Module: EL6041 – Instructional Podcast Assignment

Sinead Wall
18178928
 Background to the Lesson
Course Title: Interview and Selection Skills for non-HR Professionals
This course is aimed at team leaders and other middle management who have been asked to support
and sometimes lead recruitment and selection on their teams. The proposed audience has little or no
experience with recruitment. Note that some of the recruitment tasks will be completed by the HR
team.
Task: Students will know what questions can and cannot be asked at interview based on the
Employment Equality Act (1998-2015)
1. Performance Objective:
Given a list of possible interview questions, students will identify if each question follows the
Employment Equality Act (1998-2015) guidelines for interviews by selecting true or false, without
consulting their class notes.
2. Terminal Objective:
Given a list of possible interview questions, students will identify if each question follows the
Employment Equality Act (1998-2015) guidelines for interviews.
3. Lesson Objective:
Given a list of possible interview questions, students will follow the Employment Equality Act (1998-
2015) guidelines for interviews by selecting true or false for each question, without consulting their
class notes.

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 1. Introduction

0:00 Introductory Music

0:09 Welcome to my podcast ‘Interviews and the Employment Equality Act (1998)’ which is part
of the ‘Interview and Selections Skills’ course that you are studying.

I am Sinead Wall and at the end of this lesson you will know what questions can and
cannot be asked at interview based on the Employment Equality Act. It is important to
understand this legislation because if you ask an interview question that does not ensure
equality of opportunity, a case may be brought against you through the Workplace
Relations Commission.

For instance, in 2017 a government minister asked a civil servant if she was married or had
children? In Limerick last year, Solas were found to have discriminated against a 60-year-
old employee, who went for promotion and was asked at interview: "Do you not think at
this stage that you should be taking it easier?” In both cases large compensation amounts
had to be paid and a lot of media attention was brought to the employers involved1.

Today after listening to this podcast, you will be able to:

• Define what the Employment Equality Act is and what it covers
• Distinguish between direct and indirect discrimination
• List the nine grounds covered by the legislation
• Ensure equality of opportunity when conducting an interview2

After this lesson you will have an assessment to complete where you will be given a list of
possible interview questions and you will identify if each question follows the Employment
Equality Act guidelines.

1:39 Transition Music

2. Instructional Content

Section 1. What is the Employment Equality Act?

Think back to lesson one earlier where we covered the selection process. A good selection
process should assure that the best qualified and most suitable candidate gets selected3.

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 The Employment Equality Act promotes equality of opportunity and prohibits
discrimination in relation to and within employment on nine grounds including recruitment
and selection.

Discrimination can be direct or indirect under the act. This means treating one person in a
less favourable way than another person on any of the nine grounds.
This law covers all aspects of employment starting with recruitment and selection and
includes all terms and conditions of employment, pay, promotion, training and education.

This law applies to:

• Full time, part time and temporary employees
• Public and private sector
• Vocational training bodies
• Employment agencies
• Trade unions, professional and trade bodies4

2:45 Transition Music

Section 2. Direct versus indirect discrimination.
We know that discrimination means treating somebody in a less favourable way under any
of the nine grounds. Direct discrimination means that somebody is unfairly discriminated
against in a direct way, for example a female being denied promotion when the job is given
to a less qualified and experienced male.

Indirect discrimination is where a practice or requirement applies to everyone but results in

people with certain characteristics being disadvantaged. An example of this is if there was a
condition that only people over six feet could apply for a role. This would indirectly
discriminate against females who are less likely to meet this requirement.

3:37 Transition Music

Section 3. What does the law cover?
Next, we will list the nine grounds covered by the law:
• Gender which includes male, female and transgender
• Marital status which includes being single, married, divorced, separated or
widowed
• Family status concerns responsibility as a parent or carer
• Sexual orientation consists of heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual

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 • Religious belief concerns beliefs, outlook or none
• Age covers people between the age of 18 and 65
• Disability includes any physical, intellectual, learning or emotional disabilities and
certain medical conditions
• Race also includes colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• And finally, being a member of the Traveller community

Remember we want to ensure equality of opportunity for all job applicants. The easiest way
to do this is to focus on a candidate’s skills, talents and qualifications.
Now we will look at some examples of questions not to ask so that we do not directly or
indirectly discriminate against any applicant.

