tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/recruitment-1986/articlesRecruitment – The Conversation2024-03-21T11:36:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262462024-03-21T11:36:19Z2024-03-21T11:36:19ZClimate quitting: the people leaving their fossil fuel jobs because of climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583118/original/file-20240320-16-57513d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C134%2C5901%2C3853&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-woman-hold-piece-paper-quit-430986301">Mayuree Moonhirun/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the climate crisis gets ever more severe, the fossil fuel industry is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-oils-talent-crisis-high-salaries-are-no-longer-enough-194545be">struggling to recruit new talent</a>. And now a number of existing employees are deciding to leave their jobs, some quietly, some very publicly, because of concerns over climate change. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we speak to a researcher about this phenomenon of “climate quitting”.</p>
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<p>My name is Caroline Dennett and this is my resignation.</p>
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<p>In a video posted on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/caroline-dennett-6161a814_jumpship-truthteller-activity-6934409781495431168-7l1f?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web">LinkedIn</a> in 2022, Caroline Dennett, a senior safety consultant working at a major oil company, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/23/shell-consultant-quits-environment-caroline-dennett">announced she was terminating her contract</a> because of what she called the company’s “double-talk” on climate. </p>
<p>When Grace Augustine and her colleague Birth Soppe saw the video, which went viral, they decided to start looking for more people who had left their jobs because of concerns over climate change. </p>
<p>Augustine, an associate professor in business and society at the University of Bath in the UK, and Soppe, an associate professor of organisation studies, at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, have so far conducted interviews with 39 people from around the world in their ongoing research. Most, though not all, of their interviewees are young people who work in white collar jobs in the oil and gas sector. </p>
<p>One man they spoke to explained the feelings that led him to leave his job.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On a Friday afternoon travelling home, I would feel physically uncomfortable. And I was wondering: why am I feeling physically uncomfortable? I had a good week, I’ve done good work. And then you realise that, you may have done good work, but the goal that you’re working towards is evil in a way; does not align with your moral compass.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many referred to having a sense of cognitive dissonance – the idea that your behaviour doesn’t match your belief system. And they couldn’t live it with any longer. Augustine explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They were increasingly feeling a sense of urgency around the climate crisis … something that they’d thought might be happening ten, 15, 20 years down the line, such as heat records being broken or climate related weather events. They felt an increasing sense that it couldn’t wait any longer for them to leave this industry.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Listen to Grace Augustine talk about her ongoing research on <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, which also features extracts from her interviews and an introduction from Sam Phelps, commissioning editor for international affairs at The Conversation in the UK. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this episode will be available shortly.</em></p>
<p><em>Thanks to Grace Augustine for getting permission for The Conversation to use clips from her interviews, and to her interview subjects who agreed to let us use their voices and statements in this podcast.</em> </p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Gemma Ware is the executive producer. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode were from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU">PBS News Hour</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Augustine receives funding from The British Academy and Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>Grace Augustine talks about her interviews with people who’ve chosen to leave their jobs over climate change concerns on The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085422023-07-11T21:02:29Z2023-07-11T21:02:29ZThe ethics of recruiting international health-care workers: Canada’s gains could mean another country’s pain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536865/original/file-20230711-21-kbh5nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=269%2C417%2C4223%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recruiting health workers from countries on the World Health Organization’s safeguard list without robust and reciprocal benefits for the countries sending them does not meet ethical standards. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canadians know we are facing a health workforce crisis, from the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.1096049">estimated 6.5 million who do not have a primary care provider</a>, to those waiting months for <a href="https://www.camrt.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/HHR_crisis_radiology_news_release_May_30_2023_FINAL.pdf">medical imaging</a> and hours in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.230719">emergency rooms</a>. While the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/emergencies/situations/covid-19">Public Health Emergency</a> over in May 2023, Canada’s health workforce crisis has no end in sight. </p>
