Pre-Employment Health Checks and Assessments
Protecting and promoting employee health
A pre-employment health risk assessment is the most cost-effective way to identify any employees who may require adjustment to the new role within your company.
In our experience up to 10% of all new employees will have a medical condition which is relevant to their total fitness for work. A pre-employment screening helps companies identify problems early on, so you can then put the necessary adjustments in place to provide support in your workplace.
Employment screening helps reduce the risk of allegations of failure to make reasonable adjustment in the workplace which is the most common type of complaint lodged under disability legislation.
The Equality Act
The Equality Act came into law on 1st October 2010 and replaced the previous disability discrimination legislation. It introduced major changes to pre-employment checks and limits the circumstances in which you can ask health-related questions before an offer of employment has been made:
- You may only enquire whether a candidate requires any adjustments to enable him/her to attend the selection process
- You may not ask questions relating to past sickness absence
- You may not refer an applicant to an occupational health practitioner or ask an applicant to complete a health questionnaire before a job offer except where you need to find out:
- Whether a candidate can participate in the required pre-employment checks e.g. a physical fitness test
- Whether an applicant can undertake a function intrinsic to the job (e.g a driver may be required to meet a required eyesight standard).
Once a job offer is made, it is then that any health-related questions may be asked to determine whether adjustment to the job specification is required.
We deal with general risk assessments and specialist risk assessments such as, for clients working in the food industry. Please read more.
All our clinicians are familiar with the Equality Act legislation and we are experienced in being able to support your organisation with the appropriate pre-employment assessments.
