Days ago, on August 27, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced a Final Rule which increases the affirmative action obligations of federal contractors and subcontractors, which have been in place for over 40 years, with regard to individuals with disabilities (IWD) and military veterans. The Final Rule … Continue Reading
Governor Rick Perry approved Texas H.B. 1188 which amends the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code [pdf] to prohibit most causes of action “against an employer, general contractor, premises owner, or other third party solely for negligently hiring or failing to adequately supervise an employee, based on evidence that the employee has been convicted of … Continue Reading
I have recently been watching (and secretly enjoying) BBC Three’s The Call Centre. The “documentary” follows the day to day events at a Swansea call centre under the leadership of CEO and self-titled Napoleon, Nev. It took me a while to realise that this was not some terribly clever spoof like The Office, but was … Continue Reading
In the first quarter of 2013, 286 members of the recruitment sector provided their comments on the Government’s proposals to change the legislation currently regulating that sector, commonly known as the “Conduct Regs”. The Government has now released a document containing a summary of those comments and has confirmed its intentions going forward. By way … Continue Reading
Why should you seriously consider recruiting overconfident, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents, variously dubbed ‘Generation Y’ or the ‘New Millennials’?. This is the generation of teens and twenty-somethings who have lived with new media from the start and have no fear of creating a near-celebrity persona online using YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. … Continue Reading
I was very pleased to receive one of this blog’s first printable comments on our Penguin/Sombrero piece last week. It is always reassuring to know that there are real readers out there! Previous comments have included one ferociously racist in nature and a series of gently commendatory remarks which turned out to be spam for … Continue Reading
HereIsTheCitynews.com (HITCN) recently ran a piece on left-field recruitment interview questions, including the one in the title, “What kitchen utensil would you be?”, and the potentially lethal “On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer”. Would you seriously want to tell the Employment Tribunal that your disputed selection decision between man … Continue Reading
London is one of the most ethnically diverse and multi-cultural cities in the world. The latest census data shows that London’s population is 40% minority ethnic, yet recent statistics indicate that 9 out of 10 Metropolitan police officers are white. In essence, the police officers who are serving London do not represent the diverse ethnic … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, the New South Wales Supreme Court in Australia ordered costs against an employer which funded an employee’s defence of restraint proceedings instigated by his former employer. HRX Pty Ltd v Scott is the latest in a series of legal spats involving human resourcing companies Talent2 and HRX. In this case, HRX employed … Continue Reading
Reports on the BBC News On-Line last week suggest another “return to old fashioned values”, the Government’s stock response when all else fails. This time it is in relation to teaching English grammar at primary school, the first time in a while that such focus has been placed on this foundation of the language at … Continue Reading
Oh dear, such good intentions but it lasted less than a week. 17-year-old Paris Brown resigned from her £15,000-a-year post as “adviser on youth” to Kent Police Commissioner Ann Barnes after the media discovered her various tweets about sex, drugs, alcohol and her online use of derogatory and discriminatory terms. Brown apologised for her “inappropriate” comments and noted … Continue Reading
There are two thoughts about the recent furore surrounding young Paris Brown’s appointment, Twitter fiasco and embarrassing resignation as Youth Crime Commissioner. The first is a lesson about the recruitment process. Stating the obvious, it pays to ensure there is a thorough assessment and selection of candidates for vacancies, particularly for high profile jobs. One … Continue Reading
The Court of Appeal ruled in R (T & others) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester & others last week that forcing would-be employees to disclose all previous criminal convictions to prospective employers is an infringement of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, breaching the right to a private life. The Rehabilitation … Continue Reading
Squire Sanders presents a series of webinars focussing on the key labour and employment issues in various countries throughout Europe, Asia Pacific and the United States. On 21 February 2013 at 4.00 pm CET (10.00am EST, 3pm GMT), the featured country is France. Jean-Marc Sainsard and Pauline Pierce from Squire Sanders’ Paris office will focus … Continue Reading
Commentators on “social recruitment” (using social media technology to recruit) are tipping 2013 as a hot year for recruitment technology and HR tech companies are pushing a mindboggling range of products out into the market. We are not (yet) aware of any Employment Tribunal claims arising from the use of social recruiting methods but if … Continue Reading
I came across an article published in The Guardian newspaper this week which discussed a study carried out in America in 2012, throwing up some revealing results in relation to the treatment of job applications from male and female candidates for work in the Science sector. The premise was simple: how would two prospective candidates … Continue Reading
I noticed an interesting article on the BBC News webpage recently concerning the findings from an MP’s report which stated that women from ethnic minority backgrounds faced discrimination “at every stage of the recruitment process”. At the application stage, those with typically “non-white” names faced immediate difficulty. The lady interviewed by the BBC had been … Continue Reading
