A Fair Shot: Reforming Recruitment

With more than one million young people aged 16–24 not in education, employment, or training, getting a foot on the career ladder has never felt more daunting. For too many entry-level job-seekers, applying for a job has increasingly turned into a robotic, dehumanising hurdle.

Candidates are routinely screened out by algorithm-driven portals and automated tests without ever having a human look at their application. Research shows that disadvantaged and ethnic minority applicants face particular disparities at these automated stages.

Liberal Democrats believe that fair hiring practices are essential for equal opportunity. Automation must never replace human accountability. Today, Liberal Democrat members passed a policy to introduce transparency, improve engagement between employers and job-seekers , and give every applicant a fair shot.

Our new policy calls on the Government to launch a Fair Recruitment Code, designed in collaboration with employers and workers, setting standards for externally advertised job vacancies. The Government would adopt the code for public sector employers and promote its adoption among other employers.

The code would set standards for:

• Salary & Vacancy Transparency: Stating minimum pay levels and confirming whether a vacancy is active.
   
• Demystifying Automated Hiring: Disclosing when recruitment tests or AI tools are used, what they assess, and their exact role in decision-making.
   
• Ending Candidate "Ghosting": Notifying applicants of the status of their application by a specified date, bringing an end to the silence that demoralises job seekers.
   
• Protecting Candidate Work: Preventing the use of work or trial tasks created by applicants for commercial purposes without fair remuneration.
   
• Leading by Example: Requiring all government departments and publicly funded bodies to adopt the code, alongside creating a single online service to report code breaches.

A job application should be a gateway to opportunity, not an algorithmic minefield. Employers should be free to hire the best person for the job, but candidates deserve honesty, openness, and human accountability.

The Liberal Democrats are standing up for young job seekers, backing employers to access the skills they need, and ensuring that humanity and transparency are safeguarded within the hiring process.