Asking questions is an integral part of any interview as this will allow your client to get a sense of an applicant’s experience and overall suitability for the role. However, your client must ensure questions remain relevant to the role in question. With this in mind, there are several areas of questioning that should be avoided due to the risks associated with them.
Whilst your client will be keen to get to know job candidates, they should be aware that some lines of questioning could potentially lead to claims of discrimination. Therefore, clients must avoid questions that relate or allude to any protected characteristics listed under the Equality Act 2010. This means questions relating to an individual’s age, marital status, childcare responsibilities, sexuality or religious views should be considered off limits. Failure to follow this advice could leave clients open to claims of discrimination: if the role is not offered to the person in question, they may conclude that it was due to the responses they were given.
Disability and race are also protected characteristics under the Act, however, it may be appropriate to ask questions on these topics under certain circumstances. When doing so, your client must proceed with caution and ensure questions only relate to the candidate’s ability to undertake the role. For example, it would be considered reasonable to ask questions to determine an individual’s right to work in the UK. However, to avoid discrimination claims all applicants must be asked to provide evidence of the right to work in the UK, not just those who are perceived not to be UK nationals. Similarly, questions about an applicant’s health are permitted where a certain level of fitness is considered intrinsic to the role.
Whilst it may be necessary to ask questions about a previous role to gauge an applicant’s level of experience, your client is advised to avoid questions about previous salaries and using these responses to tailor individuals’ wage offers. Whilst this is not prohibited by law, it is commonly suggested that asking female employees in particular about their earnings in previous roles may be a factor in the existence of the gender pay gap.
If your client wants a truly successful interview, they should resist the temptation to ask clichéd questions such as “where do you see yourself in five years?” or “what would you say is your biggest weakness?”. Although commonplace in interviews, questions such as this can leave your client open to pre-rehearsed answers which provide very little useful information.
Interviewing is a skill that is so often overlooked and failing to prepare could prevent your client from hiring the right candidate for their business. Therefore, it is important for clients to carefully review questions prior to the interview to make sure they are appropriate for the job in question.
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