Managing Out Discrimination ñ The Role of On-line Recruitment

Employment law is a minefield. The constant flood of new legislation weighs heavily on many of the UKís employers, particularly smaller businesses who donít have the support of dedicated HR departments to ensure they are staying on the right side of the law. And with new legislation on its way itís unlikely things are going to let up.

By 2 December 2006, under the EC Discrimination Framework Directive, discrimination on grounds of age will be prohibited. This is set to have a massive impact on UK employers, the extent of which will not be fully gauged until the legislation comes into force. However, it seems quite possible that the floodgates will open for claims of both direct and indirect age discrimination.

Whatever shape or form, discrimination must be avoided at all costs as the financial consequences of failing to do so can be hard hitting. Employers with HR teams on board are best-placed to deal with the raft of new legislation ñ they have the expertise, the systems and the resources to deal with the changes and ensure the business is operating within the boundaries of the law.

But itís not necessarily bad news for smaller businesses. While self-education is a must, there are ways in which they can effectively manage out discrimination before it becomes an issue.

Discrimination most commonly occurs during the recruitment process. Indeed, many businesses discriminate without being aware of it. This is where the web can come into play because it is non-discriminatory in its very nature.

By concealing personal information such as age, sex and status sophisticated e-recruitment systems can allow applicants to remain anonymous until the first face to face interview. Put simply, these systems will identify individuals which have the skills for the job and discard those that donít ñ nothing else will come into the equation.

Not only is this the best way of ensuring that potentially good candidates arenít discarded because they are perceived as being too old or because of their sex, it prohibits discrimination from the outset. It is a sad fact that employers will often make groundless decisions despite the fact that the candidate, based on experience, is potentially the best person for the job.

By more traditional methods, the process of sifting through CVs can be a painstaking procedure which, as well as costing time and money, could be difficult if the person or persons charged with the task donít have the right skills or level of understanding required.

On-line recruitment can guide businesses through the process and ensure they can defend their recruitment decisions without being accused of discrimination. It can streamline the whole process and ensure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. If several people are involved in the recruitment process, there is scope for human error, but if everything is handled by a single source the chances of discrimination coming into the equation are greatly reduced. Provided time is taken at the outset to engineer water-tight questions there is little chance that things will go wrong.

An additional benefit of on-line recruitment is that it makes it easy to check for any underlying bias. Subtle bias can be brought to the forefront which is helpful for companies who arenít aware that they are discriminating. The fact that everything is recorded gives management access to important information.

Of course whether or not a business will be considered to be discriminating will depend on the demographics and provided the staffing complement is consistent with the demographics of the recruitment catchment area, there wonít be a problem. Itís a complex area of the law and one which is constantly developing. 2006 will witness the first test cases on the age front and it will then be easier to say what is and what is not acceptable.

However, what is clear is that businesses must act now to ensure they have the right measures in place if they are to avoid claims of discrimination.

Dr David Buchanan is managing director of Glasgow-based technology business Logical Innovations, developers of TalentTracker recruitment and online recruitment software solutions.