UK 
United States
It’s a sad fact that workplace discrimination is still an issue that the HR departments of organisations across the UK have to deal with on a daily basis. Although perhaps often unintentional, people still fail to leave biases at the door when they enter their working environment, and base business decisions on personal perceptions.
It’s an emotive topic and one that the HR industry would like to see the back of, but given the intrinsically human nature of the profession - and an inability to control every move of every employee - it’ll likely be something we all have to deal with at some point in our career. We can only hope it becomes less prevalent.
What we absoultely can control, is the discrimination that comes into play before an employee even has the opportunity to demonstrate their worth.
The recent Xref Recruitment RIsk Index told us that a quarter of respondents who had acted as referees during a reference checking process, had been asked a candidate’s age, while a staggering 14 per cent had been asked their marital status. Both of these are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 but, legalities aside, it’s alarming that anyone in today’s working environment would even think these questions were acceptable.
When done well, professional reference checking can provide a wealth of information on a candidate’s suitability for a role and ultimately ensure organisations hire the best people at the right time. However, the lack of standardisation and control within traditional reference checking practices leaves organisations open to the threat that those conducting them are putting the business at risk of a compliance breach. Not only this, but candidate’s decisions about where they wish to work are increasingly based on their perception of the organisational culture. Should it become apparent that such questions are being asked, the reputational damage to the organisation could be huge and detrimental to future hiring success.
The risk of asking discriminatory questions is just one of many problems with traditional reference checking methods. A lack of consistency, security and transparency in traditional approaches are putting organisation at risk in a number of ways.
To find out more about this discrimination data, as well as other findings about the risks associated with poor referencing practices, download your free copy of the Xref Recruitment Risk Index now.
