In this essay the group are to play the role of a human resource officer in a large NHS hospital and recruit a ward administrator from eight applicants to take on the general administration and support duties, which are presently being performed by nursing staff and are thereby reducing their ability to meet their objectives. The objective is to select a ward administrator for general administration and support duties, therefore job-related experience and the relevant skills are the most important elements in the selection process.
There are eight applicants applying for this job and application forms must be used to reject, measure applicants and check their person specifications with job descriptions. There are only three applicants who can be short listed and the group have chosen applicants 2, 6 and 8. The reasons for selecting these three people are that this job requires the relevant experience, knowledge, skills and qualifications. The reason for not choosing applicant 1 is that she does not have any working background in the NHS; she also does not have the relevant qualifications.
Applicant 3 also does not have the relevant skills, experience or qualifications. The reason for not choosing applicant 4 is again, she does not have health sector experience and knowledge. As a consequence, she is not qualified for this job. For applicant 5, the reason for not choosing him is that he lacks health sector qualifications and experience. He even made spelling mistakes in the application form, which means his English skills may be poor. Applicant 7 lacks health sector experience and training.
The reason for shortlisting applicant 2 is that he has worked in an NHS hospital as a staff nurse for seven years from 1991 to 1998; therefore he is familiar with hospital work and may have some of the relevant knowledge, skills and working experience. His qualifications include SEN, 3 O grades and 3 Highers as well. In addition, he also has working experiences as a manager in an office. He is currently working as an office manager with an experience of 6 years from 1998 to 2004. From his job history he appears reliable and stayed in both of his previous jobs for quite a long time.
Although applicant 2 is disabled and uses a wheelchair, it would be illegal to reject him for this reason. As long as he can do this job, the NHS can provide a good working environment despite his problems. His disability does not affect his ability to perform the duties required for this position. Applicant 6 has worked in a hospital as an administrator for 4 years from 1997 to 2001; hence she has the relevant knowledge and experience. She has relevant qualifications which are secretarial studies RSA 1 & 11 and SVQ level 5 Medical Secretarial exceeds the minimum requirement in admin skills.
She also has a good general education with skills including Arithmetic, English and French plus 90 words per minute typing and 30 words per minute shorthand. Although applicant 6 has a two-year-old son, this is not a problem and could not legally be used to discriminate against her. Applicant 8 was shortlisted because she has 12 years secretarial and administration experience in private companies and three hospitals. She has 6 standard grades including Maths, English and secretarial studies which are the highest qualifications of the three short listed candidates.
She also exceeds the ideal administrative skills requirements, with 90 words per minute typing skills and 50 words per minute shorthand. She mentioned her current job is the same as this one. Her partial sight should not be a problem unless it is severe enough to interfere with her work. The 12 years spent in secretarial and admin positions may be a benefit but her ability to stay in one job for a prolonged period is in doubt, but generally, this applicant appears to be the strongest on paper. If a choice had to be made at this stage, applicant 8 would almost certainly get the job.
Discrimination safeguards There are several potential discriminations which may occur during selecting the most suitable ward administrator. They include sex, marital status, race and disability. Sex discrimination is the first issue. There are males and females who applied for the job and they have to be treated equally with respect to the job. Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2002a) state that E. U. competence applies in sex discrimination cases and U. K. Law can be challenged in the European courts if it does not comply with article 141 of the treaty of Amsterdam.
These laws are monitored and policed to some degree by the Equal Opportunities Commission who conducts investigations into employer actions where it is suspected the Act may have been ignored and where employees (or potential employees) feel they have been treated unfairly. The second issue is marital status. Hook and Foot (2002a) state that marital status is also an issue for consideration. The sex discrimination act (1975) makes it clear that potential employees must not be assessed and / or rejected on the grounds of their marital status.
The potential employer has to obey the law and give each applicant a fair chance if they meet the requirements. Employers may think a single mother or father with young children is not suitable for a full time job, because they may not deal with family problems and company business effectively. This is a serious discrimination which must be avoided. Relevant working experience, skills and knowledge are more important, as long as the applicant can do the job. One should then, focus on the applicants’ ability. Marital status is irrelevant. Thirdly, racism is an issue.
Torrington et al (2002b) point out that UK race discrimination law is governed by the Race Relations Act 1976. Under the terms of the European Union Directive on Race Discrimination, agreed in 2000, this area of law becomes one of European competence at some stage before 2003. Therefore, it is clear that all applicants must be given a fair chance no matter where they come from or what race they are. Although the specification does not state nationality and ethnicity, all of them must be treated equally to avoid racism. The applicant who is most competent must be chosen, regardless of his or her race.