two references

[eggbasket]

I always favoured asking whether the referee would be happy to re-employ the prospective employee, rather than asking if (s)he was good. Also, as a recruiter, it is important to ask questions about punctuality, attitude to the work and a whole raft of other questions that are designed to determine whether said prospective employee will be an asset to the company. Theoretically, these references should be obtained in writing. I am not sure of the legality of a verbal reference, but am fairly sure that you should make a record of them that can be made available to the applicant so that you can prove equality of opportunity, if only to cover your own back as a recruiter. This is what it all comes down to in the end: equality of opportunity. The law heavily favours the employee and applicant these days, assuming that they are willing to pursue issues through the courts or tribunals and the onus is on the employer to be seen to be fair. That is one reason why you will see more and more application forms rather than CVs; to ensure that all people have the same chance of demonstrating their abilities on paper. Another reason is that it is easier to compare people if their details are in the same format. CVs vary wildly in quality and content. The down side to this is that the recruitment process can take a lot longer. One council unit I worked for had a two to three month lead in to recruitment because of the council's recruitment policy. This meant that the unit could not take people on at short notice and therefore that the unit was particularly reluctant to lay people off and would carry people through the lean times by giving them odd jobs round the unit such as basic maintenance rather than get rid of them, especially when the redundancy process also took about two to three months to go through. As a result, the unit had a large number or people who had been there for many years. As I recall, the minimum contract length on starting was 3 or 6 months.

One thing that worries me is this talk about one or two week contracts. Do units still do that? And if so, how do they survive? Or is it that they just ignore the employment laws and hope that no one will take them to court?

Cheers,
Eggbasket

Eggy by name, eggy by nature