e-NewsLetter
Internet-Only Process May Exclude Certain Applicant Populations
Deanna Hartley 09-05-2008Some employers may inadvertently discriminate against highly qualified job applicants — based on income, age, gender, ethnicity and other demographics — simply by their method of accepting applications.
According to a study authored by Edgar Johns, consultant for JobApp Network Inc., a phone and Internet hiring solutions provider, Web-only recruiting services may reduce an employer’s likelihood of hiring qualified applicants who aren’t as Web-savvy as their counterparts.
“Across the board, employers are viewing the Internet as a cost-effective way to reach out and attract applicants to available positions. So those employers [who] are emphasizing access to the Internet for applications may unknowingly be [doing] a disservice to their applicant population,” Johns said.
This practice may adversely impact an employer’s efforts to promote diversity, as there are significant differences in the method of applications delivery — phone vs. the Internet — based on minority status.
Minorities — including African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian or Pacific Islanders and American Indian or Alaskan natives — have greater access to the telephone than the Internet, the JobApp study revealed.
Caucasians are far more likely to use the Internet to submit their applications than minorities, with 80.9 percent of the former group choosing to apply via the Web compared to 58.7 percent of the latter group.
“That leads us to speculate whether there may be some advantage to white people in applying for positions because they have more access to the Internet,” Johns said.
This unintentional discriminatory hiring practice extended to other groups, as well. For instance, males were somewhat more likely to complete a Web application than females — 71.3 vs. 68 percent, respectively.
Income and age also can affect a candidate’s application process. The study found a direct correlation between Internet use and income: Americans with incomes upward of $75,000 are more than two and a half times more likely to have Internet access than those with an annual income of less than $30,000.
Study data also said younger Americans are more likely to use the Internet than those who are older.
“What is a significant challenge — especially for employers [who] are utilizing an unskilled or semiskilled applicant pool — [is] they’re constantly battling this issue of attracting qualified applicants and hiring the best that are available to them,” Johns said.
Johns offers employers a low-cost and highly effective recruiting strategy to attract a qualified, diverse applicant pool: Utilize all available methods — including the phone, in-person and the Internet — to collect applicant information and provide initial screenings.
Organizations should evaluate whether the process of attracting applicants is broad enough to attract potentially qualified applicants without regard to ethnicity or geographic location, Johns explained.
“[Employers must] look at the process they have in place for collecting information from an applicant to ensure that — whether knowingly or not — they are utilizing technology in a way that’s advantageous to some people [and] to review those processes and the systems they have in place to see if there is a better way to cast as broad a net out there as possible,” he said.
Utilize Community Events to Trigger Diversity Discussion
Having worked in the diversity field for nearly quarter of a century, Martha Artiles, global chief diversity officer for Manpower Inc., stressed the need for diversity practitioners to get creative when implementing diversity initiatives.
“One thing we struggle with as experts in this area is how to take this topic of diversity and make it real — how you take unique venues to create different kinds of experiences to be able to make this topic real for [employers and the community],” Artiles said.
When Artiles found out “The Color Purple” was coming to Milwaukee — a region she said hasn’t typically been viewed as being inclusive or diverse — she saw the opportunity to facilitate a community conversation. That way, it would have a more lasting impact than people just watching the show.
A group consisting of Manpower employees, government officials and members of nonprofit companies discussed diversity-related themes from “The Color Purple” and discussed possible impacts and takeaways for the community and the workplace.
“It’s important for diversity practitioners to be creative [in implementing initiatives] because, even after 20 plus years of being in the diversity industry, it still has a lot of stigma associated with it — that people who have been historically underrepresented are going to gain and the majority is going to lose,” Artiles said. “So it’s really important for us practitioners to think of truly inclusive ways of having conversations where everyone wins.”
It’s important to take advantage of powerful venues, such as “The Color Purple” event, to leverage them as central points for conversation, Artiles said. “It’s taking the concept of a book club discussion [but doing it] in a different way with more short-term impact.”
There are significant benefits to using creative venues to further the diversity discussion amidst employees and the community, including attracting, engaging and retaining talent in an organization.
“With ‘The Color Purple,’ we are seen as a company that takes seriously our role in the community, and that is a very attractive element for many people,” Artiles said. “Employees saw this diversity discussion go far beyond [improving] Manpower’s climate to [improving] the community’s climate and culture. So it really engages them because they see that what they do has greater impact than just within the company.”
In terms of retention, Artiles said it helps employees feel loyal and proud of a company that organizes unique events to better internal and external communities.
Companies Improve on Treatment of LGBT Workers
A new report shows companies are being more inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees, consumers and investors.
The annual Corporate Equality Index — published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a civil rights organization working to achieve LGBT equality — analyzes and rates the policies and practices of nearly 600 businesses on their treatment of the LGBT workforce.
This includes creating policies — such as domestic partnership benefits — that protect employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of gender expression or sexual orientation.
Compared to 2008, there was a one-third increase in the number of organizations that achieved a perfect score on the 2009 index.
When the index was first published in 2002, only 5 percent of participants offered employment protections to transgender workers. Now, 66 percent of businesses have set policies to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or expression.
The majority of transgender employees are denied health insurance coverage for essential medical treatments, according to the study. However, 75 percent of companies that participate in the rating provide at least one of five categories of necessary medical treatments for transgender employees.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, said in a statement: “In the absence of a federal law that prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, it is up to employers to take the lead and implement policies that ensure all their employees are protected.”