The first example is when the job you are interviewing for has some unsocial hours. Female
candidates should not be asked questions about their child-minding arrangements or how
their spouse would feel about them working unsocial hours. This could lead to
discrimination on the grounds of gender or family status.

Another example is when you have a young person applying for a supervisory position.
They should not be asked questions about how they would cope with managing staff that
are much older than them. This line of questioning might convey the impression that the
interview panel is biased against younger candidates because older staff may resent taking
instructions from them5.

5:42 Transition Music

Section 4. How to ensure equality during the interview
The best approach to ensure equality of opportunity while conducting an interview is to
follow these guidelines:
• Be familiar with your company’s Employment Equality Policy. Consult SharePoint
for a copy of this.
• Focus questions on skills, talents and qualifications. Later in this course we will
learn how to write interview question.
• Ask each candidate the same questions.
• Fill in the interview scorecard and award marks to candidates based on how they
answered the questions. Human Resources need to keep these records on file for
three years.

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 • Talk about the weather if you need to on the way to the interview room, however,
avoid ‘small talk’ as this can lead to inappropriate personal conversations.
• Make adjustments for candidates with disabilities such as choosing a different
interview room or room layout. Human Resources will notify you if this is
required.
• Always interview with at least one other person and ideally have a diverse group of
people on the interview panel6.

6:55 Transition Music

3. Summary

To summarise what we have covered. Firstly, we have defined the Employment Equality
Act and spoken about direct and indirect discrimination. We have listed the nine grounds
that can be discriminated against and given some examples of questions to avoid. Finally,
we went through some guidelines to ensure equality of opportunity at interview.

Remember you can back listen to this podcast at any time and a pdf version of this content
is available on Moodle. If you would like further information on this topic you should
contact Human Resources or check out www.ihrec.ie9.
Thank you for listening. Now we will complete the lesson assessment8.

7:43 Closing Music

7:51 End

Superscript shows Gagnes nine events of instruction

1. Gain attention
2. Inform of objectives
3. Stimulate recall of prerequisites
4. Present the stimulus material
5. Provide learning guidance
6. Elicit learner performance
7. Provide feedback. This will be given after the assessment
8. Assess the performance
9. Enhance retention and transfer

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References

Artist unknown (2018) Ambient background music for Videos [online mp3] available:
https://soundcloud.com/ibgmusic/documentary [accessed 25 Nov 2018] (Transition Music)

Conroy, P. (n.d.) Recruitment and selection guidelines, Results through People, available:
https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Events/OurEvents/Finance-for-Growth/Recruitment-and-
Selection-Guidelines.pdf [accessed 21 Nov 2018]

Emerald Park. (2010) Slow 2004-2005 [online mp3] available:

https://archive.org/details/Slow_2004_-_2005-9585 [accessed 25 Nov 2018] (Introductory and
Closing Music)

Gagne, R. and Briggs, L. (1974) Principles of instructional design. New York; Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.

Guidelines for Employment Equality Policies in Enterprises (n.d.) Irish Human Rights and Equality
Commission, available:
https://www.ihrec.ie/download/pdf/guidelines_for_employment_equality_policies_in_enterprises.pdf
[accessed 21 Nov 2018]

Hynes, L. (2017) Interviews – what not to ask! Leman Solicitors, available:

https://thoughtleadership.leman.ie/post/102ek1k/interviews-what-not-to-ask [accessed 21 Nov 2018]

Irish business and employers confederation (2018) available:

https://www.ibec.ie/IBEC/IBEC.nsf/vPages/home?OpenDocument [accessed 25 Nov 2018]

O Kelly, E. (2018) Solas employee awarded €20k in age discrimination case rte.ie, 25 Jan, available:
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018/0125/935935-wrc-ruling-ageism/ [accessed 21 Nov 2018]