It is illegal for an employer to discriminate against an applicant or employee based on age, sex, race, disability, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender reassignment and religious background.
Employers must follow recruitment processes to ensure applications are treated appropriately, fairly and that no candidate is rejected due to a protected characteristic. The following criteria should be considered:
- Job description must be set out so applicants are assessed against the same criteria
- The post is advertised on numerous locations/jobsites
- An interview panel must be put in place so that more than one person’s opinions are considered when decided whom to reward the position to
- All questions that are not relevant to the job must be excluded from the questionnaire
- Female applicants must be treated the same as male applicants
- Disabled applicants must be treated the same as applicants with no disabilities
- Pregnant applicants must be treated the same as non-pregnant women.