7 Aug 2010
JOBSEEKERS ARE CLUELESS!
Times of India (July 20, 2010) reports:
· In Germany, resumes generally include a photograph and information considered taboo for employers in many countries, such as, date of birth, marital status and nationality.
· A 2010 study by the private Bonn-based Institute for the Study of Labor showed rampant bias in hiring.
· This prompted the German Anti-Discrimination Agency to sponsor a voluntary program under which company recruiters will process only "Blind" resumes that remove any reference to ethnic background or other personal information irrelevant to job performance.
· Procter and Gamble and L'Oreal who have joined this program say the idea is to show to other recruiters what they were sacrificing with their prejudices.
No doubt a welcome beginning, but the unemployed around the world just do not want to risk their resumes getting summarily rejected because these contain "insufficient" information!
As long as job advertisements fail to clearly spell-out what information is "relevant" and what is "taboo", jobseekers around the world would continue to err on the safe side! If employers continue to remain “ vague “- on purpose – they run the risk of being “legislated “!
Hemen Parekh
