The world of job adverts and applications can be a tricky one to get right. There are so many regulations and advisories about exactly what you can and can’t say in order to find the person you need for the job that it almost seems more trouble than it’s worth. But without creating a job advert, your business won’t thrive as it’s meant to.
So it’s important to know the dos and don’ts and ins and outs of job advert writing.
Anyone who applies for a job is automatically protected by discrimination laws, whether or not they end up getting the job at the end of the process, as long as they are a genuine applicant. There have been cases where people have applied for a job solely in order to make a claim afterwards – these claims were dismissed.
When writing a job description, make sure not to use gender specific job titles. These can include words such as ‘barman’ or ‘waitress’ or even ‘salesman’. Make your job title gender neutral to save any problems later on. The only exception to this is if a position has a genuine occupation need for a particular gender to be employed (such as in single sex institutions such as prisons).
You must also not discriminate regarding someone’s age. This can include terms such as ‘mature’ or ‘youthful’ which imply that a certain age will be looked upon more favourably than others. It is also not allowed for the advert to specify how many years of experience is required, as this can rule out younger candidates who will not have been able to gain as much experience as is required. It is, of course, permitted to ask for a candidate with experience, it is just not allowed for specify how much.
Be careful about indirect discrimination. It can be all too easy to include this accidentally within your job advert – it is likely that you didn’t even realise it was there. Indirect discrimination includes jobs which have an early start time – this can discriminate against those who, for example, need medication in the morning and would not be able to start work as early as required.
