Pre-employment assessment and a disclosed mental health condition
A 29-year-old applies for a customer-facing role in a busy call centre handling complaints about billing. The role involves eight-hour shifts on the phones, strict call-handling targets and occasional verbal abuse from customers. On the pre-employment questionnaire she discloses a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, currently stable on medication for two years, with one previous hospital admission five years ago during a period of severe stress. She has been in her current job for three years with no sickness absence. The manager asks you to 'flag anything that might make her unreliable' before interview.
1. What is the purpose of the pre-employment assessment here, and how do you respond to the manager's request?
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The purpose is to determine whether she can perform the role with or without reasonable adjustments, not to screen for 'reliability'.
- Responding to the manager: I would decline to 'flag' her. That request invites discrimination and is not a legitimate basis for a fitness opinion. I would explain that I assess fitness for the specific role and, where relevant, recommend adjustments.
- Legal framing: a long-term mental health condition is likely to meet the definition of disability, so the assessment must avoid unjustified less favourable treatment and must consider reasonable adjustments.
- What I actually assess: current stability (two years well, three years in work with no absence), the demands of the role (sustained phone work, targets, verbal abuse), and whether any adjustments would help her sustain performance.
- What I do not do: speculate about future 'unreliability' from a historical admission, or pass clinical detail to the manager.
2. What adjustments might you consider, and what would make you conclude she is not fit for the role?
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Adjustments target the interaction between her condition and the job demands.
- Stress and triggers: the role has high sustained demand and customer abuse. Consider adjustments such as scheduled breaks away from the phones, a period of reduced call targets during induction, and a clear escalation route for abusive calls.
- Monitoring wellbeing: agree a supportive review early in employment, and ensure she knows how to raise concerns.
- Medication and appointments: allow flexibility for appointments if needed.
- Not fit: I would only conclude she is not fit if, after considering adjustments, the role's demands could not be met safely or sustainably, or if there were current, active instability posing a clear risk. A historical admission alone would not justify that conclusion.
- Process: discuss with her, seek her input on what helps, document the reasoning, and keep clinical detail confidential. The decision should be about the job, not the diagnosis.