You may have heard the terms “positive action” and “positive discrimination” bandied around recently in relation to recruitment.  Do you know what they mean and which method you CAN use without getting into trouble?  

In April this year, a change brought about by the Equality Act could very well affect the way you recruit new staff.   The change in the law means that “positive action” will be allowed.  “Positive action” means that you can choose to hire a candidate from an unrepresented group, provided they are as qualified for the role as other applicants.

After the revelations that two senior police offers in North Yorkshire are facing charges of misconduct over claims of nepotism during a recruitment drive, I have a question.  When does a helping hand turn into nepotism and is it just a question of interpretation?

You might think that cases involving nepotism don’t happen that often.  But what about the countless family firms all over the country where the son and heir automatically takes over the running of the company?  Is that fair to all the other employees?  Is it just a case of “it’s their business and they can do what they like!”?  Sadly, it happens all too often that said “son and heir” wouldn’t work off a battery, let alone man up and lead the company!  What would happen if such companies put time and effort into looking for the best person for the job, regardless of who happens to share the owner’s gene pool?

The conciliation service Acas reported at the beginning of this year that 1 in 10 employees experience workplace bullying and harassment.  The knock on effect is that employment solicitors have reported that bullying features highly in the cases of unfair dismissal and discrimination they handle.  As an employer, you have a zero tolerance approach to bullying and harassment.  It says so right there in your employee handbook.  You know that workplace bullying can be a problem.  But what happens when you ARE the problem?

You may not even be aware of it.  You may think that’s just your sense of humour and tough luck if your employees don’t get the joke.  You’re entitled to your opinions and well, let’s face it, you’re the employer after all.  You pay their wages and if they don’t like it, they know where the door is.  And why wouldn’t you be angry, shout at people and slam doors?!  You’re so stressed and they just don’t understand what it’s like having all the pressure of running the business.  If any of these sound like you, stop and think about how your employees are feeling.  There’s a strong chance that at least one person will feel bullied by your behaviour.  Most of them will feel a little uncomfortable but they won’t say anything because they’ve gotten used to it.  Does upsetting that one person make you a bully?  Yes, it does.

If you're seen as a bully, what does that mean for your carefully-worded zero tolerance policy?  If you're seen as a bully, what does that say to other managers in your business?  If you're seen as a bully, bullying will thrive in your business and your policy won't be worth the paper it's printed on. 

Not sure what’s going on this week – blogging subjects coming out of my ears at the moment! Perhaps I’m just feeling particularly receptive to information and news updates floating around or maybe it’s to do with my newfound social media addiction! Either way, subjects to blog about abound.

The Government has just rushed through the Equality Bill to get it passed before parliament is dissolved ahead of this year's general election. The bill will become law before the election but won't actually come into effect until the autumn. One of the key points of the bill is that it will allow "positive action" from an employer to redress the balance if they have more male than female employees, meaning that they can actively recruit more women into their business if they already have a high number of men. Choosing a female applicant over a male applicant in this case would only be possible if they were both equally qualified for the job.