As you set up a new business or as your business changes or grows, or as a result of normal staff turnover, you may need to bring a new employee or employees into your business.

This can be done casually and without complying  with all the employment laws and regulations, but that can lead to problems for you and your business.

The problems could flow from the employees you recruit, but also from the candidates whose job applications you reject - under employment law, they have rights too and they may claim that they have been discriminated against.

Far better, and not much harder, for you to do everything properly.  Casualness at this stage may come back to haunt you.

Our large Employment Team will gladly talk to you free of charge about this area of the law - all you have to do is click on "Please Contact Me Now” or call us on 0800 084 3256.

There are things you have to do, and there are things you can choose to do. These not only mean you comply with all employment laws, but you also put your business in as strong a position as possible to deal with unsatisfactory employees or disgruntled rejected applicants, and you build for yourself a flexibility on the employee front in case you later need this.

Every recruitment process should involve the following elements:-

• Advertising - as a general rule, all positions should be advertised as widely as possible.  Not only does this widen the net in your search for talent, but it reduces the chances of a discrimination claim from someone who later claims they were unaware of the position.

• Job description - this should set out the main responsibilities of the position.  With an evolving business, take care to ensure that it allows for sufficient flexibility to avoid employees later saying things aren't in their job spec and "working to rule”.

• Person specification - this sets out the essential and desirable characteristics of the ideal person for the role, consisting of skills, qualifications and experience.

• Bias-free application form - best practice is to have a two-part form.  The first part would contain personal information (name, age, sex, details of any disability, etc).  This would be detached from the second part which is the job application itself.

• Shortlisting - using a bias-free application form ensures that the person carrying out the shortlisting exercise has no idea of the applicant's gender, age, ethnic origins, etc. 

• Interviewing - what you can and cannot ask - it is a difficult balance between trying to find out what an applicant is like without asking personal questions that are completely irrelevant to the post.  Many employers ask set questions but this can seem impersonal.  At the very least, you should have a list of essential questions that you should ask every candidate at some point in the interview.

• Making an offer - it should set out the main terms (e.g. job title, salary and other benefits, holiday entitlement, and notice period).  The letter should state that the full terms and conditions will be set out in a contract of employment to be signed on or before the first day of employment.  The offer should also set out any conditions  such as pre-employment  checks that you wish to carry out:  

Pre-employment checks:

• References - many employers nowadays give factual references only, giving merely details of the dates of employment and most recent position held.  This makes it even more important for you to have taken proper steps to recruit the right person.

• Degrees/qualifications - if these are necessary for the job you should insist on seeing original certificates before the applicant starts.  If in doubt, consider checking with the relevant university or other institution that issued the certificate.  It's easy to forge such documents with modern IT equipment. 

• Medical questionnaire/examination - save in limited circumstances, questions relating to a candidate's health should not be asked until an offer of employment is made.  If it turns out that the candidate is disabled, you must make any reasonable adjustments to avoid a claim.  This is a particularly complex area of the law.

• Criminal Records Bureau - the introduction of the Independent Safeguarding Authority is currently on hold but CRB checks may still be required.

• Right to work in the UK - to avoid criminal prosecution of you and your business for illegally employing a person who is not allowed to work in the UK, you must carry out certain immigration checks on all staff. As ever, we are able to help with this and have a specialist Immigration Law team who can not only keep you on the straight and narrow but who can also assist you with bringing into this country any workers from abroad. Click here for details of our Immigration Team, or call us on 0800 084 3256.

• An employment contract - all employees must by law have a written statement of main terms and conditions of employment.  We recommend full contracts are issued, not only to ensure that employer and employee know exactly where they stand on employment matters, but also to protect the business in areas such as confidential information, intellectual property rights and post-termination restrictions.  Unless these clauses are in the contract from the start, your business is exposed to unnecessary risks.

Our Employment Team will gladly guide you through the whole process in a cost-effective and pragmatic way - often just by giving you some free advice, ensuring that best practice is followed, reducing the chances of any legal challenges, and, that you keep your options open for the future.

As we say, we are always there for businesses who are in our BLUE LAW scheme, so we invite you to join BLUE LAW now. Once you have joined, we try to answer any legal enquiries that you have, free of charge. If legal work is needed, we give you a price, and you are then free to "shop around".  If you wish to speak to us now, please click on "Please Contact Me Now” or call us on 0800 084 3256. We look forward to always being there for you.

PLEASE NOTE:

We offer to businesses an overall employment law solution - BLUE PLUS - that gives you the following benefits:

We set your contracts, policies and procedures up so that they are fully compliant and so that they give your business maximum protection.

Access to our legal helpline manned by our team of specialist employment lawyers who can advise you as soon as any issue arises.

Representation in any tribunal claims that are brought against you.

Full cover in respect of all legal costs and any awards that are made against you in any tribunal case.

For full details, please see our  BLUE PLUS page.