ROYAL ASSOCIATION FOR DEAF PEOPLE

RECRUITMENT POLICY

This policy explains RAD’s policy on recruitment processes including equal opportunities, the advertising of posts, what happens in restructure or redundancy situations, and giving feedback to job applicants and interview candidates. 

SCOPE

RAD aims to recruit in a manner which is seen as fair and professional by both internal and external candidates.

RAD recognises that its success depends on the skills, abilities and dedication of its employees and volunteers. 

The recruitment process is designed to attract and retain those who will make the best contribution to the achievement of its goals. 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

All candidates will be treated with the same high standards of objectivity, courtesy and efficiency regardless of any factor that is not relevant to the requirements of the job. 

To encourage applications from as wide a group of candidates as possible, RAD will look sympathetically at requests for flexible working patterns and job sharing arrangements.  However, the needs of the organisation must be the main consideration in deciding whether or not such working patterns will be suitable for specific posts.

RAD actively seeks to remove barriers to the employment of Deaf people and will support Deaf people to meet the person specification criteria through Access to Work contracts.

GUARANTEED INTERVIEW SCHEME

RAD is committed to the employment of Deaf people and disabled people.

We guarantee an interview to any candidate who is Deaf or who has a disability within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 and who meets the minimum job requirements listed in the column headed “Essential” on the Person Specification.

Candidates may request that their application is considered under the terms of the Guaranteed Interview Scheme by completing the declaration on page 1 of the Application Form. 

INTERNAL APPLICANTS

To ensure that current staff are aware of opportunities within the organisation, vacancies will be posted on the staff egroup (RAD Announce).  Staff are actively encouraged to apply for posts for which they feel they have the necessary skills and abilities. 

ADVERTISING OF POSTS

All permanent posts will normally be advertised internally and externally.

All short term temporary appointments, on a fixed term contract of six months or less, will normally be advertised internally as a minimum standard. 

All temporary appointments, on a fixed term contract of more than six months will normally be advertised externally and internally. 

However, there are two exceptions:

1. Existing members of staff may be offered temporary or permanent additional hours within their own team provided that the work is the same as that already being done by the team, and there will be no change to salary or pay grade. 

2. In some cases funders require us to advertise all jobs publicly and recruit strictly on the basis of the best available person who presents themselves for employment.  This is to comply with their equal opportunities policies.  In these cases the funder’s requirements will be followed. 

DEPARTMENT RESTRUCTURES OR REDUNDANCY SITUATIONS

In cases where there are department restructures or redundancy situations, any members of staff directly affected will be considered first for permanent and temporary posts, prior to wider advertisements, except where funders require the job to be advertised publicly, in which case staff facing redundancy will not be given preference, but will be treated equally with other applicants. 

Staff faced with redundancy may be given other duties during their redundancy period. 

INTERVIEWS

All interview panels must include one member of staff who has attended RAD’s Recruitment Training for Managers course.  It is the responsibility of this person to ensure the rest of the panel are fully briefed on interview and scoring procedures.

If interview panel members know any of the candidates selected for interview, they must disclose their relationship (for example friend, family member, etc) to the recruiting team’s Head of Service.  The Head of Service will decide how best to proceed.

Shortlisted candidates will be told the names of the panel members before the day of their interview.

MAKING THE SELECTION DECISION

The interview panel must arrive at a decision after the interviews are completed.  The assessment sheet will give a score to each candidate and this should provide a strong guide as to who the successful candidate might be.  The highest scoring candidate may not always be the candidate the panel thinks is most suitable for the post however as there may be factors not included on the assessment sheet or information which arises in the interview itself which should be taken into account. 

Where the highest scoring candidate is not the preferred candidate, the panel must be able to explain why this is so, taking care not to base the decision on any factor which might be discriminatory.  It is not acceptable for instance to decide that a younger candidate is more suitable because he or she would fit in with the team better than an older candidate unless there is evidence that the older candidate has found it difficult to work with younger people.

Factors which might indicate that the highest scoring candidate is not successful might include commitment to RAD’s aims, attitudes towards employment and personal motivation.

FEEDBACK

It is RAD’s policy to give feedback to all job applicants and interview candidates who request it. 

The reasons why applicants were not selected for interview are systematically recorded by the shortlisting panel.  On request, this feedback will be given to applicants by the human resources administrator. 

The reasons why candidates were not successful at interview are systematically recorded by the interview panel.  On request, this feedback will be given to candidates by the recruiting manager.