Fairness in recruitment
As an organisation, we want to ensure that our recruitment processes are fair and equitable for all who might want to apply for one of our vacancies. Whenever you're recruiting to a post, it's useful to review plans and consider how you might ensure that they are fair and will help you get the best candidate for the job.
Here are some examples to think about:
- Where are you advertising the post, will you reach a wide and varied audience?
- How much time are you giving people to apply and have you considered holiday periods, religious festivals, and those who need more time to write their applications?
- Is your panel representative of the communities that access your services? (See the one-minute guide on diverse interview panels.)
- Is the shortlisting process likely to disadvantage certain groups OR give advantages to internal groups (e.g. if one of the criteria assumes knowledge of an internal process)?
- Do your interview questions explore your candidates' values and perspectives on equality and diversity?
- How could you adapt your interview process to make it less stressful and bring out the best aspects of your candidates?
Why is it important?
It's really important that we all try to ensure that our recruitment practices are fair and transparent and that processes are open to scrutiny and can be validated.
Equally, we should be opening up our vacancies to as wide and audience as we can, so we're not excluding key groups within our communities.
The perfect person for the job could be out there and we don't want to miss them.
What are the benefits for the applicant?
Our job applicants will benefit from an open recruitment process that recognises and values the contributions that their individual diversity can bring to the organisation.
They'll have adequate time to consider the role and complete their application, and will be well supported as they progress through the recruitment process.
Their individual needs will be accommodated within interview arrangements, and we will do our best to provide a panel that is balanced and representative wherever we can.
Applicants will also be provided with clear and constructive feedback on their interview outcome - giving them a useful steer on how they can develop their interview skills going forward.
What are the benefits for the organisation?
We want to embrace diversity of our workforce, because it strengthens the quality of the service that we offer to our communities and underlines our commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.
This diversity brings with it a range of perspectives which, collectively, can help inform and shape our service delivery - to offer a culturally appropriate and person-centred approach to everyone who accesses our services.
We also want to see increasing representation of this diversity within our senior management teams to give aspirational encouragement to other staff who are looking to progress their careers.
It also ensures the voice of all communities at a senior level.
