Selection criteria and methods 





There should be consultation over the selection criteria and the proposed selection methods.



The law gives employers plenty of freedom to decide on selection criteria. A tribunal will only interfere if the chosen criteria are discriminatory or unlawful in some other way, or outside the employer’s “band of reasonable responses” (see Chapter 10, page 342). Tribunals must not substitute their own views on appropriate selection criteria or methods, for example, by adjusting the employer’s scores, or changing the weight given to a particular selection criterion. This would be a mistake of law and there are many examples of tribunal decisions being reversed for this reason. Only if the outcome is one that no reasonable employer could have reached is a challenge likely to succeed.





If some selection criteria are more important to the employer’s future plans than others, they can be given extra points in the matrix, in a process known as “weighting”. 





Selection criteria must not be discriminatory. Discriminatory criteria can be challenged under the Equality Act 2010 (EA 10) (see Chapter 7). Employers can reduce this risk by consulting properly on the selection criteria and carrying out a proper equality impact assessment. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) recommends ensuring that any potentially discriminatory criteria are combined with non-discriminatory criteria and do not decide the outcome.




There are also important specific statutory rights protecting fixed-term and part-time employees when compared with their permanent or full-time colleagues (see Chapter 2).