Step 6: Selecting your preferred candidate

You now need to select your preferred candidate.

Unless an exceptional situation arises, a pre employment medical examination is required to be undertaken by all candidates. Any exception to this Policy must be approved by the Managing Director. If this is the case, please contact your Regional Manager and cc. HR (sue@vapemerchant.nz) in the first instance and request approval.

Pre-employment Tests

In some circumstances it may be necessary to undertaken pre-employment testing is used to gauge future job performance by obtaining an objective and standardised measure of an applicant’s behaviour, knowledge, attitudes and skills. Appropriate and properly conducted pre-employment tests can provide numerous benefits:

They can provide a measure of a person’s particular talents and skills.
They can identify areas where a person may lack ability or aptitude.
They are potentially a more objective method of assessing than interviewing, being less susceptible to personal bias.
They are a convenient and efficient means of screening short listed candidates from a large pool of applicants.
Data from tests can be used to refine job specifications, refine job advertising and improve the recruitment process.

In making decisions based on these tests, you must ensure you are not indirectly discriminating against individuals or groups of individuals. Indirect discrimination is covered by the anti-discrimination legislation. You could be accused of indirect discrimination:

When a test is conducted that does not accurately measure a person’s ability to perform a job and the person is rejected on that basis.
When the test conducted is not related to the requirements of the job.

If this type of pre-employment screening is required for a role, you must obtain Regional Manager (retail roles) or Head Office (non-retail roles) approval.

Read about the benefits and our recommended approach

Ensure that any pre-employment testing you conduct is effective and accepted by applicants by meeting the following criteria:

The tests must have validity – they must measure what they are supposed to measure and to the appropriate standard.
The tests must correlate to the requirements of the job.
The applicant must be informed of the purpose of the tests and what the results will be used for.
The applicant must have access to the results of the tests.
The results must be treated as private and confidential. Only those who legitimately require access to the information should have access, and then under controlled conditions.
In order to make an overall assessment of the candidate’s suitability, tests should be used in conjunction with other selection techniques such as interviewing and reference checking.

Pre-employment Medical Examinations

Medical examinations are used by Vape Merchant as a screening tool for job applicants immediately prior to their appointment. Examinations are generally required to be completed either pre-employment (before a person is selected for employment) or pre-placement (when the person has already been selected and the examination is to determine which job he/she can be placed in). Pre-employment medical examinations provide an opportunity to obtain information on an applicant’s physical suitability for job tasks.

Read about benefits, legal compliance and our recommended approach

Pre-employment medical examinations can be used to determine whether a candidate is physically suitable to carry out the physical requirements of the job. While there are substantial costs involved in conducting examinations, as the final stage in decision-making they may provide long-term cost-savings by eliminating unfit applicants or assisting with appropriate job placement.

Legal compliance

To avoid any conflict with the anti-discrimination legislation, any pre-employment medical examinations must directly relate to the requirements of the job. Pre-employment medical examinations should only be used where it can be proven that certain physical and mental attributes are required to perform the job. Examples of this include:

Colour perfect vision is required for electrical work.
General mobility, accurate eyesight and good hearing may be factors impacting a candidate's ability to operate vehicles or machinery.
General physical fitness (for example of an employee’s back, arms and legs), and an absence of chronic back problems in particular, is required for manual duties at a warehouse.
A word processing position requires keyboard dexterity.
A process operator’s position may require mental alertness and the ability to sustain concentration over long periods.

Before requiring job applicants to undergo a full medical, you must ensure you have the consent of the individual. Only medical information relevant to the job being offered can be used when determining whether to hire or promote an individual.

The principles of the Privacy Act apply to the collection and use of the information gained during a pre-employment medical examination.

Continue to Step 7