Recruitment

Hiring lawfully and well. Most of the legal risk is before the offer.

What it means

Recruitment covers advertising, shortlisting, interviewing, selecting and making an offer, and it is covered by discrimination law throughout.

Why it matters

Job applicants can bring discrimination claims without ever having worked for you, and recruitment is where careless questions and assumptions most often become evidence.

What it looks like in practice

Health questions before a job offer are unlawful except in narrow circumstances — you may ask about the ability to carry out an intrinsic function and about adjustments needed for the interview.\n\nRight to work checks must be completed before the first day.

What to watch out for

Word-of-mouth hiring, which tends to reproduce the existing team and can be indirect discrimination. And unstructured interviews, which are both the least predictive method and the hardest to defend.

Where to get proper advice

ACAS for a compliant process. A structured interview with the same questions and a scoring sheet is both fairer and more defensible.