NHS Recruitment Advice

[addictedtochoc]

Are there any NHS recruitment advisors around?

I’ve just accepted a post at a new NHS trust. As far as I’m aware, reference checks now directly come from HR and state number of days taken off sick over the previous calendar year. I’ve been on mat leave for most of the past year so will it go back to the 12 months before mat leave, or just include mat leave?

I had a miscarriage before my pregnancy which could potentially be included as I intentionally did not code it as miscarriage at the time for confidentiality reasons (I didn’t trust it to remain confidential). If it is to be included, I would prefer to tell my new employer from now that this is the situation rather than they discover it from a reference check as I have nothing to hide and am otherwise rarely ever off sick.

Is anyone who deals with recruitment able to advise please?

No idea but I am shocked that they can put your number of sick days down in a reference! I thought that was illegal.

I thought it was pretty standard everywhere that number of sick days were put in a reference. When I got a new job at the start of this year the person writing my reference told me how many sick days she had put on the reference.

It’s illegal to ask at interview because of discrimination against disabilities etc but is standard to be put as part of reference.

This used to be done by the manager so my manager (knowing full reasons for my absence) would have omitted those days due to it being pregnancy related. However when going NHS to NHS, it’s now HR that generate the standard forms so they just pull the absence data. As I had not recorded it as pregnancy related, it would be included in this if the reference dates back that far. I don’t have a problem with this as it’s clearly a one off and not a recurring problem but would prefer to advise my future manager in advance if this is the case.

Can't you ask HR what will be in your reference? You're entitled to know and at least them you know the score. I believe some trusts now do not ask or give info on sick days anymore because of the potential for discrimination.

Unfortunately HR at my trust is beyond appalling. I have submitted a request to find out what is on the reference but I’m not holding out any hopes of them getting back to me. Every time I’ve needed to get the simplest of things done, it’s involved endless chasing on my part followed by involving senior managers to get a response from them. Inefficient doesn’t even begin to describe them.

My current manager has been as useful as he can be but he said only HR will be able to answer the question.