Sifting applications
Be systematic when sifting applications. You could use a scoring system to ensure the applications are assessed consistently.
To avoid unconscious bias the sifting process should be performed by at least two people trained in recruitment and interviewing. See the Acas Guide Recruiting Staff for more information on where to advertise.
You may also wish to consider removing information about applicants’ gender, ethnicity and age before the sifting process, if it is not relevant to the role.
The interviews
Before conducting interviews, make sure any necessary ‘reasonable adjustments’ have been made to ensure all candidates are treated equally.
Interviews should be well planned and designed to find out whether the candidates have the skills and qualities essential for the role. It is OK for interviewers to probe some areas more, with certain candidates, to ensure that they have a full picture of all the candidates’ qualifications for the role.
To ensure a fair interview you should use more than one interviewer and ensure that all interviewers are appropriately trained.
Whether you use interviews alone, or set practical tests as well, each candidate should be given the same opportunity to demonstrate that they are the best person for the role.
As well as checking that any practical tests set are necessary and relevant to the role, you should ensure that the they are not discriminatory in any way. For some candidates, this may require a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to be made. For example, someone with dyslexia may need to be given more time to read a document before answering questions about it.
Interviewers should avoid asking candidates for personal information that is irrelevant to the role, or asking questions that are potentially discriminatory.
It is good practice for interviewers/assessors to score candidates’ responses to core questions and make notes on key points, and to write up these notes up as soon as possible after the interviews. Doing this can help to ensure a consistent selection process.
See Acas Guide: Recruiting Staff
As with all stages of the recruitment process, you should ensure that when selecting a candidate for the job you do not discriminate against other candidates who have one or more of the ‘protected characteristics’.
However, where there are two or more candidates who are equally qualified to be recruited, you may select a person because they are from a protected group which you believe to be under-represented or disadvantaged (for Northern Ireland broadcasters see here). In other words, a specific candidate’s ‘protected characteristic’ may be used as a ‘tie-breaker’, if you can show that the candidate with the ‘protected characteristic’ either experiences disadvantage in the workplace because of that characteristic, or is disproportionately under-represented in the workforce or the particular role.
See Acas guide, Equality and discrimination: understand the basics, for more detailed information on the use of protected characteristics as a ‘tie-breaker’.