Graduate Recruiter’s Breakfast Seminar (BS’1)
Hosted by Deloitte
The first Breakfast Seminar exclusively for members of the Graduate Recruiter Disability Café Club (GRDCC) took place on the 19th April, 2011. These seminars have been set up as a direct result of members saying they were not hugely inspired by online discussion forums and telephone conferences that had been in the pipeline but instead would prefer face to face discussions. It was felt that these allowed for better quality discussions and also increased the opportunity for networking.
The focus of this event was The Equality Act, and specifically the implications for graduate recruitment.
The two key areas it looked at were:
- What you could / could not ask at interview.
- What was ‘reasonable’ when it came to making adjustments.
David Blomfield, Partner at Boyes Turner and an expert employment lawyer, provided information on the law and clarity on what the new legislation meant for employers. Helen Cooke, Director of My Plus Consulting, then looked at what it meant in practice. The subject matter was brought alive by delegates providing details of situations that they had experienced and challenges they had faced.
Of key interest was a question around whether a candidate had to disclose their disability if they were requesting adjustments. Another question which caused a lot of discussion was around whether an interviewer could, or indeed should, discuss a person’s disability during the interview process and before an offer of employment had been made. As ever when dealing with issues of disability the answers weren’t straight forward however practical advice was given and interesting discussions took place.
Feedback from the event has been positive with delegates particularly finding it useful and interesting to hear what challenges other companies are dealing with and how they have resolved them.
This event is the first in a series of Breakfast Seminars for members of the GRDCC; the next seminar will take place on the 12th July, 2011.
“I found the session useful in the sense that it was a good opportunity to ask questions in an open and confidential environment.”
“I found hearing the experiences of others particularly interesting… it was great to get an insight into some of the issues that other organisations have faced and how they were dealt with.”
