Best practice encompasses the steps which an employer should take to comply with current legislation. As a starting point, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights recommends, as a minimum, that all employers formulate, adopt and implement a written equality policy
This should focus attention on the employer’s commitment to develop and use employment procedures and practices which do not discriminate and provide genuine equality of opportunity for all workers. However, before employers adopt their Equal Opportunities Policy for the first time and thereafter, at regular intervals, it is advisable for them to review the employment practices, procedures and systems that already exist.
The suggested areas for employers to consider include:
- Recruitment practices and job advertisements
- Selection criteria and methods during recruitment
- Shortlisting, interviewing and selection procedures
- Promotion, transfer and training practices
- Terms of employment, benefits, facilities and services
- Grievance and disciplinary procedures and victimisation
- Dismissal, selection for redundancy and other detrimental treatment
- Preferential treatment generally
Employers may also benefit from monitoring the composition of the workforce based on ethnicity, sex, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age and part time status.