<p>As researchers with the <a href="https://www.hhr-rhs.ca/en/">Canadian Health Workforce Network</a>, we see the roots of this crisis in <a href="https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/HC5_Improved-Health-Care_Bourgeault.pdf">poor workforce planning</a> and the inadequate integration of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00748-7">immigrant health workers</a>. The consequences of poor planning are evident, as are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704221095129">ethical ramifications</a> of solving our problems through global recruitment.</p>
<h2>Canada’s health workforce crisis is more than a national issue</h2>
<p>The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada established an <a href="https://rsc-src.ca/en/programmes/canada%E2%80%99s-role-in-global-health-rsccahs-expert-panel">expert panel</a> to assess Canada’s role in global health and identify opportunities for Canada to “be true to its announced values of equity, human rights, and global citizenship.” </p>
<p>One way to promote Canadian health leadership is to align practices with the WHO’s <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/wha68.32">Global Code on the Practice of International Recruitment of Health Personnel</a>. This voluntary code was agreed to by all member states in 2010. Its key principles are ethical recruitment, a commitment to planning and international co-operation.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Ethical practices include discouraging active recruitment from countries listed on the WHO’s health workforce support <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240069787">safeguards list</a>, which identifies “countries with the most pressing health workforce needs related to universal health coverage.”</p></li>
<li><p>Robust health workforce planning strategies include strengthening health workforce data and implementing plans with a goal of health workforce sustainability and self-sufficiency. Robust data can ensure policies and planning are evidence-based, and document the impact of international recruiting on health systems. The goal should be sustainable, self-sufficient health workforces, including appropriate education, training and retention policies.</p></li>
<li><p>International co-operation between source and destination countries includes technical assistance and financial support to ensure benefits are mutual.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Why is the WHO Code important to reflect upon now?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Health workers in scrubs and white coats wearing face masks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536871/original/file-20230711-20-4r06r2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recruiting and integrating internationally educated health personnel is part of proposed solutions to Canada’s health worker crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recent Canadian health workforce reports identify the recruitment and integration of internationally educated health personnel (IEHPs) as part of the solution to the health worker crisis. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health held hearings on addressing Canada’s health workforce crisis, and the top four recommendations from its <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/HESA/report-10/">March 2023 report</a> all referenced IEHPs:</p>
<ul>
<li>greater collaboration between all levels of government and relevant stakeholders to streamline the process to recruit from countries that are known to train more health workers than they need domestically; </li>
<li>to provide more residency positions for international medical graduates; </li>
<li>expand pathways to <a href="https://www.mcc.ca/about/route-to-licensure/">qualifying for a licence to practice medicine in Canada</a> (licensure) for international physicians who have already completed their residency; and </li>
<li>support expedited pathways to licensure and practice. </li>
</ul>
<p>The <a href="https://cahs-acss.ca/assessment-on-health-human-resources-hhr/">Canadian Academy of Health Sciences</a> report also offers “pathways forward to ease the health workforce crisis,” including improving the integration of IEHPs.</p>
<h2>Provincial recruiting strategies</h2>
<p>Sub-national governments are also focused on international recruitment and integration. In British Columbia, <a href="https://www.healthmatchbc.org/Moving-to-BC/Immigration">Health Match BC</a> is assisting health professionals to immigrate, and <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023HLTH0001-000013">legislation</a> now makes it easier for internationally educated nurses to work in the province. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.alberta.ca/health-workforce-strategy.aspx">Alberta</a> developed a health workforce strategy that includes attracting IEHPs. <a href="https://www.saskatchewan.ca/residents/moving-to-saskatchewan/live-in-saskatchewan/by-immigrating/saskatchewan-immigrant-nominee-program/browse-sinp-programs/applicants-international-skilled-workers/international-healthcare-worker-eoi-pool">Saskatchewan</a> launched an international health worker pool for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/provincial-nominees/works.html">Provincial Nominee Program</a> candidates. <a href="https://healthcareersmanitoba.ca/buildyourfuturemb/">Manitoba</a> started recruiting health-care workers directly from the Philippines. </p>
