I remember reading a while ago about a study at MIT into implicit racism amongst recruiters.  The study, performed by Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, sent off numerous identical job applications, the only difference being the name of the applicants.  Some were given traditional black names, others traditional white ones.  Nearly 5,000 applications were sent out and the worrying thing is that white sounding applicants received 50% more interview requests than black sounding applicants.  Whether it was a racial thing or some perception of class based upon an individuals name it is a worrying trend, especially when the quantitative measures provided by an individuals grades are identical.

Not just an American thing

The reason this old study popped into my head today was that the DWP have conducted a similar experiment recently here in Britain, with similar results.  Three applications were sent to 987 advertised job vacancies giving a total of 2,961 applications.  Applications were made to private, public and voluntary sector employers of varying sizes.  For every 9 applications sent by the white sounding applicant, the black sounding applicants had to make 16 applications to get the same level of responses.

"This research clearly shows that some employers are discriminating when it comes to choosing staff.  This has no place in a modern society and racial discrimination cannot be allowed to continue." Jim White, Minister for Employment at Welfare Reform

This has worrying implications, both for managers and applicants.  If ethnic candidates catch on to this implicit discimination then the impact upon their motivation could be extremely damaging.  At CMI we implore managers at all levels to work on their training and personal development, but research such as this suggests that training alone may not be enough to ensure a level playing field for all.  As a country, and as individual companies, this is a vital issue, because untapped talent is wasted talent.  Where such implicit racism is at play we lose out on so much potential.

What can be done to ensure all applicants are treated equally?