8. Interview notes
It is essential for managers conducting recruitment interviews to keep notes of the interview and afterwards to make a record of the rationale behind the selection decision, ie to note the key reasons or reason why the successful candidate was selected and the other shortlisted candidates rejected. There are several key reasons why such records are important.
· Nobody has a perfect memory and if you have interviewed several candidates during the same day you will inevitably be unable to recall accurately who said what, what the key issues were in relation to a particular candidate, and how a particular question was answered.
· If no records are created and one of the rejected candidates subsequently brings a tribunal claim alleging discrimination, you are unlikely to be able to recall the precise matters that were discussed at the interview or the way in which questions were phrased.
· The absence of any records may lead an employment tribunal to conclude that the whole recruitment process was conducted in a random, subjective or haphazard way.
· If records are available this will provide evidence that the recruitment process was approached in a professional manner. It may also provide specific information that will form a defence against the claim, for example a record that the answers that the candidate gave to specific questions indicated that he or she did not have the essential knowledge or skills required for the job.
·A sample interview questionnaire: this format is a good guide, it shows the core questions, in this case for a change management role, and clearly outlines the evidence that is required and leaves space for notes.
· Once a tribunal claimant has shown facts that indicate that he or she might have been treated less favourably on one of the prohibited grounds, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that it did not discriminate. In recruitment cases, this means persuading the tribunal that the candidate's recollection of events is false or inaccurate, that the questions asked were in fact phrased differently or that what was said was not discriminatory. In practice, this would be impossible to achieve without proper records.
Managers should be aware that any record created about an individual and placed in a structured file (or input to a computer) will give rise to individual rights under the Data Protection Act 1998. Specifically job applicants will have the right, upon written request, to be given a copy of their own file. Interview notes should therefore be compiled with this in mind.
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