Not given interview

[Babysharkdoodoodood]

Our workplace has an inclusion and diversity policy, where if you are disabled and meet the essential criteria then you are guaranteed an interview.
I am diagnosed with ASD/dyslexia and dyspraxia. I've also had a workplace assessment and have what they call a work assessed passport to take from job to Jon, within the organisation.
I applied for a new role before Christmas. I met all the essential and desirable criteria and signposted these throughout my application, ticked the disability box and explained the disabilities and also attached the workplace assessment.

Just got an email stating ' Sorry, in this instance you haven't been successful ...blab, blah, blah'

I've emailed back asking where have I not met the criteria and should I not have got an interview due to their own policy.

Bit ticked off as there are around 20 odd roles going and I know around there were around 500 applicants, as I went to a recruitment briefing before applying.

So what do you think? Should I have got an interview or .........?

And yes I think I could do really well in the role, not just playing the disability card !

Are you public sector?

Depending on the nature of the role with that many applicants there were probably either enough stand out applications to more than meet demand or enough perfectly adequate ones in the top 50 applications. Why waste time interviewing extra people and then having to replace you in your current role?

Do you work in the public sector?

You say you referenced all the "essential criteria" in your application, but did the application process actually specifically ask you to do that, eg by submitting a statement of suitability?

If it’s their policy then yes you should have been given an interview.

Do you definitely meet the minimum criteria? And have you definitely made that clear in your application - remember that they may have interpreted things differently to you.

Additionally, if it's civil service you still need to have hit 4s for your behaviours (afaik)

I take it they're a Disability confident employer? If that's the case then yes, they should be giving you an interview.

Civil Service you have to meet the minimum pass mark that's been set, but if there are a lot of people who met the pass mark they might raise the mark to avoid interviewing people. So you might score all 4s, but there were 30 people who also did so they raised the pass mark to all 5s to narrow down to 5 people to interview.

If the person declaring disability scored 4s and above but didn't score all 5s then they would no longer have met the pass mark and wouldn't have got interviewed. That's how it worked in my last department.

My current department has a set pass mark for the guaranteed interview scheme that never moves. You blind sift first, upload your scores, then HR tell you if you have, say, 2 GIS applicants who met the pass mark. They have to be interviewed even if the passmark is raised to narrow down the general pool of candidates.

Yes to public sector: emergency services.

Had to write a 4000 character statement on how I met the skills, knowledge and experience necessary. Which I did, which is where I signposted how I met them. I pulled the job description apart and also the essentials and desirables. Took me 2 days and also had assistance from my supervisor as they are happy to help with this sort of thing.

And yes they're Disability confident.

Been there. HR think the guaranteed interview scheme is only for external candidates. It is not.

Speak to your union and complain.

Why don't you wait for a reply to your email instead of asking complete strangers to guess. I'm sure your HR Department will explain why you weren't chosen.

4000 words?!' Bet they were cheesed off after reading 500 of those!

Definitely worth asking some questions, but I don't think "why didn't I get an interview" is the right one. They'll just say "because you didn't meet the criteria". I'd ask how it works ie what's their policy for allocating interviews to GIS candidates first, then relate your bespoke feedback to it.

4000 characters not words. Think it would take longer than 2 days.

I didn't just say why didn't I get an interview. More like what you said.

I am waiting. Just didn't know whether it was worth going to union at this stage.

Lol I misread that! 4000 would have killed you and the panel 😂 !

It will be interesting to see what they say. I think it can tell you a lot about their general approach to disability.

Of the two employers I mentioned, the first one was shocking when it came to hidden disabilities - not so bad with visible ones, but people would openly admit that they would deliberately mark people who had applied for guaranteed interview lower. Very fast and loose with recruitment fixing so their preferred candidate gets it.

Second department is completely different, very diverse and inclusive, and HR manage the recruitment process very strictly. Much better place to work.

Well I just got an email, that I've got an interview for the other job I applied for. Identical, but one level down. Only difference in the spec is the requirement for a degree. But I have a degree AND 2 post grad qualifications!

Ah well, I'll go for this 2nd job and just work my way up if I get it.