Recruitment agencies in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Spain and Ukraine are being invited to join Audit 45-64, a study examining how hiring practices, marketing and artificial intelligence systems treat women aged 45 to 64.
The initiative is led by Womafreesm, which says recruiters can provide insight into expectations expressed in client briefs, conversations and shortlist feedback that may never appear in public job advertisements.
What participation involves
The organisation is seeking a response from one recruiter per agency who has worked with corporate clients during the past 12 months. Its questionnaire contains 20 questions and is expected to take around nine minutes.
Participants compare matched candidate profiles that differ in age and sex and describe patterns they encounter in their markets. Womafreesm says it does not ask for candidate data, client names or quotations from individual client briefs.
“We are not auditing agencies. We are asking them to be the witness.”
Marina Sukhomlinova, founder and president of Womafreesm and research lead
How the findings will be used
Womafreesm says participating agencies will receive a briefing on age and gender in selection, followed by their market’s findings six weeks before public release and a comparison with the other participating countries.
The organisation says only aggregated and anonymised data will be used, with no indicator published where it is based on fewer than five agencies. It also says research partners will have no control over methodology, analysis or publication, and agencies can withdraw.
This is a call for participation, rather than a report of completed research findings. For recruiters, it offers an opportunity to contribute practical experience to a wider examination of how candidate experience and expertise are assessed.
Participation is free. Agencies can read the study overview or access the English-language questionnaire.
Illustrative photo: Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels.
