Business Daily Media

Men's Weekly

.

What's in a name? How recruitment discriminates against 'foreign' applicants

  • Written by Mladen Adamovic, Research Fellow in Management, Monash University

Since moving from Pakistan to Australia, Mariam Mohammed has gained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree[1], co-founded a social enterprise (teaching financial literacy to women) and made the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence[2] list.

But there was a time she was so disheartened at not being able to get a job she considered changing her name[3] to something less “Muslim” and more “Anglo”.

Her experience is not unique.

In the past 50 years most Western countries have become more tolerant of cultural diversity. Laws now forbid overt forms of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or age.

But unconscious biases remain – with one of the most well-documented being discrimination against job applicants with ethnic minority names.

Reviewing 123 resume studies

I have analysed 123 “resume studies”[4] to get a more fine-grained understanding of name-based discrimination in recruitment.

Resume studies typically involve[5] researchers responding to real job advertisements with very similar resumes of fictitious job candidates. In these studies, some resumes have names indicating an applicant comes from an ethnic minority group, while other resumes have more common names. This enables researchers to compare the responses for the different names.

My review covered studies conducted in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Sweden, and the United States.

More than 95% of the studies identified high ethnic discrimination in recruitment. On average, ethnic minority applicants received about half as many positive responses to their job applications.

Read more: Vital Signs: the pros and cons of diversity in organisations[6]

Notable differences

There were, however, large differences in the degree of discrimination across the studies.

The following chart shows results from a selection of studies in different nations. The “net discrimination rate” is a common measure in resume studies. The higher the percentage, the higher the discrimination. So the resume studies show applicants with Moroccan names in Italy and African or German names in Ireland are more discriminated against than those with Turkish names in Germany.

Just three of the studies did not find any hiring discrimination against ethnic minorities. Only one reported hiring discrimination against the ethnic majority group – a study in Malaysia[7] finding a Chinese name was more helpful than a Malay name. (Chinese Malaysians represent less than a third[8] of Malaysia’s population, but are disproportionately represented in the business class[9].)

Yes, it really is the name that counts

The most noteworthy finding is the similar degree of discrimination against immigrants and the native-born children of immigrants (or second-generation immigrants).

Studies measured this effect through resumes for candidates with an ethnic minority name but with local educational qualification and work experience. Resumes for first-generation immigrants indicated attendance at foreign schools and universities and no local work experience. The response rate from recruiters was roughly the same.

These results show it is the ethnic minority name that’s the hindrance, rather than an assessment about a candidate’s language skills or a preference for local qualifications and work experience.

This point is underlined by US and Swedish[10] study findings that adopting an ethnic majority name improves job application success.

Read more: Bias creeps into reference checks, so is it time to ditch them?[11]

Anonymous resumes may not help

One common assumption among recruiters and human resource managers is that deleting the name of the job application should result in a more equal recruitment process.

But the research has returned mixed findings about anonymous resumes.

A 2012 Swedish study[12], for example, found anonymous resumes did indeed improve the chances for job candidates of non-Western origin (and also for female candidates).

In contrast, a 2015 study in France[13] reported that anonymous resumes increased ethnic discrimination in recruitment. The researchers suggest anonymous resumes might have led to harsher judgments of “negative signals” such as employment gaps.

So anonymous resumes might not be the solution. What recruiters need to focus on instead is training to recognise their unconscious biases and better evaluate resumes based only on applicants’ actual skills and experience.

References

  1. ^ master’s degree (www.thewestern.com.au)
  2. ^ 100 Women of Influence (www.afr.com)
  3. ^ considered changing her name (www.bodyandsoul.com.au)
  4. ^ analysed 123 “resume studies” (www.sciencedirect.com)
  5. ^ typically involve (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
  6. ^ Vital Signs: the pros and cons of diversity in organisations (theconversation.com)
  7. ^ study in Malaysia (www.tandfonline.com)
  8. ^ less than a third (minorityrights.org)
  9. ^ business class (factsanddetails.com)
  10. ^ Swedish (www.journals.uchicago.edu)
  11. ^ Bias creeps into reference checks, so is it time to ditch them? (theconversation.com)
  12. ^ Swedish study (journals.sagepub.com)
  13. ^ a 2015 study in France (www.aeaweb.org)

Authors: Mladen Adamovic, Research Fellow in Management, Monash University

Read more https://theconversation.com/whats-in-a-name-how-recruitment-discriminates-against-foreign-applicants-160695

Cash vs Accrual: Choosing the Right Method for SMEs

When running a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), one of the earliest financial decisions you’ll face is choosing between the cash and accrual ac...

Changing the World One Bite At a Time: IKU Turns 40

One of Australia’s first plant-based, chef-led eateries and now ready meal provider IKU is celebrating its 40 year anniversary with the business e...

Three generations marking 45 years in hot-air balloons

Australia’s leading hot-air balloon company is celebrating 45 years in the sky and its 700,000th passenger, driven by the passion of father-son du...

Workplace DMs, Reinvented: Deputy Messaging, Purpose-Built For Shift-Based Teams

Deputy, the global people platform for shift-based businesses, has launched Deputy Messaging, a fully integrated, real-time communication tool designe...

Revolutionizing Fulfillment: How Virtual Warehousing is Changing the Game?

The e-commerce landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever, and the way businesses are managing their fulfillment is also revolutionizing. At the...

SME lender Dynamoney welcomes new CEO, Brett Thomas

Strengthens growth ambitions and signals expanded offering Dynamoney, a leading commercial finance provider for Australian SMEs,  has today appoint...

Sell by LayBy