New Employee health screening evaluates an applicant’s declared health conditions in relation to the hazards, risks, activities and environment of the job they are being recruited to.

The Equality Act 2010 limits the circumstances in which you can ask health related questions before an applicant is offered a job. An offer of employment can be made to be subject to a satisfactory medical assessment. It is then permissible to ask for relevant health information. This information needs to be evaluated and a decision made on fitness for the job. The information can also be incorporated into risk assessments and used to decide if any adjustments may be required to a job.

At WorkFit we can help you through this complex process.

Why provide new employee health screening?

• Cost Effective: Ensures you have filled the role with someone who is both fit and capable to do that job. This will help to save you repeat recruitment costs which on average are £4,667 per vacancy per employee (CIPD 2008).

• Business Benefits: Helps to assess their ability to offer regular effective attendance in the workplace.  Job matching helps to ensue that sickness absence is kept as low as possible but also minimises the risk of losing a potentially high quality employee due to a minor medical problem.

• Compliance with Legislation: You will be ensuring your compliance with any legal requirements, such as the Disability Discrimination Act, the Working Time Directive, and many others, which will help to protect you from the possibility of litigation.  The assessment of the new employee health questionnaire (NEHQ) is often the first and essential step in an ongoing health surveillance programme. It may identify existing health issues that might subsequently be claimed to have been caused by their employment with you.

How does the new employee process work?

Using the WorkFit three tier system of new employee health screening will have undoubted benefits to your business. It is quick and easy to administer and the NEHQ can be designed to ensure the questions asked are appropriate to the needs of your company.

The questionnaire will cover medical aspects such as:-

• History of health conditions relevant to employment.
• Current health status and base line health information.
• Information regarding health conditions that require adjustments or support in the workplace.
• Previous exposure to health hazards.

Our questions will take into account specific requirements of the role, such as confined space entry, working at heights, exposure to vibration, manual handling, working with display screen equipment or driving duties, to name a few.

All questionnaires are assessed by Occupational Health Nurses who follow strict procedures and evidence based guidelines.

Step 1: The NEHQ is completed in confidence by the potential employee, following job offer, and sent directly to WorkFit, either electronically or by post. It is screened by one of WorkFit’s nurses and if no concerns are raised the employee is declared fit for the proposed role.

Step 2: If clarification is required the nurse will contact the individual by telephone. If the clarification is satisfactory, the employee is declared fit for the proposed role.

Step 3: In some rare cases our Nurse may require further information from the individual’s GP or even recommend a referral to one of our Occupational Health Physicians. We will liaise with you to agree funding for this prior to proceeding. It is only likely to be required if it appears that:-

• Their condition would make it unsafe for them to do the job
• Their condition may make it unsafe for others, including fellow workers and the general community
• Their condition may be made worse by the job
• Their condition may limit, reduce or prevent them from doing the job effectively

The final recruitment decision will always lie with the employer: no prospective employee will be rejected or accepted for employment directly by WorkFit.

For Specialist or Safety critical employment WorkFit can conduct full medical assessments. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.