In early November 2023, Employment Expert & Associate Chris Dobbs held Frettens first HR Coffee Break Briefing webinar; where he outlined everything that employers need to know about recruitment.

In today’s Q&A, Chris has answered the most frequently asked questions around the same topic; for people who didn’t attend the webinar.

What should a job advert include legally?

A job advert doesn’t amount to a formal offer and isn’t contractual so there is nothing which you legally must include here. However, for certain things such as salary; an applicant will expect their pay to reflect the advert.

Obviously, it’s recommended that all the essential information (such as the job title, location, responsibilities etc.) are included, as well as details of the application process and deadlines. If nothing else, this will help filter out the less committed applicants.

I’d suggest having your job ads reviewed internally from both a factual and legal/HR perspective. Seek input from those with expertise in diversity and inclusion to ensure you are not being discriminatory, as claims can arise even as early as the job advert stage.

Also ensure that your templates are reviewed and updated regularly to maintain ongoing legal compliance.

Related: Disability Discrimination in Applications – An Employer’s View

What are my legal responsibilities when it comes to applications and CVs?

The information included on an application form or CV can potentially be personal and in some cases special category data. This can include name, address, DoB, background, school, qualifications etc.

Personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and transparently, according to GDPR. To me, this means informing candidates about how data is used and ideally gaining their consent through a privacy notice.

If an applicant discloses a medical condition you have an extra duty to protect that as special category data.

How do I avoid claims when shortlisting applicants?

Objective criteria, such as qualifications, experience etc, that is required to be met for a candidate to be considered is key – anything that is too subjective allows for bias which is not about the job itself and creates a risk of discrimination.

An unconscious bias is one that will affect your decision making, that you are not aware of. For example, you may unconsciously assume that an older applicant is more experienced than a younger applicant.

Those completing the shortlisting process, whether internal or external, as well as anyone else involved in recruitment, need to be aware of the potential for their unconscious biases to arise.

Pre-employment checks should also be fair and consistent, and bias should be avoided. I detail the potential issues that may arise during pre-employment checks in the full article, the link for which can be found at the bottom of this Q&A.

What impact does GDPR have on recruitment?

Drawing back to GDPR and those foundation principles, the recruitment process, as I mentioned earlier, is inherently a data processing activity and it involves personal and sometimes special category data.

Your lawful basis will ideally be the express consent of the individual, but it could also be compliance with legal obligations or performance of a contract in theory. Consent is much safer, however, if you ever have to justify your lawful basis.

Candidates need to know how their data will be used and ideally give clear and unambiguous consent to it being used in this way – consider external handlers of data. Only share, process and retain what you actually need to.

Related: How to write strong employment contracts – Advice for Employers

Any more questions?

If you have any further questions following this Q&A, they will likely be answered in the full article. In that article, I cover everything I did here in more detail, as well as equal opportunities, diversity and pre-employment checks.

Click here to read it.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this Q&A, these questions were included in our latest HR Webinar. These webinars are now a monthly occurrence and, in the next one, I’ll be looking at contracts, terms and contractual relations. You can sign up for free here.

• https://www.frettens.co.uk/

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