Good Practice in Equal Opportunities
The codes provide guidelines to employers and employees on the meaning of the relevant legislation, on practical measures that can be taken to eliminate discrimination, and on techniques that can be used to promote equality of opportunity.
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) issue a non-discrimination notice against employers if they investigate a complaint and find that there is evidence of discrimination in an employer’s actions, whether intentional or unintentional. A non-discrimination notice may oblige an employer to inform EOC and CRE about changes it has initiated to bring its employment practices more in line with the codes of practice.
Essentially to operate within the spirit of SDA and RRA, all actions and documents involved in the recruitment process must be free of any criteria that could be interpreted as being discriminatory within the terms of legislation.
Advertisements, job descriptions and person specifications must not include anything that could be construed as an intention to discriminate on an unlawful basis.
Genuine Occupational Qualifications (GOQ) requirements are acceptable in instances where authenticity is required, say in modelling for instance or providing food in ethnic restaurants, and where privacy and decency in the provision of personal services are concerned.
Note that the presence of a GOQ means not only that persons from the specified group are being invited to apply, but also that such a person will be selected.
The existence of a good person specification can help an employer to avoid inadvertent sex or race discrimination. Companies that wish to promote equality of opportunity can also introduce complaints procedures, so that applicants who feel they may have been discriminated against can appeal in the first instance to the company concerned.
European legislation relating to transsexuals and sexual orientation
A European court ruling in 1996 specified that sex discrimination laws also apply to transsexuals. This means that employees are protected if they suffer less favourable treatment than other employees because they have undergone a change in gender. There is likely to be continued pressure on governments now to outlaw discrimination against gays.
Equal Pay Act 1970
Most problems tend to arise once people are in employment and can compare their pay with that of other employees in the same organisation. The act provides for members of one sex to claim equal pay with a member of the opposite sex who is doing like work, or work of a different nature which can be shown to be similar in terms of the requirements for skill and effort, i.e. work of equal value. The major point here is that it would be unlawful to advertise different pay rates for men and women doing the same work or to offer employees of one sex disadvantageous terms and conditions.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995
Disability is defined under the act as a mental or physical impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities.
In relation to employment, job applicants should not be discriminated against because of a disability or be treated in a less favourable way than other applicants unless ‘the treatment in question is justified’. While it is disappointing to find that opportunities for less favourable treatment towards disable people can sometimes be justifiable under the Act, nevertheless this is the first legislation to give disabled people rights not to actually be discriminated against because of their disability.
The DDA also makes it clear that employers of 20 or more people must ‘make reasonable adjustments in any arrangements or to work premises’ in order that disabled employees should not be disadvantaged. This could have a substantial impact on opportunities for people with disabilities to gain employment since no longer can employers justify their failure to employ a disabled person by saying that they cannot modify the premises or work practices. Under the DDA they must consider making these modifications.
The DDA criticised for its narrow definition of disability, based as it is on medical rather than social models of disability. It has also been criticised fro failing to establish any body specifically set up to champion the rights of the disabled in the way that the EOC and the CRE cab regarding sex discrimination and racial issues respectively. There has also been criticisms as the DDA only applies to organisations which employ more than 20 employees and merely says that is a question of good practice, small employers should be encouraged to follow the Act’s provisions voluntarily.
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
A past offender should not be expected to reveal his or her offence once the conviction is spent, and should not be denied employment because of his previous offence.
A number of exceptions to these rules about spent convictions apply to people who in the course of their job have unsupervised access to minors, meaning that for this category of employee certain convictions can never be regarded as spent.
Non-Legislated Unfair Discrimination
Recruiters are no more free from personal biases than other people; the important thing is to be aware of them and recognise that such criteria have nothing to do with selecting a person for a job. Many of these biases will have most impact at the selection stage when the parties first meet face-to-face.
Managing diversity in the workplace
According to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPD) (1997) managing diversity means ‘ that people should be valued as individuals for reasons relating to business interests, as well as for moral and social reasons. It recognises that people can bring fresh ideas and perceptions which can make the way work is done more efficient and products and services better. According to IPD ‘Managing diversity needs to become a mainstream issue which influences all employment policies and working practices.
Recruitment Procedures
The first step in recruitment process is to decide that you have a vacancy you wish to fill. The vacancy may be a new post that has been identified through the corporate strategic plan, or it may have arisen because an employee has resigned, retired or been dismissed.
A planning process should also precede recruitment for replacement posts: they should not be filled automatically. When a job holder leaves HR and line managers should take the opportunity to examine the work done and consider whether it can be covered in another fashion.
Recruitment procedures include:
- preparation of all supporting documents such as job descriptions and person specifications
- guidelines on actions to be taken such as writing and placing advertisements, and administrative procedures related to contracting prospective candidates.
