The British Standards Institution (BSI) has launched a new British Standard developed for the online recruitment industry. Online Recruitment - Code of Practice, also known as BS 8877, covers online recruitment from job-boards to social media and sets out recommendations for advertising, screening and storage.
The standard was developed to address best practice of online recruitment in order to help build candidate confidence in the marketplace. Through implementing the standard, online recruitment companies can improve candidate experience by enhancing the application and/or selection process, ensuring job roles are accurate and up-to-date, and personal information is managed securely and fairly. This in turn will help improve their brand reputation and subsequently help them to attract candidates and prospective employers to use their websites.
Industry representatives including the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) provided input into the voluntary code as did many practising recruiters during the public consultation phase. OnRec were also a driving force behind the standard, which will be a topic covered at their annual conference on 18th October.
Marilyn Davidson of APSCo, “APSCo are keen to promote initiatives that raise standards of professionalism across the board within recruitment. With on-line methodologies playing such a huge role in today’s recruitment processes it is clearly to everyone’s benefit to have guidelines that will promote best practice and quality of service. BS 8877 has been developed by a group of experts in their fields and APSCo is delighted to have had the opportunity to add our input to the standard.”
The publication of BS 8877, which will be of interest to all involved in online recruitment, has also been supported by government. A spokesman from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills said: "BIS welcomes initiatives that help to raise standards in the recruitment sector and the publication of the standard provides a set of helpful guidelines for online recruitment practices".
The new standard supports the existing legislative framework and could ultimately provide an industry-led means of maintaining good practice if legislation is simplified. Dan Palmer, Head of Market Development at BSI said “At the moment this voluntary standard covers the essentials of online recruitment will help to improve the candidate’s experience. Over time BS 8877 will evolve in line with legislative changes and technological developments.”
BS 8877 is available on the BSI website: http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030218703
A new International Standard for Occupational Assessment has been developed with the British Psychological Society and will follow later in the year. ISO 10667 will set requirements for both providers and client organisations involved in psychometric testing and other work-based assessments.