Will you find the person with the right skills and experience? Will their ethics and values match yours? Will they fit in with the team?
But there are also some very important considerations you need to make to ensure the hiring process is fair and complies with employment law.
The moment someone applies for a role with your business they are protected by employment regulations. And there is a lot of detail about what you can and can’t do when hiring.
The main consideration is to check your whole hiring process doesn’t discriminate unfairly. That means you can’t discriminate directly, against an individual, or indirectly, where your selection process puts candidates with protected characteristics at a disadvantage. You must always be fair and be able to show it.
Protected characteristics include, but are not limited to, age, sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, disability, religious belief, and marital status.
Before you begin your interview process, you’ll no doubt create a set of criteria your ideal candidate will meet. It’s how you assess each and every candidate against this list that’s important. Not just to comply with regulations but to make sure that even if they’ve not hired, people speak well about your business.
As well as ensuring a fair process, you must also make sure any candidate you consider has the right to work in the UK, plus there are some data protection and possibly criminal record check considerations too.
You can see there’s a lot to consider, and this is only a brief overview. If you’d like any more information or to check your hiring process is both compliant and effective, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
