Advice needed - discrimination in job application?

giantmutantbroccoli

I don't see what the problem is in allowing someone to apply for a job using a CV?

There's a lot of reasons. Maybe they want to weed out anyone who doesn't know how to use a computer. Maybe they get so many applications that they couldn't afford the admin costs of accepting them via paper. Maybe they just really, really like trees. If they have a website, maybe they want your "friend" to be able to promote their website to customers while sounding like they know what they're doing.

Why should they have to find a computer, visit a possibly insecure website and enter the EXACT SAME information again, just to please the bosses of a crappy retailer?

Because they want that supposedly crappy retailer to give them a job. As for the security of the website, how secure is the CV if the person she gives it to leaves it lying around in the office, on the counter or sticks it straight in the bin? If she does manage to somehow get a job at one of these crappy retailers, she will have to please the bosses - if the idea of doing something in a particular way because that is the way the company want it done is so upsetting for her, she's going to struggle to get a job anywhere.

She isn't applying to be a doctor or anything, it seem stupid and possibly illegal to make such a demand.

It is not illegal. Not in any way, shape or form is it illegal. Nor is it stupid, or an unreasonable demand.

My company advertised for a couple of jobs last year - one for a sales assistant. We asked all applicants to email us their CVs, because it was easier to deal with. But more importantly, we did it because it was the easiest proof to get that they could use a computer. The sales assistant would need to be able to look products up on the computer, and also to be able to have a sensible conversation with customers about our website and where they could find things. They needed to be able to direct customers to right parts of our website, and to look competent and confident while doing so - and not to throw their hands in the air and go "I don't do the internet!" when something internet-related came up.

Despite us having asked for applications via email, we still got a few people coming in with their paper copies and insisting we take them. None of those people were invited to interview, funnily enough, because following instructions is a vital if unwritten part of the job description.

[Edit] I also used google searches and facebook to check up on people who applied. Most were fine, one person was rejected because their Facebook was full of racist and sexist profanity, one because their Facebook was full of the most unbelievable rantings about how !!!! their last job was, and a few more because they didn't seem to understand how privacy settings worked. I wouldn't disallow someone for having a photo of them drinking redbull, or for having a nasty looking house on streetview (which can, btw, be several years out of date!), but you have to tailor your requirements to your business.

tomtontom

tidus wrote: »

I use anything and everything I can find on the internet in screening for candidates. I have a small business and regularly get 60-80 applicants for a job.

I have been known to turn somebody down for having a stupid email address. (littledirtymiss69 or something like that).

I have been known to turn somebody down for facebook photos showing the smoking of weed.

I have been known to turn somebody down for having a dump of a house as seen on Google street view.

You need to be aware of what is out there for employers to see and what they want to see - usually that you are a normal, respectable person and not an boozy or drug using party animal who can't be bothered to mow the lawn.

You are aware that Street View can be several years out of date? In my case you'd see a building site!

shaun_from_Africa

JReacher1 wrote: »

It's not a company, it's a person working for a company who has decided if you have a photo of you drinking red bull on your facebook profile then they won't grant you an interview.

I am surprised you defend that position.

Plus he doesn't only judge what you drink but apparently he uses google street view to look at the candidates home. You may believe this is a very professional attitude but as someone who recruits for reasonably senior positions, I can tell you I would never look at a candidates house before making a decision in whether to grant an interview!

If you were to receive applications from 10 different people all applying for one job and all 10 people had very similar qualifications and experience and you had to whittle them down to say 4 or 5 for the interview process, how would you go about it?

Many employers are having this problem every year.
They want to take on school leavers (all whom have no experience) and many of whom will have just about identical exam marks.
Unless they wish to interview every single applicant (something that may well not be financially viable), they have to find a way to decide on which candidates to allow to progress to an interview, and Facebook and other social sites often give a fairly good indication of a person's attitude to life.

Ideal?
Definitely not but we don't live in an ideal world and sometimes decisions have to be made with very little to back these decisions up.

Air_Cooled_75

I think looking at google street view is a bit dodgy though, we've lived in our house for 5 years and it still shows the previous owners' cars on the drive! You can't be sure that the image is up to date.

As for facecack, I don't use it much these days but only friends can look at my profile and you can't find me on there by putting my name in.

I'm in my 40s and we had a BBC computer at primary school

DKLS

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If you were to receive applications from 10 different people all applying for one job and all 10 people had very similar qualifications and experience and you had to whittle them down to say 4 or 5 for the interview process, how would you go about it?

HR Software, makes sure all applications are submitted via Hr website, and allow the software to do the selection work, I could process 500 cvs with about 4 mouse clicks and have a short list within a few minutes.

JReacher1

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If you were to receive applications from 10 different people all applying for one job and all 10 people had very similar qualifications and experience and you had to whittle them down to say 4 or 5 for the interview process, how would you go about it?

