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Recruitment discrimination can be targeted against job applicants with a foreign-sounding name, but it can also be based on factors such as age and gender.
Recruitment discrimination based on ethnic background has been investigated by sending job applications with invented names to employers. The applications have been completely identical in other respects, but the applicant’s name has been changed, for example, from Pekka to Aleksei.
“In some cases, the application with a Finnish-sounding name receives many times more interview invitations than a foreign-sounding name,” confirms Ohto Kanninen, Chief Researcher at Labore.
He says that in the light of research, recruitment discrimination is a common phenomenon if there are enough applicants. In a sector with a shortage of workforce, recruitment discrimination is, in general, a smaller problem.
Recruiters may have unconscious and conscious attitudes towards different people. Intolerance may also be rooted in the company’s culture.
Those who are discriminated against on ethnic grounds may not even know that they are being discriminated against, but their self-confidence will be weakened when they are not invited to job interviews. Age discrimination, on the other hand, is easier to notice: when the applicant was younger, they were invited to interviews, but nowadays they are not.
A company that falls into recruitment discrimination may reject the best candidates due to irrelevant factors. In general, all rigid thinking slows down the company’s development.
It is important to make discriminatory attitudes visible in recruitment. One way is to automate recruitment and use objective metrics and anonymous recruitment.
Face-to-face discussions are an efficient way to reduce prejudice. For example, in a study conducted by the City of Helsinki, people with diverse ethnic backgrounds were invited to interviews more than before because of anonymous recruitment, and they were also hired more often than through regular recruitment.
Schools are shared workplaces with employees from several employers. People at Havukoski School are constantly thinking about how to develop safety and ensure that messages are transferred effectively even in dangerous situations.
Improving occupational safety at a shared workplace requires cooperation, clear operating models and continuous monitoring.
Improving safety requires continuous risk assessment and effective communication. Monitoring by occupational safety and health authorities has revealed significant shortcomings in occupational safety and health at shared workplaces.
At the Meyer Turku shipyard, approximately 80 per cent of the production of cruise ships is subcontracted. Matti Tuimala, Safety Manager at the shipyard, explains how safety is ensured at the huge shared workplace.
