Job Application Forms

[sobriquetnic]

Hi all

We currently purchase our Job Application Forms from an outside supplier and these can prove quite pricey.

I just wondered whether there is some kind of legal requirement to use special forms or whether it would be acceptable for us to create our own and distribute this to applicants/place on our website.

What do others do?

All the best,
Nicola.

[Jackie G]

Hi Nicola

It would seem silly to pay for expensive forms when you could design your own.  As far as I know there is no legal requirement to have a specially printed form, and in fact most firms have their own.  I have just done one for a small client of mine, and another small client of mine also has their own form.  I think you could instantly save your company loads of money!

Jackie
www.iqps.org
Peer Moderator

[uberpa]

Agreed, you can make your own or buy ready-made ones from Stationary suppliers.  However, you should check the kinds of things you are not allowed to ask on an employment form.  Although there are no requirements for what you should put on it there are questions which may fall under the not-quite-legal to ask for your state or country.

[gee4]

Most companies must have some kind of policy or guideline around this altho most app forms I have seen have been drafted in Word.  I have temped in companies where in order to replenish their stock, staff have printed out the application form template from Word and photocopied it.  That goes for the smaller  companies as well as the larger ones.

These days most job applications are done by CV so that the recruiter or employer can see how you lay out your job/education history and at the same time, compose a covering letter ... sneaky huh?

G

[raindance]

There is no bar to you creating your own application forms. It might be a help to you if you ran the form past your the employment law department of your firm's solicitors.  

My company is drawing up an application form, including space for equal opportunities monitoring and a place where people write how their experience matches the job description/person specification.  We are veering away from using CVs - they don't always contain the required information and some people have their CVs professionally produced.   We had a look at forms that other organisation use and they don't vary much.

Raindance

[sobriquetnic]

Hi all

Many thanks for your responses - just what I wanted to hear!  I will probably use the form we obtain now as a kind of template and just create this in word.  My boss was wary about creating our own before but I think once I tell him how much it costs us at the moment, he may well back down!

I was having a look through the Internet last night and as mentioned, most companies have devised their own for their websites so it makes sense really.

Thanks again - always great to come here to get your perspective on things.

All the best,
Nicola.