We advise our clients on the legal challenges relating to recruitment. We strive to ensure that our clients comply with equality and non-discrimination obligations, employment and data protection laws at every stage of the recruitment process. Our trainings provide recruiters, HR specialists and recruiting supervisors  the necessary knowledge relating to recruitment, equality and data protection legislation. Based on our training you are able to avoid legal pitfalls in recruitments processes.

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What should not be included in job advertisements?

 

In accordance with the Equality Act, no one may be discriminated against on the basis of age, ethnic or national origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, state of health, disability, sexual orientation or any other personal reason. Under the Equality Act, a job may not only for women or men unless there is a  acceptable reason for that so due to the quality of the task. It is forbidden to apply only men for a  IT support positions or to require the cleaner to be able speak Finnish. Instead, it would be permissible to require a photograph for a model job applicant and to require the news reader to have complete oral and written skills of Finnish language.  

 

When choosing the wording of a job advertisement, and in particular when using hyper-targeted digital job advertising, it would be useful to critically examine whether the wording or targeting leads to a strengthening of existing stereotypes or an increase in diversity.

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What should be considered in job application forms?

 

When preparing application forms, efforts should be made to guide the job applicant to provide only the necessary information for the open position. In addition, transparent information in accordance with the Data Protection Regulation must be provided, for example, the application form must be linked to the data protection policy concerning recruitment. The data protection policy must describe the identity of the controller, the categories and sources of data to be processed, the purposes of the processing, the grounds and the retention period, and the rights of the data subject, for example.

 

From whom can information on job applicants be collected, and under what conditions?

 

The Data Protection Regulation does not impose restrictions on the use of different data sources, provided that the general principles of the processing of personal data, such as the principles of necessity and minimization, as well as information obligations, are respected. However, in accordance with the Finnish Employment Data Protection Act, personal data may only be collected primarily from the jjob applicant. If the employer collects personal data from others, the job applicant must provide her/his consent for that.

 

What questions can yone ask in a job interview?

 

The job applicant can only be asked questions that are related to the job she/he is applying for. The interview should focus on the job applicant's professional background in terms of work experience, training and core competencies. Asking questions about family status, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or similar sensitive issues can lead to suspicion of discrimination. So be careful with the wording of the questions: for example, instead of asking if the jb applicant has children, you can ask if the job applicant is able to travel abroad regularly as required by the job.

 

What should be considered when selecting a person for an open position?

 

The employer has the right to choose the person considered best for the job. However, the job applicant may not be excluded on the grounds of, for example, pregnancy or sexual orientation or any other inappropriate basis. When there are both women and men as job applicant, the employer must make a comparison  between the job applicants. Suitability for the open position may be an acceptable reason for selecting a less deserving candidate for said position, but it is important that the employer demonstrates that it has actually weighed the abilities and characteristics of the selected and non-selected persons. Therefore, define in advance the selection criteria that can be used as a basis for comparing merit and suitability of each job applicant, and record your observations related to tests or interviews about the job applicant’s characteristics, for example. Remember that the qualities relied on in the selection must be relevant to the performance of the task in question.