Code of Good Practice on the Integration of Employment Equity into Human

Resource Policies and Practices: Part 5

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We now take a look at the actual job offer. Before this offer is committed to paper, the employer must make certain that his expectations and the employees expectations are agreed.

There is no point in making a job offer to a candidate who has revealed at the interview that his expectations differ from those of the employer – or that he has expectations that the employer cannot provide.

Such an employment relationship will never last.

Expectations must agree for several reason, and one of the important reasons is that of employee retention. No employer desires a high staff turnover.  The idea is to have a stable workforce, and the employer needs to employ people who are going to stay – "job-hoppers" are of no use to anybody – not even to themselves.

If a candidate rejects a job offer, the employer should solicit the co-operation of that candidate and conduct an "exit" type interview to try and establish the reasons for the rejection of the offer.

Obviously the candidate must have been interested, or he would not have applied for the job.

What then has noe persuaded him to change his mind ?

The information obtained in this "exit" type interview could be of great importance to the employer.

It is essential that it is made clear to the candidate what the employers expectations are.

Employers are expected to keep copies of all documents used in the recruitment and interview/selection process for a "reasonable" period of time.

As is expected, in keeping with established good practice, the Code does not define the meaning of "reasonable."

Presumably then it is left to the employer to decide.

It is important to keep these records in case another employee or indeed the candidate himself should, at a later stage, challenge the fairness of the recruitment and selection processes.

Reference checking is another area that requires special attention. The idea of this function is to verify information provided by the applicant on the job application form or at the interview process.

Reference checking must not be carried out in a manner that unfairly discriminates. The same checks must be done on all short-listed applicants.

An employer should only conduct integrity checks if it is relevant to the job. Such checks would include credit references ot checking of credit records, checking criminal records, checking of driver's license validity,  and so on.

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