Definition

Selecting and appointing team members covers the full process of defining a role, sourcing candidates, assessing them against objective criteria and making an appointment on clear, documented terms. In a surveying context, this applies to permanent employees, fixed-term contractors and specialist consultants. The process must comply with the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination in recruitment on the basis of nine protected characteristics, and with the RICS Rules of Conduct, which require members to act with integrity and deliver competent service.

Why this matters for Diversity, Inclusion and Teamworking

  • Level 1 knowledge: you must describe a structured, fair recruitment and selection process and explain how it reduces the risk of bias.
  • Recruitment is the primary mechanism through which firms build diverse teams — or fail to: without deliberate structure, it tends to reproduce the existing demographic profile.
  • Assessors probe how candidates' firms recruit — being able to describe the process and its equality safeguards demonstrates both competence and ethical awareness.
  • Poor recruitment — selecting on personality fit rather than competency — is a common driver of underperformance, grievance and discrimination claims.
  • Rule 4 makes encouraging diversity an obligation — meaning the recruitment process must be designed to produce diverse outcomes, not merely avoid obvious discrimination.

Key principles

Defining the role and sourcing candidates

Effective selection begins with a clear, written job description and person specification. Criteria should be genuinely necessary for the role; specifying "degree from a Russell Group university" as essential is hard to justify and may constitute indirect discrimination. Where roles are advertised only through internal networks or narrow platforms, the applicant pool will be correspondingly narrow. Effective inclusive recruitment widens sourcing to include: diverse job boards; partnerships with universities with varied student demographics; and anonymous shortlisting, which removes names and personal details before scoring applications to reduce affinity bias at the initial screening stage.

Structured assessment and appointment

Structured selection processes apply the same criteria and methods consistently. Competency-based interviews use pre-designed questions mapped to the person specification, with scoring rubrics allowing each response to be rated independently before discussion. Unstructured interviews are strongly associated with unconscious bias and legally vulnerable. Diverse interview panels provide a check on group-think. Once a decision is made, the offer should be conditional on relevant checks: professional qualification verification, right-to-work confirmation and references. Onboarding should be structured, include introduction to the firm's D&I policy and create early opportunities for the new member to contribute visibly.

Equality Act obligations in recruitment

Under the Equality Act 2010, it is unlawful to ask candidates about health, disability, pregnancy or age before making a conditional offer. After a conditional offer, health questions may be asked to determine whether reasonable adjustments are needed, but not to withdraw the offer unless a genuine occupational requirement is established. All selection decisions must be based on documented, objective criteria.

Relevant RICS guidance and legislation

  • Equality Act 2010 — prohibits discrimination in recruitment on the basis of nine protected characteristics; prohibits pre-offer health questions.
  • RICS Rules of Conduct (effective 2 February 2022) — Rule 4: recruitment must encourage diversity; Rule 2: selection must be done with appropriate skill and knowledge.
  • RICS Inclusive Employer Quality Mark — sets expectations for inclusive recruitment practice.
  • ACAS guidance on recruitment and selection — best-practice framework for fair and effective hiring.

Ethics and Rules of Conduct angle

Rule 4 requires designing processes that actively generate diverse applicant pools and reduce bias in selection, not merely avoiding overt discrimination. Rule 1 (honesty and integrity) requires that selection decisions are based on documented criteria rather than personal preference. A manager who selects a less capable candidate because of personal familiarity, or rejects a capable candidate on grounds connected to a protected characteristic, breaches both legal and professional obligations.

APC-style Q&As

Q (Level 1)What are the key stages in selecting and appointing a new team member?

Define the role and person specification with objective criteria; advertise through channels that reach a diverse applicant pool; shortlist against the criteria using anonymous shortlisting where possible; conduct structured, competency-based interviews scored against agreed rubrics; make the selection decision based on the evidence; and issue a conditional offer followed by appropriate checks and a structured onboarding programme.

Q (Level 1)Why is it unlawful to ask a candidate about their health before making a conditional offer?

Under the Equality Act 2010, employers may not ask pre-employment health questions before a conditional offer is made. This prevents disability-related information from influencing the selection decision. After a conditional offer, health questions may be asked to determine whether reasonable adjustments are needed, but the offer may only be withdrawn on health grounds if a genuine occupational requirement is established.

Q (Level 2)How does your firm's recruitment process reduce the risk of unconscious bias?

(example) Our firm uses structured, competency-based interviews with pre-designed questions and scoring matrices agreed before interviews begin. Applications for graduate roles are anonymised before scoring, reducing affinity bias. Panels include at least one member from outside the immediate team. All panel members complete unconscious bias awareness training every two years. Selection decisions are documented with evidence referenced to the person specification criteria.

Q (Level 2)What is anonymous shortlisting and what does it achieve?

Anonymous shortlisting removes identifying personal information (name, university, address, photograph) from applications before scoring. It reduces the influence of affinity bias and name-based discrimination, both of which research shows affect shortlisting decisions even among assessors with no conscious discriminatory intent. It does not eliminate all bias but removes one significant source at a critical decision point.

Q (Level 3)After a competitive selection process you appoint a candidate. Two weeks later a rejected applicant alleges racial bias. How do you respond?

(example) I would inform my line manager and HR immediately and ensure all documentation, including the job description, shortlisting scores, interview notes and scoring matrices, was preserved. The documentation would be the primary basis for demonstrating the decision was made on objective criteria. All communication with the applicant would be managed through HR and, if necessary, legal counsel. If on review there were gaps, for example missing documentation at the shortlisting stage, I would treat that as a serious lesson for future processes. Regardless of legal outcome, I would conduct a process review to confirm it met the Equality Act 2010 and Rule 4 of the RICS Rules of Conduct standards.