Ruthless sorting of CVs according to photo, address, name... Jean-François Amadieu goes back to how hiring decisions are really made. Excerpt from "DRH: the black book".
Listening to some professional recruiters in the mid-2000s, one might have thought for a long time that selection was based on purely objective criteria, i.e. on skills or, as we now say, "talents". But the evidence of discrimination in hiring through testing has seriously debunked the myth. Once widespread discrimination in hiring was established, it had to be admitted that professional recruiters and employers had unfairly excluded candidates. This was sometimes deliberate (e.g. for older candidates, pregnant women or people with an immigrant background) and more often than not unconscious. The selection methods used to recruit (sorting of CVs, interviews, tests) had left those who wished to discriminate free to do so. For example, allowing the name of a candidate to be read on the CV opened the door to the rejection of applications from people with African surnames.
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These testings revealed a major problem to the French: the lack of objectivity in the techniques used to sort candidates.
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Testing still underestimates the extent of discrimination. As we have seen, the first large-scale discrimination has already occurred, since the majority of jobs are filled via networks, without even going through the labour market. Next, a job may very well give rise to competition [...] when the game has already been played, without the candidates knowing that they are being used as a stooge. Finally, testing generally relates to the first stage of recruitment (the sorting of CVs), whereas discrimination is obviously significant during interviews (with HR departments and managers) or when taking tests. For people of African origin, the International Labour Office has found that 85% of discrimination takes place from the outset, during the selection of CVs. But it is often necessary to wait until the interview for rejection based on physical appearance or pregnancy.
However, if we stick to the stage of sorting the CVs, these experiences are still rich in lessons learned. To say the least, not all candidates are on an equal footing.
First of all, senior citizens seem on average to have the lowest chances of receiving a positive response after sending an application.
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I found, thanks to the testings, that for sales positions in the Paris region, a 50-year-old candidate was four to five times less likely to receive a positive response after sending in his application than a young person aged 27-28. As a national average, and for all types of private sector jobs, in 2006, his chances were about three times lower than those of a 28-30 year-old candidate. Beyond the age of 45, there is no longer any interest [...]. The prevailing youthfulness does not help, the priority appearing to be youth unemployment and the rejuvenation of management. The lengthening of working life, given the later retirement ages, can only make this problem more acute.
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With my teams, we also tested discrimination on the basis of national origins. For sales positions in the Paris region, a candidate with a Moroccan surname and first name, with a photo attached, was five times less likely to be selected than a reference candidate (a 28-year-old man with a French surname and first name, white skinned), a priori the most attractive to recruiters. For similar positions, a young woman of North African origin living in the outer suburbs was three times less likely, although this time her CV was better than the others, which shows the absurdity of this discrimination. As a national average (on a representative sample of jobs, sectors, company sizes and regions), a man with an African-sounding surname and first name (without a photo) was about 64% less likely than a candidate with an "ethnic French" surname and first name to continue recruiting after sending in his application. Published the same year, in 2007, an ILO test at the national level found a convergent result with ours.
Discrimination on the basis of skin colour (stricto sensu) exists, but has more rarely been evaluated. In one test, we used a photo of a dummy West Indian candidate, black-skinned, with a first and last name that in no way indicated an African origin. For a sales position, he got about 25% fewer responses than a white skinned candidate.
Obesity also triggers significant discrimination. An obese candidate will be two to three times less likely to land a sales position. In another test, again conducted by the Discrimination Observatory, it was found that the chances were also halved for telemarketers, who are not in visual contact with customers. The extent of prejudices against overweight people is measured, particularly with regard to their personality and state of health.
Similarly, an unsightly face on a CV triggers discrimination: it will be three times less likely to be employed as a salesperson and - 30% on national average. As for beautiful faces, they make those with them more likely to be retained. Having the right look for the job and seducing recruiters is a requirement. However, it is scientifically proven that some faces inspire confidence, while others are associated with the role of leader or evoke great intelligence.
The effect of disability is more complex. For customer-facing jobs, disabled candidates are rejected outright, without the application being examined.
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While we estimated in 2006 that the chances were on average halved for people with disabilities, in a few large firms with an active and attentive disability unit, their success rate at the CV sorting stage is close to or even higher than that of other candidates.
Finally, we tested the influence of the home address: living at Val Fourré in Mantes-la-Jolie means having 40% less chance of passing the stage of sending your CV for a sales position in the Paris region.
This gloomy conclusion is therefore irrevocable. Yet companies are reluctant to admit it.
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Excerpt from "HRD: the black book", Editions Seuil (January 2013)