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: Impartial Inc

Do You Discriminate When Hiring?

By RJ

You have an opening for a receptionist, secretary, assistant, legal assistant, paralegal, or any job that might be sitting in the secretarial section of your office. You post the job online, in the office, in the local paper, at the local community colleges and trade schools. You receive 100 applications for the job. Twenty-five of the applicants meet your required qualifications so you contact each one and set up an interview.

WAIT. Before you even got to the interview process, how many of 100 applications did you throw out because Daren, Bob, or Roman applied for the job? How many applications did you toss because the graduation year of college was in 60?s or before?

You?re reading this saying, ?NO we don?t do that.? That?s great, but is it true? Didn?t you look at that application a little harder than the others to find other faults, cracks or complications that could allow you to toss them aside without feeling guilt for being sexist or ageist? It?s ok. How will they know they were never invited for an interview? You simply told them, ?You?re not what we are looking for right now.?

There are multiple types of discrimination: age, gender, sexual orientation, race, and religion. So we have established that maybe, just maybe, you tossed out some applications because of age or sex. Maybe one or two got through the barrier because you couldn?t find fault on paper. So here we are with twenty-five interviewees coming in to meet with you. Out of the twenty-five interviews, eight are no shows or cancellations, seven are young white females, four are mature white women with the education and experience you are looking for but have teenagers at home, three are younger white females that, most likely, have young kids at home, two are young non-white females, and one is a white male in his late 20?s. They all have equal education. The mature women have actual office experience. The others are all fresh out of school with no office experience. Who do you hire?

Now it?s time for testing. Out of all of the applicants who showed up and went through all of your testing one young white female, two mature white women, one mom, one non-white female and the male all pass the test with exceptional scores. Who do you hire?

I forgot to mention, YOU are a younger cool hip sort of GUY. Let?s say you?re 34 and running your own business. Currently, the only other older individual in your office is your mom, who is your bookkeeper and only comes in once a week. The only other man in the office is your brother, who is your business partner and he is one year younger than you. Who do you hire?

Now let?s talk about your clients. Your business is one that is exceptionally busy and fast-paced, with an eye toward a younger clientele. Who do you hire?

I hope that whoever you choose they are the one best suited for the job. One who truly deserves the job. One who is completely qualified for the job. One who was chosen without any prejudicial thought.

Just a little something to think about the next time you hire!

Full post as published by Impartial Inc on August 28, 2007 (boomark / email).