The Recruitment Process: Part Two.

This week’s blog is Part Two of The Recruitment Process. It will direct you on the area of UK eligibility with the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. Give you an overview on Data Protection Laws and how they dictate the way in which data pertaining to applicants is stored and processed. Then finish with the best practise in relation to lawful and affective recruitment.

The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.

This legislation ensures that employers recruit only those who are legally entitled to work in the UK. Employers have a responsibility to run relevant checks on those they are looking to recruit before they begin. The government takes violation of these laws very seriously. An employer can be fined up to £20,000 per illegal worker hired, or if their case goes to civil court, could receive a prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine should they be found guilty.

An employer must ask to see the original documents that prove the candidate’s identity and their right to work and live in the UK. Documentation such as Passport, residence cards and letters from the home office. The rules and restrictions vary on the individual’s country of origin.

The Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

During the recruitment process, employers will collect data on applicants. This information ranges from names and addresses to potentially sensitive information such as ethnicity and disability status. The Data Protection Act was introduced in 1998 but has now been updated to incorporate the EU GDPR rules. The Act now governs how information is used and stored. With regards to the recruitment process, it is important for all those involved in selecting the right candidate to remember that an interviewee has the right to request that the business send them a cop of all information held on them. Whilst it is good practise to keep any notes made during the recruitment process, all staff dealing with candidates should take care to avoid including any insensitive, derogatory or needlessly negative remarks about any particular individual.

Information may not be given to any third parties, without the explicit consent of the applicant. At all stages of the recruitment process, the applicant should be told exactly how their data will be stored, how it will be used and how long it will be kept before being destroyed. For security purposes all online application portals must be encrypted to the highest possible standards. Thus, preventing any data leaks which have the potential to damage the company’s reputation to a certain degree.

The Best Practise to Follow When Recruiting a New Worker.

The best way of ensuring that all applicants are assessed and treated fairly is to devise and implement a standard recruitment process that promotes objectivity.

The first step is to put together a job role description. At this stage, the person writing the description should seek input from those currently in the same role or one similar to it, managers or senior members of staff who will interact or lead the individual who fills the role, and any other relevant stakeholders. The core competencies and necessary skills should be identified. Once you have built a list of skills and qualifications that the right candidate for the role would have to possess, in order to be successful, it is vital that the criteria is properly reviewed to ensure that it does not include unnecessary information.

Reasonable Adjustments.

Reasonable adjustments must be made for any candidate that has a disability. For example, someone who uses a wheelchair should be offered the use of a ramp to access the building should they be invited for an interview. They are allowed to test the applicant’s aptitude and capability for the role they are applying for. The tests must be fair and not give anyone an advantage. Should the applicant with the disability be successful, it would then be appropriate to discuss their disability in order to come to an agreement so make the workplace as comfortable and accessible as possible.

The Recruitment Process: Summary.

A well-designed and lawful recruitment process should enable an employer to select the right candidate for a job without excluding or discriminating against any applicant on the basis of age, sex, religion or other protected characteristics.

In order to conduct the selection process in the most objective way possible, a thorough description of a job role should initially be drawn up and used as a basis for a list of selection criteria. A job advertisement based around this list of criteria can then be drawn up.

If an applicant requires reasonable adjustments be made any point during the recruitment process, an employer must agree to their requests. It is advisable to collect data on the age, ethnicity and demographic background of the applicants for diversity monitoring purposes. This must be stored in a way that is separate from their main application so that it does not have any bearing on the final outcome.

Before making a job offer, an employer must establish that an applicant has the right to work in the UK. Background checks must be carried out, especially if the role includes working with vulnerable people such as children and the elderly.

It is not legal to discriminate against someone if they have spent criminal convictions, but it is legal to reject someone on the basis that they have not served out their rehabilitation period.

Under the Data Protection regulations, there are strict laws around the data that an employer can keep about those individuals applying for jobs that must be adhered to at all times.