Recruitment and promotion

Our legal services for employees and individuals cover all aspects of recruitment and promotion, including offers and contracts. We provide expert advice and support to ensure that your rights are protected and that you receive fair treatment throughout the process.

• Employers should follow a fair process when recruiting staff or deciding who to promote.
• If you feel you have been treated unfairly or have been discriminated against during recruitment or promotion, you may have a claim against your employer.
• We will use our experience and expertise to determine your options, and explain your next steps so you can make the right decisions with confidence.

What is recruitment and promotion?

Recruitment and promotion are the processes used by an employer to identify and select new employees, as well as to advance current employees to higher positions within the organisation. Recruitment involves attracting and screening candidates for open positions, while promotion refers to the process of moving an employee from one job to another within the same organisation.

Employers should follow a fair process when recruiting staff by:

• identifying the vacancy;
• preparing a job description and person specification;
• deciding whether an exemption, such as occupational requirements, applies to the vacancy;
• advertising the vacancy: inviting applications (using either application forms or other means of applying) and dealing with speculative applications;
• shortlisting and interviewing;
• making an offer of employment, subject to conditions where appropriate (and, where necessary, withdrawing the offer); and
• inducting the new employee, starting with a probationary period where appropriate.

Have you been discriminated against?

At no point in this process should the employer discriminate against the applicant. Legally, discrimination can happen at any point in the process, starting from the way in which the vacancy is advertised, through to promotions.

If you believe you have been discriminated against during a recruitment or promotion process or that the recruitment process has not been followed properly or applied fairly, you may have a claim against your employer.