A Fair Shot: Reforming Recruitment

Chair: Cllr Gareth Epps; Aide: Lord Pack; Hall Aide: To be confirmed

Submitted by: Young Liberals 
Mover: Abrial Jerram 
Summation: Sarah Anderson

Conference notes with concern that:

1. Over 1 million young people aged 16–24 are not in education, employment or training.
2. The Milburn Review found that “entry-level roles have become less plentiful and more demanding. Recruitment has become more remote, more automated and less human”.
3. Research conducted by University College London showed that disadvantaged and ethnic minority graduates have lower job offer rates, with huge disparities at both the initial application stage and online test stage.
4. The Information Commissioner's Office has found that employers were using “solely automated systems without meaningful human involvement” when making hiring decisions and concluded that there is a need for greater transparency and improved safeguards.

Conference believes that:

1. Fair hiring practices are essential for ensuring equality of opportunity.
2. Job applicants deserve honesty and openness regarding both the roles that they apply for and the hiring process used, including any automation used.
3. The use of automation does not remove human accountability for decisions taken.
4. Employers should be free to choose whom to hire within fair, lawful and transparent recruitment processes.

Conference therefore calls on the Government to:

1. Develop a Fair Recruitment Code for externally advertised job vacancies, in consultation with ACAS, regulators, industry bodies, employers, recruiters, trade unions, job boards and youth and disability organisations.
2. Ensure the code sets standards for transparency regarding:
   1. Job adverts, including stating minimum pay and vacancy status.
   2. The use of recruitment tests and automation, including stating what is assessed, and their role in decision-making.
   3. Notification of outcome, including a requirement to notify all applicants of the status of their application by a specified date.
   4. The use and remuneration of applicant work when used commercially or operationally.
   5. Stage-level equality monitoring, limited to largevolume recruiters.
3. Promote the widespread adoption of the code, requiring its adoption by government departments, agencies and other government-funded employers, producing codecompliant templates and working with job boards, recruiter platforms and industry bodies to embed the code’s standards through sector agreements.
4. Create a single online service which directs complaints regarding code breaches to the appropriate advice body or regulator.
5. Review the code annually and introduce targeted legal requirements and necessary enforcement measures where any standard is widely unmet.

Applicability: Federal

Mover: 5 minutes; all other speakers: 3 minutes. For eligibility and procedure for speaking in this debate, see page 10 of the agenda. You can submit a speaker's card online here or in person.

The deadline for amendments to this motion is 13.00 Monday 7 September; see pages 11-12 of the agenda for more information.

Those selected for debate will be printed in Conference Extra and Monday’s Conference Daily. The deadline for requests for separate votes is 09.00 Sunday 20 September; see page 9 of the agenda for more information.