Just a question about equal rights.

[Bozo]

so they employ say 5 gay, 5 bi and 5 hetrosexual? that kind of idea.

 

in which case saying i am a white british hetro female could actually mean im not considered for a postion?

 

From my (limited) understanding the appointment should be based on merit. The information is not there to be used to influence the appointment of any single candidate but to monitor recruitment patterns overall. When they assess numbers they won't expect them to be equal but proportionate.

[HeadingNorth]

so they employ say 5 gay, 5 bi and 5 hetrosexual? that kind of idea.

 

in which case saying i am a white british hetro female could actually mean im not considered for a postion?

 

They don't have a fixed quota, and therefore no, your failing to fit the quota is not a concern.

 

They do use that information to check, on a national scale, if there is a large and significant discrepancy; for instance, if the percentage of Indians in the country was 12% but the percentage of Indians in the NHS workforce was 0.2%, questions would be asked about why. It doesn't mean that they would dismiss non-Indian applicants in order to bring the percentage back up.

[truman]

From my (limited) understanding the appointment should be based on merit. The information is not there to be used to influence the appointment of any single candidate but to monitor recruitment patterns overall. When they assess numbers they won't expect them to be equal but proportionate.

 

Why does it matter who applies for a job...? Surely the person selected should be the best of those that did?

[GothicCharm]

but how does that work bozo.

 

say they expect it to be proportionate, does this mean that they knowlingly employ proportionate amounts and does it mean that if a work place has only 10 employees they would have to employ at least 1 black/asian employee to make the numbers right?

[mj.scuba]

If the jobs are, indeed, on merit only, then it's reasonably to suppose that the same percentage of employees will be [black/homosexual/disabled], as the percentage of the nation as a whole is.

 

In order to verify that this is the case, they need to know the details of the people they're hiring, to check them against the national averages.

 

But then you could get in a situation where a company is hopping about going "damn we don't have enough Jews*, make sure we get a Jew* for the next job vacancy"

 

*replace with any minority or social group

 

It is not possible to perfectly replicate the general population in a workforce.

 

EDIT - it could work the other way too. Can you imagine a Lincolnshire farmer saying "****, we have too many Polish and not enough English"

[GothicCharm]

Why does it matter who applies for a job...? Surely the person selected should be the best of those that did?

 

yeah this is what i mean. read truman's posts for clarification on what i mean lol truman seems to be able to write down what (s)he thinks better than i can, this must be why i get into trouble lol

[JFKvsNixon]

When you apply to the NHS one of the questions on the form is sexual orientation.

 

It says you should state this and you won't be judged for it.

 

if you won't be judged in any way then why do you need to state it? What's it for and why's it relevant?

 

Also how do you know the person reading the forms isn't homophobic and tossing your application to the bottom of the pile upon reading this.

 

Usually the form for nationality, sexual orientation etc are separated from the rest of the application form. This is for the interviewers to understand the demographics of people applying for the job.

[HeadingNorth]

But then you could get in a situation where a company is hopping about going "damn we don't have enough Jews*, make sure we get a Jew* for the next job vacancy"

 

*replace with any minority or social group

 

It is not possible to perfectly replicate the general population in a workforce.

 

No, and nobody expects to, but knowing that you're somewhere vaguely close to a replication, in a company the size of the NHS, is evidence that you do not have a built-in discrimination to your employment policies.

 

In smaller companies, such things can't work and aren't normally used. In a pool of six employees, any variations would be statistically insignificant anyway.

[GothicCharm]

ive just had to google "demographic" (BLONDE) but why is this is it simply so they can write down somewhere " we have 35% asian employees ad 29%white etc etc?"

[truman]

No, and nobody expects to, but knowing that you're somewhere vaguely close to a replication, in a company the size of the NHS, is evidence that you do not have a built-in discrimination to your employment policies.

 

 

But if the ratio of minorities applying is out of step what do you do to level it up?