Building Opportunities: Recruitment Module

As the Department of Justice notes, “gender neutrality is important when writing about people because it is more accurate — not to mention respectful — and is consistent with the values of equality recognized in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is also professionally responsible and is mandated by the Federal Plan for Gender Equality, which was approved by the Cabinet and presented to the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in 1995.”

• 58% of the Building Opportunities survey respondents would like to see pictures showing workforce diversity in the advertisement or company website when responding to ads.

• 68% of survey respondents would like to see details of mentorship on a job posting.

• In the past, male-specific pronouns were generally accepted as a default way to introduce or describe non-specific “he or she.” Now, to promote gender equality, gender- specific words should be replaced with neutral words with the same meaning.

• Include an Equal Opportunity Employer statement (Appendix 1.A).

• Use gender neutral language (Appendix 1.H).

• Create a gender-neutral job posting (Appendix 1.B) or, use the template for a gender-neutral job posting (Appendix 1.C).

• Try “Gender Decoder for Job Ads:” the gender-neutral app, which finds gendered language in your postings: gender-decoder.katmatfield.com.

• Be sure to mention mentorship/training opportunities available (Appendix 3.D).

Workforce Planning Hamilton’s Hire Learning Survey (2015) found that 75% of employers use word of mouth referral as their main source of hiring. By providing job opportunities only to friends and family, women may be excluded if they are not in your networking circle. Word of mouth referral may also lead to cases of favouritism and nepotism and pose more challenges for women entering the trades.

In addition to using private or internal networks to advertise new job openings, employers could try posting in a variety of areas. Using different platforms will broaden the range of applicants.

• Reach out to schools and training institutions relevant to your field (Appendix 1.I).

• Place ads at employment services centres in Hamilton (Appendix 1.G).

• Post on social media.

• Post ads at libraries, and community centres (such as Hamilton Recreation centres www.hamilton.ca/parks-recreation).

• Use free online job websites such as: Indeed, JobBank.gc.ca

Inviting qualified prospects to tour the workplace is a creative way for employees to see if they would be a good fit. These opportunities allow connections to be made with potential employees.

• Establish workplace ambassadors to speak with candidates about women in your workplace (Appendix 1.J and 1.K).

Some of the biases against hiring women are subconscious. An article by The Earth Institute at Columbia University reports résumés with women’s names were chosen only 66% as often as identical résumés with men’s names.

• Use services such as www.magnet.today, a service where candidates upload their qualifications and are matched with jobs anonymously (www.magnet.today).

• Include anonymous skills tests as part of the recruitment stage.

According to the Public Service Commission of Canada, research shows that unstructured interviews can lead to poor hiring decisions because they are more vulnerable to:

Bias and Inequity
People are often unaware of their own biases and how these biases unconsciously influence their decisions. Research shows that attributes such as physical attractiveness, a similarity of the applicant to the interviewer, gender and race can inappropriately influence an interview panel’s assessment. Personal beliefs and values may also influence the unstructured interview process so that different questions may be asked of different people, or the same answer provided by different applicants may be interpreted differently.

Inaccuracy and Low Prediction
Studies show that unstructured interviews are relatively ineffective at predicting job performance. This finding is largely attributed to the use of questions that are not necessarily based on qualifications required to perform the work. Since the assessment criteria are unclear, interview panel members may inaccurately and inadvertently judge applicants on irrelevant factors. Also, unstructured interviews make it easier for applicants to give answers they think the interview panel is looking for, rather than answers that provide accurate information on how they will perform once on the job.

Legal Vulnerability
Unstructured interviews are more likely than structured ones to be challenged in court, based on grounds of illegal discrimination. A review of 158 United States federal court cases involving hiring discrimination from 1978 to 1997 revealed that unstructured interviews were challenged in court more often than any other type of selection device. Even more important is an examination of the outcomes of such legal challenges. Unstructured interviews were found to be discriminatory in 59% of these cases, whereas structured interviews were found to be discriminatory in 0% of cases.

• Try out a standardized interview process (Appendix 1.D).

• Review sample questions for standardized interviews (Appendix 1.E).

If a hiring decision is challenged, it is essential to be able to produce documentation of the processes followed and how decisions were made. Managers need to be able to explain their staffing decisions should there be complaints to the Public Service Staffing Tribunal (PSST). Therefore, when using a structured interview in an appointment process, it is recommended that the following information be kept on file:

• The merit criteria, as assessed by the interview panel and how the criteria were defined, as well as their relative importance, if applicable.

• The interview questions, asked of all applicants.

• The assessment criteria, such as the correct responses to knowledge questions, or the behavioural indicators for the situational questions.

• The rating scale, including the numerical scores and narrative descriptors, if applicable.

• The detailed notes of the interview panel members, for each response.

• The individual applicant’s results and the rationale.

• How the results from the interview were integrated with other sources of information, in order to make appointment decisions.

• Use standardized evaluation techniques. (Appendix 1.F).