Module 2 of 2 · 40 minutes
Inclusive practice: recruitment, rotas and the everyday
By the end of this module you will be able to
- Remove bias from a recruitment process without lowering the bar
- Handle religious observance, dress and dietary needs at work
- Respond when a service user discriminates against a member of staff
- Build a culture where people raise things early
Work through it
1 interactive for this module, built on the WAJD Teach engine. Nothing moves until you ask it to, and every one has a written version if you would rather read it.
Amara We do not discriminate. Our recruitment is fair.
Nadia Then let me ask about the mechanics rather than the intent, because that is where it happens. Who shortlists?
Amara Usually whoever is free.
Nadia Against what criteria?
Amara Experience, mostly. A feel for whether they would fit.
Nadia And there it is, said in good faith. Fit is the single most reliable way to reproduce whoever is already there, because what fit means in practice is resembles us.
Amara What should I do instead?
Nadia Write the person specification from the job, not from the last person who did it. Score against agreed criteria. Ask every candidate the same core questions. And never interview alone, because a single interviewer hires themselves.
Amara Does that not lower the bar?
Nadia It raises it. You are now measuring the thing you actually need instead of measuring familiarity and confidence, which correlate with background rather than with competence.
Amara Anything in our adverts?
Nadia Read the last one and ask of every requirement: would we genuinely reject a brilliant candidate for lacking this? Most essential lists collapse to about three things.
Amara We ask for a clean driving licence.
Nadia Which excludes a lot of disabled applicants, and is genuinely essential far less often than it appears on adverts. If the role is on one site, it is not essential, it is habit.
Amara We also ask for continuous employment history.
Nadia Which excludes carers, people who have been ill, and people who served a prison sentence and have come out. You wanted to check for gaps, which is a Schedule 3 requirement anyway, and you have written it as a bar.
Amara Let us do requests. Prayer, fasting, dress.
Nadia Nearly all of these are easy and are made hard by not having thought about them until somebody asks. Prayer needs a short break and a clean, private space. Most services can do that with a room and a small rota change.
Amara And Ramadan?
Nadia Expect lower energy late in the day, think about shift preferences, and do not schedule your heaviest work at the point somebody has not eaten for fifteen hours. That is management, not accommodation.
Amara Uniform and religious dress?
Nadia Apply the policy with regard to religious dress. And where there is a genuine safety reason, like bare below the elbows in clinical care, the answer is an adjustment that meets both. Disposable sleeves. Not a flat prohibition, which is where services end up in a tribunal.
Amara Right. The hard one. A resident refuses care from a black colleague.
Nadia It happens, and services get it wrong in both directions. Either they quietly rearrange the rota forever, or they tell the worker it is the dementia and to get on with it.
Amara What is right?
Nadia Support the worker first and ask what they want, because their view matters and it is genuinely not predictable. Some want it addressed head on and some want no fuss.
Amara And the resident?
Nadia Assess capacity and cause. A preference expressed by somebody with advanced dementia is a different situation from consistently expressed prejudice by somebody with full capacity, and they need different responses.
Amara Can I just change the rota permanently?
Nadia Not silently. If you make a permanent accommodation with no decision, no rationale and no review, the organisation has quietly agreed with the resident. And your staff notice that immediately, and the ones with options leave.
The written material
Recruitment is where inequality is manufactured
Most discrimination at work is designed in before anybody is employed. A job advert that lists requirements nobody actually needs, a shortlisting process run on gut feel, and an unstructured interview together produce a workforce that resembles whoever is doing the hiring.
What helps, and none of it lowers the bar. Write the person specification from the job rather than from the last person who did it. Distinguish essential from desirable honestly, because a long essential list disproportionately excludes people with non linear careers. Score against agreed criteria. Ask every candidate the same core questions. And have more than one person on the panel, because a single interviewer hires themselves.
Watch the requirements that look neutral. A clean driving licence excludes many disabled applicants and is genuinely essential far less often than it appears. A requirement for continuous employment history excludes carers, and people who have been ill, and people who have been in prison and served their sentence.
Observance, dress and food
Requests around religious observance, dress and diet are usually easy and are made difficult by not having thought about them in advance.
Prayer: a short break and a clean, private space. Most services can manage this with a room and a rota adjustment, and refusing without considering it is indirect discrimination waiting to be challenged.
Fasting: expect reduced energy late in the day during Ramadan, consider shift preferences, and do not schedule the heaviest work at the point somebody has not eaten for fifteen hours.
Dress: uniform policies must be applied with regard to religious dress. Where there is a genuine infection control or safety reason, such as bare below the elbows in clinical care, the answer is an adjustment that meets both, for example disposable sleeves, not a flat prohibition.
Food at staff events: providing only one option and telling people they can bring their own is technically inclusive and communicates the opposite.
When the discrimination comes from a service user
A resident refuses care from a black carer. This happens, and services handle it badly in both directions: either by quietly rearranging the rota forever, or by telling the worker it is the illness and they must get on with it.
Neither is right. The employer owes a duty to the worker under the Equality Act and under health and safety law. Racial abuse from a service user is still racial abuse, and a workforce that learns nobody will protect them loses exactly the staff it can least afford to lose.
What to do: support the worker first and ask what they want, because their view matters and is not predictable. Assess capacity and cause, since a preference expressed by somebody with advanced dementia is a different situation from a consistently expressed prejudice by somebody with full capacity. Record it. Set an expectation with the person and their family where possible. And do not make a permanent rota accommodation without a decision, a rationale and a review, because a silent permanent accommodation is the organisation agreeing with the resident.
Knowledge check
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