<p>Ontario has both made it easier for health workers <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1002650/new-as-of-right-rules-a-first-in-canada-to-attract-more-health-care-workers-to-ontario">from other provinces</a> to practice there, and also directed its licensing bodies to streamline integration processes for immigrants in the province with a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/college-temporarily-register-international-nurses-1.6555165">nursing or medical credential</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-on-track-to-recruit-1-000-nurses-from-french-speaking-countries-1.6339396">Québec</a> launched an international recruitment drive to hire over 1,000 French-speaking nurses in February 2022. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/health-care-workers-new-brunswick-nurses-1.6736196">New Brunswick</a> partnered with Vitalité Health Network to send nurse recruiters to Senegal and Ivory Coast (countries on the WHO’s safeguard list). <a href="https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/nova-scotia-recruits-65-refugees-from-kenya-for-continuing-care-work-100810963/">Nova Scotia</a> has recruited 65 refugees from Kenyan refugee camps who will be employed in the continuing care sector. <a href="https://www.gov.nl.ca/releases/2022/exec/1103n02/">Newfoundland and Labrador</a> has launched a mission to recruit nurses directly from India.</p>
<h2>How compatible are these practices with the WHO Code?</h2>
<p>Recruitment and integration efforts have seen provinces develop novel and seemingly ethical plans to recruit IEHPs and provide them a pathway to practice in Canada. However, recruiting health workers from countries on the WHO’s safeguard list without robust and reciprocal benefits for the countries sending them fails the ethical test. </p>
<p>Merging employment and refugee selection channels also suggests ethical concerns beyond health workforce issues, since refugee systems are based on the <a href="https://freemovement.org.uk/briefing-is-labour-mobility-for-skilled-refugees-a-good-idea/">vulnerability individuals</a> face, not their occupational compatibility.</p>
<p>The absence of health workforce planning discussions is notable. Canada’s ability to approach self-sufficiency is limited by its lack of robust plans, and by the lack of data to support planning. This includes how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00748-7">immigration fits into the health workforce</a>. The proposal to establish a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2023/03/statement-from-the-minister-of-health-and-minister-of-mental-health-and-addictions-and-associate-minister-of-health-on-the-coalition-for-action-for.html">Centre of Excellence on health worker data</a> can begin to address these gaps.</p>
<p>Siloed responses from health and international development government ministries means we miss opportunities to support international co-operation and <a href="https://www.balsillieschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Global-Skills-Mobility-Partnerships-ZAJ-RF-RH-LLB.pdf">develop integrative solutions</a> to health workforce issues beyond Canada’s own international recruitment efforts.</p>
<p>We encourage greater attention to these different facets of the WHO Code as national, provincial and territorial governments seek to address their present and ongoing health workforce challenges. This approach would be more in keeping with Canada’s role on the global stage than is presently the case.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Walton-Roberts receives funding from SSHRC. She is affiliated with Canadian Health Workforce Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivy Lynn Bourgeault receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Through the Canadian Health Workforce Network, she has received funds from Health Canada and Service Canada.</span></em></p>Recruiting internationally educated health workers is a key part of Canada’s proposed solution to the health worker crisis. But there are ethical questions about recruiting from foreign countries.Margaret Walton-Roberts, Chair professor, Geography and Environmental studies, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityIvy Lynn Bourgeault, Professor, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004472023-04-12T02:02:06Z2023-04-12T02:02:06ZWhy reading books is good for society, wellbeing and your career<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519742/original/file-20230406-18-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C580%2C5607%2C2782&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>TikTok allows video up to 10 minutes, but says surveys show almost half its users are stressed by anything <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/tiktok-wants-longer-videos-like-not">longer than a minute</a>. An Instagram video can be up to 90 seconds, but experts reckon the ideal time to maximise engagement is <a href="https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-reel-length/">less than 15 seconds</a>. Twitter doubled the length of tweets in 2017 to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/twitters-doubling-of-character-count-from-140-to-280-had-little-impact-on-length-of-tweets/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE7Ou03VeQ_VU9SZA2zdsZOLh6KKtVl5dj2ti0R3YgY_T_G9h7s3Ry9GOzQNecfcZbs_ko9I9YGELzKTM_2Ox9PTglVrcKM_xbBwh23aBAm12Q126TLMvre8SujfV3KkZnRIisVGD19Q3j5uP-P3RMMJuATO_ooLJgkF19ECOs3g">280 characters</a>, but the typical length is more like <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/10/many-characters-tweet-ask-experts/">33 characters</a>. </p>
<p>It’s easy to get sucked into short and sensational content. But if you’re worried this may be harming your attention span, you <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/attention-span-focus-screens-apps-smartphones-social-media">should be</a>. There’s solid evidence that so many demands on our attention make us <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/news/media-release/short-attention-spans-linked-to-social-media-distress/">more stressed</a>, and that the endless social comparison <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-social-media-makes-you-feel-bad-and-what-to-do-about-it-197691">makes us feel worse</a> about ourselves.</p>
