., bathroom attendants).
• Religion or Belief: A Christian school requiring its teachers to follow the same faith.
• Sexual Orientation: A job in a country where homosexuality is criminalized.
• Age: Casting an actor to play a young or old character.
• Race: Casting for a role requiring a specific ethnic background.

Positive Discrimination
Since 2011, the Equality Act 2010 allows for positive discrimination under certain circumstances. Employers can treat candidates with a protected characteristic more favorably if they are equally qualified, to help overcome disadvantages or under-representation.

Disability Discrimination
Disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that substantially affects a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities. The Equality Act 2010 also requires employers to make “reasonable adjustments” to help disabled employees.

Reasonable Adjustments:
Employers are expected to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process and the workplace, including:

• Adjusting the interview process (e.g., allowing extra time)
• Modifying equipment or duties
• Altering working hours or locations

Claims Against Employers for Discrimination
Candidates who feel they were discriminated against in recruitment may bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal. The Tribunal will consider the facts of the case and the employer’s general practices, and claims must be made within three months of the alleged incident.

For further assistance or expert advice, AHACCOUNTANTS is here to support your recruitment efforts, ensuring you comply with employment law and make informed, fair hiring decisions.