Job interviews –how to recruit and what can you ask?

The recent case of a job candidate being asked to dance during a job interview demonstrates how processes can go spectacularly wrong.

There has also been a debate about whether employers should use social media to gather information about candidates.

Reports of American firms asking potential recruits for permission to access their Facebook accounts before hiring pose interesting questions about privacy.

That being said it should be obvious to most employers that having a dance section within a process is a bad idea unless you’re recruiting a dancer, but many employers are genuinely unsure how to safely recruit and what they can properly ask.

All employers are under a duty to ensure that both the application and recruitment process is fair and doesn’t discriminate. However, any selection process needs to establish who is likely to do a good job and be contented at work.

The conciliation service ACAS warns that poor recruitment processes can lead to increased employee turn over, unnecessary costs for an organisation and a lowering in morale for existing staff. Discontented employees are unlikely to give their best and may end up leaving voluntarily or involuntarily causing disruption.

To avoid this it is suggested that employers have a set written procedure and keep a record of each step along the way. The start point should be preparing a job specification. This should include the main purpose, tasks and scope of the role. That document can then be used to describe the skills and aptitudes considered essential.

When applications have been received it is usually necessary to sift through the CVs of the people involved comparing them against the job description that are required for the job so unsuitable potential employees are weeded out. It’s also worth briefly recording the reason for applications not getting through the sift.

In certain types of jobs it is necessary to ask for medical assessments as part of the process This does have to be justified as it is unlawful to ask health related questions before making a job offer except when very limited exceptions apply, for example, determining if a candidate can carry out a function which is essential to the job or establishing if they need special arrangements to deal with a recruitment process.

Once the candidates have been established then there are a number of different selection techniques that can be adopted including interviews, tests or assessments.

Many jobs are filled by an interview. It is important to structure the interview so that there is a consistent approach and so that an employer can show that they have adopted a fair criteria. It’s worth having a written interview plan that can be used for each candidate to record if they met the criteria.

Interviews should focus on questions relevant to the skills and competencies required for the job and employers should generally avoid asking personal questions about health, age or family circumstances. Many employers find this issue difficult as the questions can sound entirely innocuous.

It may help to consider what is the purpose of asking the question? For example, if an employer were to ask “ do you have children” , “are you married” or “have you been ill in the past”, a candidate could be forgiven if they believed that asking the question implied there is a right and a wrong answer and that the answer given is relevant to the issue of whether the potential employee would get the job. As personal details are unlikely to be seen to be relevant to aptitude they may well be seen as discriminatory and are best avoided.

There is nothing to stop an employer setting tests, asking for demonstrations of practical skills or asking difficult questions in interview providing they relate to the skills required for the job. As most employers agree that recruiting and retaining the best people is key to the success of the business a robust but fair selection process is essential.