Pre-hiring Procedures
The aim of recruitment is to get the best person suited to the job based on objective criteria for a particular job. Care must be taken to guard against discrimination throughout the whole recruitment process.
Job description
Sex, family status and disability biases can occur even before selection is made. Drawing up a clear job description on the scope of work, duties and responsibilities of the job is important. Employers should not overstate the requirements and duties of a job as this may have an unfair impact on persons of a certain sex or marital status, women who are pregnant, persons with family responsibilities or persons with a disability. This may result in indirect discrimination. Indirect discrimination is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance (SDO), the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance (FSDO) and the Disability Discrimination Ordinance (DDO).
It is also important that a job description should not be so worded as to suggest or imply that only persons without a disability or persons of a particular sex, marital status or without family responsibilities can apply or perform a job.
Job titles should be gender-neutral. If this is not possible, use a male/female title for the job, or alternatively, put "male or female" in brackets after the job title.
Consistent Selection Criteria
Employers should use Consistent Selection Criteria (CSC) to avoid acting unlawfully. Based on the job description, CSC set out the personal attributes, qualifications, skills and knowledge required for effective performance of the job. CSC are used, together with the job description, to facilitate shortlisting and selection. It is important to make sure that the CSC are objective, clearly defined and ranked in order of priority (please see the Good Management Practice Series leaflet on "The use of Consistent Selection Criteria").
It is important to set standard of attainments in a fair manner in respect of men, women and persons with a disability. For example, there can be no justification for including in the CSC a condition "strong and healthy men only" assuming that women or persons with a disability would not be able to perform the job which requires mechanical aptitude. To minimise the possible occurrence of discriminatory practices, the best way is to discard all generalisations, to examine as objectively as possible what aptitudes are necessary and at what standards, and then to assess the abilities of men or women as well as persons with or without disability, against that standard.
Advertisement
Having a job description and CSC are helpful to employers in preparing a recruitment advertisement. In the advertisement, list out only the essential requirements, for example, academic qualifications, years of experience and specified technical skill. A statement such as "The post is open to applicants of both sexes and persons with a disability" helps send out a clear and positive message.
Shortlisting
Do the shortlisting of candidates on the basis of CSC. These objective yardsticks will help reduce possible biases based on sex, pregnancy, marital status, family status or disability. Very often, candidates are rejected merely because of certain false assumptions about men, women, their status, or persons with a disability. For example :
- the job requires a person with a caring disposition, and therefore only female candidates should be shortlisted
- the job requires extensive travelling, and therefore a married woman or a woman with young children would not be suitable
- the job location is remote and therefore a person with mobility impairment or a person with family responsibilities would not be able to commute long-distance.
Staff responsible for recruitment must be trained in non-discriminatory recruitment practices. They should be alert to the danger of making generalisations about the aptitudes and abilities of men, women, persons with family status or persons with a disability. It is important that they should use a set of objective criteria in selecting the candidates.
Request for medical information
Under the DDO, it is unlawful for an employer to request medical information from applicants for the purpose of discriminating against them for a job on the basis of disability. It is also unlawful to require persons with a disability to provide medical information when persons without a disability are not required to do so.
However, it is not unlawful for employers to request medical information where such information is necessary to determine whether an applicant is able to carry out the inherent requirements of the job or whether an applicant would require services or facilities not required by a person without a disability in order to carry out the inherent requirements of the job.
Where an X-ray examination is included in a pre-employment medical check, the requirement that potential employees must undergo the X-ray examination in order to be considered for employment may constitute indirect discrimination against pregnant women under the SDO as they are unlikely to comply with the requirement in view of the risks involved.
Tests
Selection tests should be directly related to the job requirements and be professionally designed to measure the abilities of the applicants. In addition, they should be modified flexibly according to the needs of applicants with a disability. Employers should also review the contents and standard of the tests on a regular basis to ensure that they are relevant to the job requirements.
Final selection
The selection process is basically one of matching the individual candidate's qualifications and attributes against the job requirements. However, they may not match perfectly because certain candidates may exceed some of the requirements but may fall short of others. It is recommended that employers should balance the strengths and weaknesses of candidates and analyse their suitability based on facts rather than impressions or generalisations. This process will help reduce significantly conscious or unconscious prejudices.
Post-hiring Procedures
For the purpose of arranging medical benefits or education allowances, or in order to ascertain whom to notify in case of emergency, employers may collect personal data of the successful applicant, such as information regarding the spouse and number of children and next of kin. This step should be taken after an applicant has been hired so that there will be no misunderstanding about the employers' motives in asking such questions.
Employers may also request more detailed medical information from an employee after hiring in order to help the employee in the event of emergency. All medical information should be kept confidential and should not be released without the written consent of the employee.
Employers are advised to retain records of interviews for at least 12 months, in order to be in a position to deal with any subsequent complaints of discrimination in the selection process. Letters of rejection should be objectively worded. The management should ensure that all staff involved in recruitment are fully aware of the company's policy on fair recruitment and selection.
* The Race Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) has become fully effective from 10 July 2009. For more information about the Ordinance, please click below:
|