Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Reading between the lines

by Personnel Today 4 Dec 2001
by Personnel Today 4 Dec 2001

Sally O’Reilly looks at the potential
legal pitfalls of using graphology in recruitment and selection.

Although graphology is still
used by relatively few UK firms for recruitment and selection, there are legal
implications for those that do.

According to John Taylor, a
partner with Hardwick Stallards Solicitors, it is perfectly legal to use
graphology as a selection test.

"It may not be reliable,
and may not be advisable, but it is certainly not illegal to use graphology as
part of a recruitment process," he says

"But that is not the end
of it – because the law can be used to scrutinise the way in which an employer
records, and uses, the results of a graphology test."

Data Protection
Act

There is also the possibility
that employers could fall foul of the Data Protection Act 1998 if they use
graphology to help with the selection process. The Act has been in force for a
long time, but on 24 October 2001 this year it was extended to include data
recorded manually.

"The results of the tests
would almost certainly be ‘data’, as defined by the Act," says Taylor.
"Therefore the data recorded by the employer would be subject to its
‘protection principles’ and the ‘data subject’ – the Act’s name for a person –
would have the rights the Act confers.

"Those include the right
of access to the data, the right to obtain copies, and the right to have errors
corrected. The Act gives further rights, including the right to obtain a court
order against the employer, and to recover compensation from him for any damage
caused by his breach of the Act."

But the good news is that
employers wouldn’t fall foul of the Act simply by recording results of graphology
tests.

Disability
Discrimination Act

Another potential stumbling
block is the Disability Discrimination Act, although Taylor points out that
there are no hard and fast rules here. If, for instance, an applicant with
dyslexia accused the firm of discrimination under the Act, there are
circumstances which would mean they had a case.

"This is one of those
questions to which the answer is: ‘it all depends’," says Taylor. "If
the dyslexia was only mild, then the job applicant might not even be considered
disabled under the Act. If that was the case, then there could be no question
of disability discrimination against them.

"But if the dyslexia was
more severe, then – as stated in the Code of Practice which is to be read
alongside the Act – the employer should allow the applicant more time to
complete the graphology test. If the employer does this, then he will have made
the ‘reasonable adjustment’ required by the Act and so, again, there will have
been no disability discrimination against the applicant, even if their
application is rejected."

If the applicant has severe
dyslexia, has to take the test in the same time as everyone else, and is then
rejected, then it’s still not inevitable that a charge of disability
discrimination would stand up.

"If they are rejected
because of their bad handwriting (not due to his dyslexia) then they would not
have been rejected on account of any disability and, yet again, there would
have been no discrimination against them," Taylor asserts.

If, on the other hand, an
applicant is rejected because of their bad spelling (due to their dyslexia)
then there could well be a case for discrimination. In that case, the employer
would have to show that its treatment of the applicant was "both material
to the circumstances of the particular case and substantial".

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Over half of working time is spent unproductively, study reveals
next post
HR overhauls reward as share options fall

You may also like

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022

Consultation on new NHS cancer standards, as waits...

11 Mar 2022
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+