Recruitment hints and tips
The legal and regulatory environment
The Disability Discrimination Act in the UK prohibits discrimination against disabled people in employment. The legislation protects both existing and prospective employees.
Less favourable treatment can result in two types of unlawful discrimination:
- Direct discrimination, which cannot be justified
- Unjustifiable less favourable treatment for a reason relating to a person's disability
It is also unlawful for an employer to fail to make reasonable adjustments to both the physical environment and to policies, practices or criteria, which place the disabled person at a substantial disadvantage.
If a disabled candidate wishes to apply but the online application process is inaccessible, the organisation may be in breach of the DDA, unless they make a reasonable adjustment to their practice of recruiting online that enables the candidate to apply by some other method.
It would be simpler and better practice to design the e-recruitment process to be accessible given the relative ease and low cost of doing so.
When using e-recruitment you will need to ensure:
- You have made reasonable adjustments for disabled applicants at every stage of the process, including short-listing, online evaluation and interview
- You have not treated an applicant less favourably on grounds of their disability (e.g. by rejecting their application because of employment gaps related to their disability)
- You have not published, or instructed others to publish, discriminatory adverts
- Any suppliers and partners, acting as your agents, have not discriminated against disabled people
Business benefits
Legal benefits
Forestall future legislation or regulation By being seen to be pro-actively addressing the issue of accessible e-recruitment, employers can lessen the threat of new, potentially costly and restrictive legislation or regulation
Lessen the likelihood of expensive, brand-tarnishing litigation As e-recruiting becomes ubiquitous and disabled people's expectations increase, inaccessible e-recruiting could invite legal action
Some of the countries which have legislation protecting the rights of disabled employees and/ or potential employees:
Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Israel, Korea, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia
