Most HR practitioners report consistently that recruiting staff is one of their priority topics. Their basic need is to have undertaken that task in an effective, unproblematic way. The ways to undertake the task continue to grow, making the decision as to how best to recruit for a given employment situation more complex.
The law is changing fast as pitfalls and penalties await the unprepared. The legal rules that apply to recruitment are drawn from virtually all areas of employment law. Sourcing the relevant law under each heading is difficult and time-consuming. This new edition pulls together all the relevant law relating to recruitment. Written by acknowledged experts, it provides a concise summary of everything you need to know and do to stay securely within the law. It includes updates on the increasingly complex and demanding legislation relating to recruiting from outside the UK, along with legislation applying to jobs that involve working with children and vulnerable adults.
• HR and recruitment professionals
• In-house legal teams
• Employment lawyers
• Employment and recruitment agency staff
• HRM students
• Students on CPD programmes
• Training professionals
1 Provides a clear explanation of the key areas of law applying to the recruitment process including, where appropriate, the reasons for the development of those rules and what they aim to achieve.
2 Explains the application of the rules to the recruitment processes.
3 Deals with typical practical issues, especially those arising out of case law and recent legislation.
** HR professionals
** Recruitment specialists
** In-house legal teams
** Employment lawyers
** Employment and recruitment agency staff
** HRM students
** Students on CPD programmes
** Training professionals
This report addresses all the most common dilemmas and problems facing recruiters. For example:
1 Does a contract of employment have to be in writing to be valid?
2 Is a job description part of the contract of employment?
3 If I offer a contract on a freelance basis, can I avoid employment law duties?
4 If I use a recruitment agency or ‘headhunter’ to recruit staff and they fail to comply with anti-discrimination law am I liable for them?
5 If I learn after offering a job that the candidate had what I consider a poor health record in their previous job, can I withdraw the offer?
6 If I find out that a job applicant lied on their CV what can I do?
7 Are there risks in not externally advertising posts?
You will find detailed guidance to these questions and many others in this report.
The law relating to recruitment has changed dramatically. Some very important new topics have been added or expanded, all covered in this report, including:
It is vital that you understand not only the scope of the law [few employers are not covered now by anti-discrimination law) but also the extent to which organisational policies and practices are subject to legal challenge.
It includes a direct link to the relevant legal source if a reader wants to follow up a more detailed point.
The report takes the reader through the key stages of the recruitment process. It can therefore be read as a whole to provide an overview of the law and its application, or it can be used for specific purposes, for example, to identify the rules that apply to advertising or to the health screening of applicants.
Being unaware of relevant legal rules or ignoring them carries obvious legal risks.
Claims can be made in Employment Tribunals but also in the civil courts. In some situations failure to comply with the legal rules can lead to the imposition of a criminal penalty. And if a case gets to court and attracts media attention, it can be very bad indeed for your reputation.
INTRODUCTION
** The key changes that are affecting the recruitment process
1 THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK
** Employment contracts
** Legislation
2 RECRUITMENT NEEDS ANALYSIS
** Introduction
** Full-time or part-time?
** Permanent or temporary?
** Workplace or home-based?
** Employee or self-employed?
** Using an agency or temp?
** The recruitment process
** Recruiting through the internet
3 PREPARING TO RECRUIT
** Preparing documentation
** The job advertisement
** The legal pitfalls in advertising
** Considerations when advertising
** The application form
** Summary of key issues and further information
** Further information
4 THE SELECTION PROCESS
** Introduction
** Short-listing
** Interviews
** Selection
** Disabled applicants
6 THE CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT
** Special terms of contract
** Form of contract
** Contract or written particulars/statement?
** Content of particulars
** The Employment Act 2002
APPENDICES
** Codes of practice and other sources
** Law reports and secondary literature
** Useful websites
Patricia Leighton is currently Jean Monnet Professor of European Law at the University of Glamorgan, Wales, UK. She has researched and written widely on employment law matters, particularly for HR practitioners. Her publications include The New Employment Contract (1995) Nicholas Brealey Publications, Discrimination and the Law: Fitness for Purpose (2004) CIPD and Out of the Shadows: Managing self-employed, agency and outsourced staff (2006) Butterworth Heinemann. She is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium for whom she undertakes projects and consultancy work.
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