Promoting fairness and equality in our recruitment process

Our Recruitment and Selection Policy sets out our principles for recruitment to all vacancies within the Council.

These principles include:

• our recruitment practice will be fair, transparent and accessible to all. Candidates will be shown fairness and courtesy at each stage
• we will positively promote the Council as an employer of choice and encourage diversity by ensuring that our recruitment practices are designed to attract and recruit talented people from all sections of the community
• we will recruit solely on merit - all selection decisions will be based on a fair and objective assessment of candidates against competencies, skills, abilities, knowledge and experience, and an understanding of and commitment to the Council’s Corporate Ways of Working – Communication, Collaboration and Innovation
• for customer facing roles, where speaking English is an intrinsic part of the role, we will select candidates, who are able to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate, spoken English
• we will work positively with disabled candidates to identify and make reasonable adjustments at all stages in the recruitment process and that are necessary to enable them to take up and work successfully in the post
• we will promote and encourage work life balance by considering and introducing flexible working arrangements, which support service delivery.

Recruiting safely and fairly

We appreciate the important role that suitable employment can play in the rehabilitation process of ex-offenders. A criminal record will not be an automatic bar to employment with us. We ask all applicants to declare if they have any unspent criminal convictions. Recruiting managers are only given this information, after shortlisting is completed and before interview. This means that applicants are first assessed on their skills, qualifications and ability to do the job, and gives applicants the opportunity to provide disclosure information to the employer in a way which better informs the employer’s risk assessment.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and work within our safer recruitment policy.

For certain roles, related to working with children and vulnerable adults, we ask applicants to tell us if they have any unspent and unprotected, spent criminal convictions. We will share this information with the recruiting manager before interview. Please note, it is illegal to apply for a job working closely with children and vulnerable adults if you are barred from doing so.

For these roles and for roles where you access the government’s Public Service Network, we will ask you to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service Check. 

Your information will be treated in the strictest confidence. Suitable applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying.

Supporting disabled applicants

As Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to encouraging you to apply for jobs with us, if you are disabled.

We do this by:

1. Offering a guaranteed Interview. If you tick that you are disabled on the application form, then at the shortlisting stage, if you meet the minimum essential criteria for the role, you will be guaranteed an interview.
2. Providing reasonable support by adjusting our process to suit you. As an employer, we are legally bound to put reasonable support in place that removes the disadvantages that you have because of your disability. This is a reasonable adjustment. We won’t ask you about your disability, only that you declare yourself as disabled.

If you require any reasonable adjustments at any stage of the application process, you can contact the recruiting manager or the recruitment team to request these. Email recruitmentandtalent@sheffield.gov.uk.

Asking for reasonable adjustments at interview

You can ask for adjustments to job interviews and any tests, assessments or activities that you are asked to complete as part of our recruitment process. We want everyone to perform to the best of their abilities in a good test that allows us to test your skills for the role.

You are the expert on your individual needs. Please contact us as soon as you can, to find out how the interview or assessment activity is going happen. You should suggest the adjustments that you need, so that you can complete the interview or test well. If this suggestion could also be emailed to us, this helps us to put the arrangements in place, so that your interview/test goes well on the day.

Examples of reasonable adjustments in job interviews and test

• British Sign Language interpreter
• assistance, if the test is on a computer, such as a larger screen, software or a person to read for you
• live captioning for video interviews

Our staff have had training and guidance on reasonable adjustments but they won’t be an expert on your needs, so let us know what is best for you.