'How to' Guide - Recruitment and Selection Process for SMEs
Recruiting new staff for your small business? Graphite HRM have created a helpful guide on recruitment and selection, written with SMEs in mind.
How to Follow an Effective Recruitment and Selection Process
Author: Anne O’Callaghan BBS (HRM), Dip (Psych), Cert (Adult Education), MCIPD
HR best practice has always been that organisations should not discriminate in their recruitment procedures and should strive to recruit and retain the most qualified staff. “Most qualified” was never to be interpreted as indicating a preferred race, age or gender for the job. A diverse workforce is a key feature of the best practice organisation.
The Legislation
The Employment Equality Acts 1998 and 2004 prohibits discrimination on nine distinct grounds. These are gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age(+16), disability, race and membership of a travelling community. It is unlawful for employers to discriminate regards access to employment, conditions of employment, provision of training, promotion or regarding and classification of posts.
The Job and Person Specification
A job and person specification should be prepared in line with actual requirements such as required qualifications, skills and experience. Avoid mentioning requirements that are not necessary or that could indirectly rule out a portion of society. An example is the amendment of height requirements for the Gardai as previous height requirements indirectly discriminated against women who on average are not as tall as men.
The Job Advertisement
The job advertisement can be prepared based on requirements in the job description. The Employment Equality Acts requires that recruitment advertisements do not demonstrate an intention to discriminate against individuals or groups within society. An example is “the ideal candidate will be young, dynamic...” This advertisement was discriminatory on the grounds of age and was held by the Equality Tribunal. A fine of €10,160 was charged to the company in question. Care must also be exercised when including images in recruitment advertising. Images must not reflect negative stereotypes which may indicate an intention to discriminate. The correct use of imagery to support a recruitment advertisement, however, can enhance the perception of the organisation as an equal opportunities employer. Many employers include an “equal opportunities employer” statement in their advertisements, which demonstrates an acknowledgement of and compliance with equality legislation.
Application Forms
Application forms are used to obtain all the required information in relation to the position and also to ensure an equal footing for all applicants. Ensure that the application form is prepared in a style which complies with legislation. Questions requesting information regarding martial status, family status and nationality could be seen as discriminatory against potential candidates. Questions should be carefully worded to avoid indicating any discriminatory practices and it is worth including a statement signifying that the organisation is an equal opportunities employer.
Screening Applications
The screening process begins once all completed applications have been received. This process involves screening and cross-checking all applicants against the job description to identify the most suitable candidates. Many organisations reformat CVs to ensure equity. This involves removing information that could result in discriminatory selection. Some organisations have a practice of removing surnames, addresses, martial status, date of birth and other details that may lead to discriminatory selection. The Job and Person specifications are an invaluable tool in ensuring that the screening process is run in an equitable fashion. It is imperative that applicants are screened and scored against initial criteria.
The Interview
The interview is an opportunity for the candidate to present themselves in pursuit of the position and also to ensure the candidate has a positive experience of the organisation. The organisation should present themselves as an equal opportunities employer in the interview. Studies have shown that an unsuccessful applicant who feels that they were treated fairly are more likely to reapply to that organisation should another position arise in the future. The first step in ensuring that interviews are conducted within the law is in the selection of the interviewer or interview panel. Where an interview panel is used, organisations should attempt to have one woman and one man on a panel to ensure that gender discrimination is avoided. The next step is to ensure that interviewers are trained in interview techniques by attending an equality training session. This ensures that they are aware of their responsibilities under the legislation and that they are aware of clauses in the act promoting positive action. This trains interviewers to avoid asking discriminatory questions. Agreeing questions in advance can also avoid discriminatory questions being asked. Interview notes should reflect that the full interview process was carried out in a clear manner. Questions should only relate to job requirements and the same question areas should be asked of all applicants. Where it is necessary to assess whether personal circumstances will affect performance of the job (e.g. where the job involves unsociable hours, extensive travel) relevant questions should be asked equally of all applicants and the answers should be evaluated on the same basis for each. Interviewers should score candidates on a point basis based on the job requirements. Legal stipulations are that all documentation relating to scoring and interview notes are to be held for one year. A person may lodge a claim within six months of the date of the alleged discrimination, which can be extended to 12 months in exceptional circumstances. Many cases are lost on the grounds of a lack of transparency in the recruitment process and a lack of evidence of fairness e.g. interview notes or screening criteria.
Positive Action
Specific measures can be taken to ensure that groups of individuals are reached by the job advertisement. Since 2004 positive action can be taken on all nine grounds. Examples would be placing advertisements where they are likely to be seen by these specific groups. This action will not be deemed discriminatory. Further to this are the provisions under equality legislation which specify that “reasonable accommodations must be made to facilitate the needs of people with disabilities, subject to a nominal cost exemption”. It is not unfair to provide facilities to make it possible for disabled people to apply for the position.
Our thanks to Anne O’Callaghan and Graphite HRM for providing this article to our readers. For more information about their services, please visit www.graphitehrm.com.