18/02/2012
Recruiters are showing their racial bias??
The gloves are off and the two in the ring are the ‘recruiter industy’ and the ‘equality campaigners’. Apparently a report shows that recruiters are showing racial bias by offering 445% of white applicants jobs rather than only 29% of ethnic minorities.
We and the Race for Opportunity charity that carried out the research point out that whilst its clear that some recruiters see this as a race issue this could be conscious or unconscious bias at play.
Whilst the head of Recruitment and Employment Confederation argued that the research findings jumped to conclusions he said they were not defensive and keen to discuss.
The call was made for recruiters to train staff against unconscious bias and make sure it was merit alone that recruits were being judged on. It is worth adding that increasingly clients are requesting that a diverse short list is provided.