Best practice recruitment tips

Figures released recently revealed that one third of businesses plan to recruit new staff within the next twelve months, which is encouraging news. Yet the recruitment process is long, drawn-out and fraught with possible discrimination traps.

Those who are lucky enough to have their own in-house recruitment specialists or who outsource this service can breathe easy, knowing that the correct steps will be taken at every stage: advertising, interviewing and employment screening. Those who don’t, however might to do well to bear these few tips in mind.

Before doing anything else, ensure that a job description and a person specification has been created. This not only outlines the job responsibilities, but lists the skills and behaviours that are pivotal for the role. It is against this that applications should be measured; whether the applicant is a skills match.

Advertisements need to be placed in publications or on websites which have a broad and balanced readership – the local newspaper, for example, providing more representative applications. Hiding an advert inside a men’s magazine will mean that women will be less likely to see the ad, that’s discrimination.

To comply with UK Border Agency regulations, you may need to post the advert for a month, ensuring you have copies of the advert from the first and last days of publication.

At interview, a set of standard questions should be used which are job specific and coordinate with the skills and behaviours prescribed in the job description and people spec. The same questions should be asked of every applicant, to ensure consistency. Steer clear of personal questions.

When it comes to employment screening, there are several methods you can use: references, an application form or engage an outsourced screening company to retrieve information on your behalf. So long as the information requested is the same for each applicant. Never rely on social networks. Rejecting a candidate based on something seen on Facebook could be construed as discrimination.

Here’s one to protect your business. Upon the first day of employment, you as the employer are legally obliged to verify a new starter’s identity, to ensure they have the right to work in the UK. If they do not possess the correct visas, the business could face a fine of £10,000.

This is just the tip of the recruitment iceberg; selection and making an offer are just two further aspects that need consideration. If you do not have in-house recruitment expertise, then do as much research as you can prior to commencing the search. Alternatively, engage the services of an agency.