ONLINE
RECRUITMENT IS BEATING RACISM
Disabled
people and jobseekers from ethnic minorities feel that
the internet offers them a better chance of finding
work
Online
recruitment technology has become a powerful tool for
eliminating racism and discrimination in employment.
New research carried out by the recruitment website
www.reed.co.uk
shows that jobseekers feel there is less chance of racism
affecting their application if they use the internet.
Reed surveyed more than 4,000 people from across the UK:
24% described themselves as black or Asian, 61% as white
British, 2% as white Irish and 13% as from other white
(mainly European) ethnic groups.
About
68% believed that racism in the workplace had declined
over the past 10years, but 8% said they had experienced
discrimination at work.
Moreover, 23% said either they or people they knew were afraid
of encountering racial prejudice during the recruitment
process and had changed their behaviour to avoid it.
However,
one in five of those surveyed believed internet recruitment
was less likely to be affected by racism than other
recruitment routes. Many felt that an open medium such
as the net offered a “level playing filed” and some
felt recruiters were less likely to be distracted by
race when applications were made electronically.
Ethnic applicants were encouraged by employers’ use of the
net.
“They
can’t see your skin colour or your ethnic background
via a computer,” explained one respondent. “If you
apply through the internet, I would imagine that your
qualifications and skills are the first criteria considered.
This should at least give the chance of getting an interview.”
Another said: “Hopefully, by using this method, the candidate
with the most experience, skills and qualifications
will be short-listed regardless of ethnic origin.”
Dan
Ferrandio, the director of Reed’s recruitment website,
said: “Applicants many not like the lack of face-to-face
contact, but what they do like is that their CVs are
taken more seriously. Their skills and ability become
the main criteria. A large number believe that they
are getting a better deal.”
Reed has 150,000 jobs on its website and 300,000 applications
every month, making the internet a central part of its
recruitment activity.
The
aim of the research was to study the way internet use
was developing and people’s perception of this.
The
discovery that many people thought the internet reduced
discrimination was something of a bonus, said Ferrandio.
The other important factor was that employers wanted
to make diversity one of their top priorities.
The
emphasis on diversity and the need to stamp out discrimination
are important in driving the spread of electronic technology
in recruitment.
“Employers
are going to use Reed’s or other software solutions
for recruiting,” said Ferrandio. “You can’t embed prejudices
in software in the same way you can in people.”
This would break down more and more of the barriers, he predicted.
“The
software allows us to monitor ratios and diversity.
The result is that employers will be offered a wider
choice of applicants, allowing them to achieve diversity
targets.”
I-Grasp,
the market leader in the UK and Europe in developing
solutions for e-recruitment, says more firms now see
the strategic benefit of successful diversity policies.
But there is a problem - agencies, which account for
about 25% of recruitment, fear any threat to their domination
of this part of the market and are reluctant to allow
access to candidates.
To
overcome this, i-Grasp has launched a software program,
Global Successor, which allows companies access to the
information about diversity among candidates without
trespassing on the agencies’ territory. Global Successor’s
other important feature is its ability to monitor instances
of discrimination during recruitment.
All candidates go through the same selection process initially,
but Global Successor can show whether one particular
group or minority is falling to be selected despite
having appropriate qualifications.
“Until
now, companies have been passively producing statistics
about diversity,” said Andy Randall, chief executive
of i-Grasp. “Now they can analyse the figures and find
examples of discrimination.”
It would be possible, for example, for a company to see that
disabled people were getting more jobs in its Manchester
branch than in its Leeds office.
As
a company’s diversity achievements become more and more
important to its image, Randall envisages companies
publishing their diversity employment figures.
There
are about 20 companies that have become the leaders
in diversity and the method is growing in importance,
Randall says. An active program has allowed British
Gas, traditionally operating in a sector dominated by
white males, to double the number of job applications
it gets from women.
Ford,
for example, believes that there is a powerful business
case for promoting diversity. Disabled people, women,
ethnic minorities and older people are important customer
groups and should be represented in the workforce.
Some 40% of new cars are bought by women, says Surinder
Sharma, European diversity director of Ford, and employing
minorities is important in understanding the needs of
customers.
At
Cadbury Schweppes, Oliver West, head of recruitment
in the UK and Ireland, said the company had been committed
to diversity for a long time and recognized its importance
to the business.
“Technology
has made it an even more powerful management too,” he
said. “We want to make sure how well we are recruiting,
but it’s very difficult to measure at the point where
you are making the recruitment decision without using
technology. We don’ want technology to take the recruiter
out of the frame. We just want it to check the quality
of our decisions.”
Source: The Times of India (Times Ascent)
Date: 5th May 2004
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