Age, gender and family planning does factor in recruitment decisions

MORE than two thirds of business managers have admitted that they would ask female job seekers their current and future family plans, if the law permitted it.

Nearly half confess that age and gender does factor in their final decision on whether to recruit a candidate.

The somewhat shocking but honest findings are the result of research by one of the UK’s leading recruitment scoring websites www.HireScores.com.

The study of 416 managers found that 81% of respondents said that they would ask female job applicants if they were pregnant, planned on having children or
already had children if they could.

Employment laws prevent these types of questions being asked.

Interestingly, the gender of the recruiter made little-to-no difference to these results, with only 6% fewer females factoring in a woman’s age during recruitment than male recruiters.

More than 90% confessed that if two suitable and equally qualified candidates applied for a job – one being a married man and one being a pregnant woman – the male would get the job even though 100% of them admit they would never profess this as the reason.

Only 8% of respondents claimed that they would employ whichever candidate
they thought would work harder and fit into the team dynamics.

Nearly 90% of respondents also admitted that they never or rarely take male
applicants’ commitments at home into consideration during the application
process.

According to the study, women aged between 26-35 years old are the most
likely to be penalized, with more than one in three business managers admitting
to being the most cautious when recruiting females within this age group
due to the possibility of pregnancy.

The main employment law breaking culprits are SMEs as money factors into their employment decisions to a greater degree than a larger company where staff turnover is higher and expected.

Lisette Howlett, managing director of HireScores.com, said that the findings raised some very difficult issues.

“Although though Employment Laws clearly state an employer cannot discriminate against a pregnant woman or a single mother, managers from small companies in particular are undoubtedly nervous about the added cost of funding maternity cover or dealing with quick dashes out of the office to see to a sick child,” she added.

“Interestingly these are potentially the very employees smaller, less competitive employers might benefit from considering since they can tap into a talent base that might otherwise be overlooked.”

Ms Howlett said that managers who openly question women about their home life need to be extremely careful. Ideally they shold reconsider their interviewing strategy.

“On the other hand, it is also possible for female interviewees to be rejected because they are not as qualified as someone else and not based on
their being pregnant or having a family – these situations can also raise
difficult problems for an employer,” she continued.