Job descriptions and person specifications
In companies that engage in human resource planning there will be ongoing work dedicated to producing and maintaining job descriptions and person specifications, since these documents contain much of the information required for the planning process.
These two documents contain the information around which the job advertisement and the assessment of candidates will be structured.
Job description in the recruitment context
The four basic elements of the job description are: the job title; the reporting structure, i.e. the job title of the person to whom the post holder reports and the number and categories of the people the post holder is responsible for; a statement of purpose of the post ; and a description of the major duties. Taken together, they should provide a job applicant with a good idea of what the job entails.
The person specification in the recruitment context
Rather than relying on instinctive personal judgements about the knowledge, skills and qualities the successful candidate should possess, the employer with a person specification is following a much more methodical and reasoned process. It is also a much more open process since the specification is a written record of what the employer is basing his/her selection decision on.
The information about skills, knowledge and personal qualities should be summarized and included in the advertisements for the post.
Job Advertisements
Deciding where to place an advertisement
You will need to assess the available advertising methods in terms of their appropriateness for a particular vacancy. Considerations will include the likelihood of finding people with particular skills in a particular geographical location; the type of qualifications you are seeking and which publications people with those qualifications are likely to read; salary level and whether you are likely to be able to attract someone to move to your area for the salary you are offering.
The costs of the advertisement are also a factor.
Word of mouth advertising is often listed in textbooks as a possible method of recruitment, and it is used to varying extents in some companies. The word of mouth has potentially discriminatory effects. For example, in general , if a company’s workforce were all white European, word of mouth recruitment would tend to bring in more white European.
One advantage of using web sites for recruitment purposes is that companies can provide easy access to a lot of information for prospective candidates. Human resource managers need to be aware of innovations such as this to maximise the effectiveness of recruitment process.
Designing recruitment advertisements
The overall aim of the advertisements is to secure sufficient applications from suitably qualified persons with the end result that the employer will fin ‘the best person for the job’. The first principle of writing job advertisements is therefore to give sufficient information about the post so that suitable candidates will apply but also so that unsuitable candidates will be discouraged from applying.
Style of writing
The style of writing that is appropriate for a job advertisement depends on the nature of the position. Once you have caught your reader’s attention you should proceed swiftly to giving information.
Job advertisements : whose responsibility
If the post is new or has changes considerably, the line manager should be more involved in deciding the content, and more expertise in composing advertisements will be needed so someone with more experience in this area and well-developed writing skills should take on the task.
If the post is difficult to recruit for (maybe due to local skills shortage) you may consider using the specialized skills of a recruitment advertising agency. The additional cost of this would be a factor to weigh against the cost of unsuccessful recruitment attempts.
Targeted Recruitment
Targeted recruitment is a method of encouraging previously disadvantaged groups to apply for vacancies but, in keeping with the intention of equal opportunities legislation, any subsequent selection must be based on merit only.
Employers who engage in targeted recruitment have recognised that good, able people have become discouraged from even applying for jobs because of a history of discrimination. The experience of some companies was targeted recruitment attracted a much greater pool of suitable candidates, and not only from the specified groups. There was an overall improvement in the quality of applications. Targeted recruitment speaks loudly about a company’s level of commitment to equal opportunities, but a side-effect is that it also attracts applications from better candidates in general.
Application Forms
Once you have provided people with information about your vacancy you must decide on the best way for interested candidates to present information about themselves. The major choices are:
- application form
- curriculum vitae (CV)
- letter of application
- handwritten/typed submission
- personal call
One advantage of application forms over CV’s is that the company controls the information that is given not the applicant. In this way the company can ensure that the same types of information are gathered from all applicants, that the information that could potentially lead to unlawful discrimination is excluded.
The application form is a bridge between the recruitment process and the selection process. Once a completed form has been received, it can be used as a basis for the initial selection exercise, but until this occurs, it is part of the recruitment process and its design should be subject to recruitment considerations.
Equal opportunities implications
In order to promote access to jobs, employers may wish to assist those with poor language skills in completing application forms. These are positive measures so that such people are not unfairly excluded from such posts would be an example of good practice and could lead to a company’s acquiring committed employees.
Many application forms now contain an equal opportunities monitoring section so that employers can evaluate their success in attracting applications from qualified members of designated groups, and also monitor the handling of these applications at all stages of the selection process.
Administrative procedure
The final aspect of the recruitment process we need to consider is how you are going to handle applications. You will need to design administrative procedures that address the following issues:
- accepting applications by phone/walk in
- sending forms/information
- acknowledgement of applications received
In deciding on the appropriate administrative procedures you will need to address questions about what you want to achieve, but also the question of cost.
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