You do not have to interview someone before giving them a job unless your business has rules that say you do.
Even if you do not have to interview, doing so is a good idea so that you:
- can find out if the person really is right for that job
- do not leave anyone thinking you might be discriminating against other people who could do the job
Avoid using the information on someone’s social media profile when deciding who to interview.
Decide who’s involved in selecting and interviewing
It’s a good idea for the people involved in selecting and interviewing applicants to:
- come from a diverse range of backgrounds
- use a consistent decision-making process, such as a scoring system
Ideally, 2 or more people should be involved in choosing who to interview. This is so that the business can avoid discriminating indirectly.
How to select applicants for interview
Select the applicants who best match the job description and person specification. Do this in a fair way for each person.
One way of doing this is a scoring system. You can:
- Turn each point in the job description and person specification into a checklist of, for example, 10 points.
- Assess the information in each application form against the checklist.
- Score each application form against the checklist. For example, if the applicant meets 7 of the 10 points, you can score the application as 7 out of 10.
Interviewing job applicants
Once you’ve chosen who to interview, it’s a good idea to prepare a set of questions to ask at the interview. Questions must not discriminate.
Find out more about discrimination and the law.
If possible, each interview should be carried out by more than 1 person to reduce the risk of discriminating.
It‘s a good idea to check before the interview that the interviewers are:
- prepared
- understand the law on discrimination
By law you must ask anyone coming to an interview to tell you if they need ‘reasonable adjustments’ so they can attend. For example, making sure your office is accessible for an applicant with a disability.
When interviewing it’s a good idea to ask each applicant the same questions where possible, to ensure you’re treating applicants in the same way.
Once all the interviews have taken place, make sure you’re fair and treat everyone the same when deciding who should get the job. For example, check your decisions are based on how each applicant met each point in the job specification and person specification.
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This article has been adapted from the ACAS Website
