Employing staff

Contents

Basic recruitment principles

When recruiting staff, to avoid potential legal liability, you must:

  • Not write (when advertising vacancies) or say (when interviewing) anything that could be seen as discrimination against any prospective applicant in terms of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, race, colour, ethnic background, marital status, disability, trade union membership and/or activity, age, religion/belief (in England, Wales and Scotland) or religious belief/political opinion (in Northern Ireland)
  • Treat every applicant the same
  • Check an applicant's entitlement to work in the UK (before employing them)
  • Record your reasons for not offering a job to any unsuccessful applicant
  • Ensure that these reasons are kept for a suitable period and can't be interpreted as showing an intention to discriminate.

Note: Sometimes a job will require an applicant of a particular sex, race, age, religion/belief or sexual orientation. If this is a genuine requirement or qualification for the job, then it will not be unlawful to discriminate against certain sectors of society. If you feel that this may apply in your situation, get legal advice.

Asking each candidate to complete a job application form will be useful in compiling personnel records, assisting the objective selection of suitable candidates and providing a framework for interviews.

The guides in this section cover how to recruit the right staff and how to treat applicants fairly. It includes sections about:

  • Job descriptions
  • Application forms
  • Job interviews
  • Criminal record checks
  • Right to work checks
  • Checking references
  • Making a job offer
  • Inductions
  • Retaining recruitment documents
  • Supplying a reference

Employment contracts

There are also guides in this section about employment contracts, what needs to be in them, and what other documentation you need to have in place. It includes sections about:

  • Written statements and minimum requirements
  • Important clauses
  • Implied terms
  • Protecting wages
  • Disciplinary and grievance procedures
  • Other business rules and procedures
  • Terminating a contract

Related services

Back to top
Navigate related articles:

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set some optional cookies. We won't set these optional cookies unless you enable them. Please choose whether this site may use optional cookies by selecting 'On' or 'Off' for each category below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie notice.

Manage cookie preferences

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Functionality cookies

We'd like to set cookies to provide you with a better customer experience. For more information on these cookies, please see our cookie notice.