Many employers are having this problem every year.
They want to take on school leavers (all whom have no experience) and many of whom will have just about identical exam marks.
Unless they wish to interview every single applicant (something that may well not be financially viable), they have to find a way to decide on which candidates to allow to progress to an interview, and Facebook and other social sites often give a fairly good indication of a person's attitude to life.

Ideal?
Definitely not but we don't live in an ideal world and sometimes decisions have to be made with very little to back these decisions up.

So if you were recruiting you would turn someone down for an interview if on Google street view their house didn't make the grade?

I don't know what you do for a living but I'm hoping it's not something that would ever impact on me!

What an unusual attitude you have to life!

shaun_from_Africa

JReacher1 wrote: »

So if you were recruiting you would turn someone down for an interview if on Google street view their house didn't make the grade?

I don't know what you do for a living but I'm hoping it's not something that would ever impact on me!

What an unusual attitude you have to life!

No. I've made no mention whatsoever to Google streetview or the type of houses that people live in.
I made sure that I only mentioned using information found on social media websites, information that was made freely available by the people concerned.

All I've said is that all other things being equal and if choices have to be made as whom to call for an interview, social media websites may give information about a person that could have some impact on how they perform their job, how they react with other employees etc.

You seem to have ignored what I asked earlier.
If you have multiple applications for the same position and all of the applicants are equally qualified and experienced, how do you decide who to interview?

When answering, bear in mind that especially with positions aimed at school leavers, there may be dozens of applicants and the companies concerned might not have the time or resources to call every one of them for an interview.

This is such a common practice nowadays, I'm surprised that you don't seem to know that it happens.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/05/facebook-can-tell-you-if-a-person-is-worth-hiring/

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=employees+using+facebook+job+applicants&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=&gws_rd=ssl

JReacher1

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

No. I've made no mention whatsoever to Google streetview or the type of houses that people live in.
I made sure that I only mentioned using information found on social media websites, information that was made freely available by the people concerned.

All I've said is that all other things being equal and if choices have to be made as whom to call for an interview, social media websites may give information about a person that could have some impact on how they perform their job, how they react with other employees etc.

You seem to have ignored what I asked earlier.
If you have multiple applications for the same position and all of the applicants are equally qualified and experienced, how do you decide who to interview?

When answering, bear in mind that especially with positions aimed at school leavers, there may be dozens of applicants and the companies concerned might not have the time or resources to call every one of them for an interview.

This is such a common practice nowadays, I'm surprised that you don't seem to know that it happens.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/05/facebook-can-tell-you-if-a-person-is-worth-hiring/

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=employees+using+facebook+job+applicants&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&tbs=&as_filetype=&as_rights=&gws_rd=ssl

You can't pick and choose the argument you are defending. I am saying the poster is unprofessional for how he decides who to interview. This is as he has stated involves using Facebook and Google streetview.

I have said this is unprofessional. For some weird reason you are defending this person by selectively ignoring what he said.

Very weird.

Still it's the Internet so you do get people who like to argue for the sake of it!

George_Michael

JReacher1 wrote: »

What an unusual attitude you have to life!

From reading some of the links provided by SFA, it appears that his attitude isn't really that unusual.

Social media monitoring service Reppler conducted a study with Lab42 using a random sample of 300 individuals involved in the hiring process of a company, and the results are fascinating. A massive 91% of the employers polled use social networking sites to screen prospective employees.

In a survey of some 2,300 hiring managers, nearly 40 percent said they screen potential hires using social media, and many say they reject job applicants as a result of what they find, according to a new survey released Wednesday by CareerBuilder.

Employers already know it’s a good idea to check job candidates’ Facebook pages to make sure there aren’t any horrible red flags there. The reddest flags for most employers seem to be drugs, drinking, badmouthing former employers, and lying about one’s qualifications. But there’s another good reason for checking out a candidate’s Facebook page before inviting them in for an interview: it may be a fairly accurate reflection of how good they’ll be at the job.
That’s the conclusion in a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology last month. The researchers hired HR types to rate hundreds of college students’ Facebook pages according to how employable they seemed.

Personally I don't see any problem with doing it.
If someone puts a post on facebook slagging off their previous employer or stating how they like to get pi55ed out of their mind every night, what's wrong with a prospective employer using this information to help decide if someone is worth employing?

JReacher1

George_Michael wrote: »

From reading some of the links provided by SFA, it appears that his attitude isn't really that unusual.





Personally I don't see any problem with doing it.
If someone puts a post on facebook slagging off their previous employer or stating how they like to get pi55ed out of their mind every night, what's wrong with a prospective employer using this information to help decide if someone is worth employing?

On Facebook I have no problem with people checking Facebook for things that could make them unsuitable for a position. I just don't agree that a photo of someone drinking red bull makes them unsuitable for a job

I worry there is something wrong with my internet though as you also seem to be ignoring his street view comment.

Is this site just filled with people who like to defend ridiculous statements?