Avoid Discrimination in Recruitment: Ensure Fairness

I’m not a lawyer, and I’m pretty sure my lawyers don’t want me to try practising law, so let me preface the following by saying that you should always get the best legal advice you can. I can summarise my understanding by saying that if you make decisions about an applicant based on gender, age, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability, or similar factors, then you’ll have issues with the law.

Don’t avoid discrimination just because it’s legally and ethically right. Avoid discrimination because it will improve your business’s culture and give a competitive advantage.

Some applicants may need different support to compete fairly in the recruitment process. Create the opportunity for them to raise that issue without feeling shamed so you can ensure the playing field is fair. For example, if someone has dyslexia, giving them longer to complete ability tests is reasonable.

The selection process I recommend follows the letter and the spirit of the law. It attempts to reduce individual bias so that you hire based on merit and whether an applicant can do a job.

But we all have biases – it’s part of what makes us unique. Many of our biases we aren’t even aware of, but they were imprinted on us by our parents and guardians, whose views are now outdated.

Other biases can be much more subtle. A common one in recruitment is the halo and horns effect. The term comes from an empirical study by Edward Thorndike (1920) that asked officers to rank their soldiers by various characteristics, including intellect, leadership, and physique. He found that if a soldier’s physique was rated highly, so would his intellect and leadership skills. In recruitment, this effect means that managers hire those who are physically appealing (the “halo effect”) because they subconsciously assume they’ll be good at the job. The opposite “horns effect” happens with people who aren’t considered physically appealing. As you can imagine, this creates tremendous diversity challenges.

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Unfortunately, I don’t think it is possible to completely eliminate discrimination because it’s often unintentional and unconscious. Policies, procedures, and rules don’t solve the problem because by the time you need them, it’s often too late, and you have to take disciplinary action. Other practices, such as removing candidates’ names and certain dates from an application form, however well-intentioned, just delay what happens at the interview.

Most of the discrimination training I’ve seen is usually opinions disguised as facts. The outgoing chair of the Institute of Race Relations in the UK made a similar point, saying unconscious bias training is “nonsense” (Mohdin, 2023). While you could go on team-building exercises to encourage a discussion on diversity, most employees treat it as a day off and switch off from work. Similarly, many employees are bored with PowerPoint presentations and classroom environments.

I prefer to tackle the problem quickly, cheaply, and effectively; reducing discrimination by raising awareness of how diverse team members are. Give all your staff a psychometric test and ask them to share the results. This enhances employees’ self-awareness and understanding that diversity doesn’t dictate ability.

With the best will in the world, someone may slip up without knowing it. If it’s a significant lapse, consider whether you still want them in the organisation, let alone in recruitment. For minor issues I recommend a gentle word because they will be more receptive and won’t feel their character is being assassinated.

I appreciate that my approach will never be enough for those who want extensive training and enforcement, but it is a pragmatic approach for many SMEs.

<span class="grey-callout"><p><span class="text-color-purple">Warning:</span> Avoid equal opportunities monitoring forms. Just like with application forms, very few applicants complete them, and some see it as a box-ticking exercise, so they intentionally tick a random option. For these reasons, the quantity and quality of data can be poor, making it almost irrelevant.</p>

<p>Additionally, be aware of candidates who take advantage of positive discrimination. I found a candidate who lied that he was president of his University’s LGBTQ+ association because he hoped it would get him more favourable treatment.</p></span>

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Additional Resources

• Talent Acquisition Book; The Secrets of Great Recruitment - How to Recruitment Great Employees.
• Article; An Overview of the Recruitment Selection Process.
• Article; Improve Candidate Experience in Recruitment: Best Practice.
• Article; Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment: The Dark Truth
• Thorndike, E. (1920). Constant Error in Psychological Ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 4 no. 1, March 1920, pp. 25-29, 3 page(s)