<p>For better mental health, read a book. </p>
<p>Studies show a range of psychological benefits from book-reading. Reading fiction can increase your capacity for <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1239918">empathy</a>, through the process of seeing the world through a relatable character. Reading has been found to reduce stress as effectively as <a href="https://clutejournals.com/index.php/TLC/article/view/1117">yoga</a>. It is being prescribed for depression – a treatment <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-95164-009">known as bibliotherapy</a>. </p>
<p>Book-reading is also a strong marker of curiosity – a <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-business-case-for-curiosity">quality prized</a> by employers such as Google. Our research shows reading is as strongly associated with curiosity as interest in science, and more strongly than mathematical ability. </p>
<p>And it’s not just that curious minds are more likely to read because of a thirst for knowledge and understanding. That happens too, but our research has specifically been to investigate the role of reading in the development of curious minds. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-digital-distractions-are-eroding-our-ability-to-read-deeply-and-heres-how-we-can-become-aware-of-whats-happening-podcast-202818">Too many digital distractions are eroding our ability to read deeply, and here's how we can become aware of what's happening — podcast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Tracking reading and curiosity</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2023.2174943">findings</a> come from analysing data from the <a href="https://www.lsay.edu.au/aboutlsay">Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth</a>, which tracks the progress of young Australians from the age of 15 till 25.</p>
<p>Longitudinal surveys provide valuable insights by surveying the same people – in this case a group of about 10,000 young people. Every year for ten years they are asked about their achievements, aspirations, education, employment and life satisfaction. </p>
<p>There have been five survey cohorts since 1998, the most recent starting in 2016. We analysed three of them – those beginning in 2003, 2006 and 2009, looking at the data up to age 20, at which age most have a job or are looking for one.</p>
<p>The survey data is rich enough to develop proxy measures of reading and curiosity levels. It includes participants’ scores in the OECD <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a> tests for reading, mathematics and science ability. There are survey questions about time spent reading for pleasure, time reading newspapers or magazines, and library use.</p>
<p>To measure curiosity, we used respondents’ answers to questions about their interest in the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>learning new things </li>
<li>thinking about why the world is in the state it is </li>
<li>finding out more about things you don’t understand </li>
<li>finding out about a new idea </li>
<li>finding out how something works.</li>
</ul>
<p>We used statistical modelling to control for environmental and demographic variables and distinguish the effect of reading activity as a teenager on greater curiosity as a young adult. This modelling gives us confidence that reading is not just correlated with curiosity. Reading books helps build curiosity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Book reading helps teenagers grow into more curious adults." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520013/original/file-20230410-5874-itzp0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Book reading helps teenagers grow into more curious adults.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gloom and doom-scrolling</h2>
<p>Does this mean if you’re older that it’s too late to start reading? No. Our results relate to young people because the data was available. No matter what your age, deep reading has benefits over social-media scrolling.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X">short-term dopamine rush</a> of scrolling on a device is an elusive promise. It depletes rather than uplifts us. Our limbic brain – the part of the brain associated with our emotional and behavioural responses – remains trapped in a spiral of pleasure-seeking. </p>
<p>Studies show a high correlation between <a href="https://academic.oup.com/hcr/article-abstract/44/1/3/4760433">media multitasking and attention problems</a> due to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315167275/emotional-cognitive-overload-anne-fran%C3%A7oise-rutkowski-carol-saunders">cognitive overload</a>.
The effect is most evident among young people, who have grown up with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6">social media overexposure</a>. </p>
<p>US social psychologist <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00296-x">Jonathan Haidt</a> is among the researchers <a href="https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic">warning</a> that high social media use is a major contributor to declining mental health for teenage girls:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Boys are doing badly too, but their rates of depression and anxiety are not as high, and their increases since 2011 are smaller.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why this “giant, obvious, international, and gendered cause”? Haidt writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Instagram was founded in 2010. The iPhone 4 was released then too — the first smartphone with a front-facing camera. In 2012 Facebook bought Instagram, and that’s the year that its user base exploded. By 2015, it was becoming normal for 12-year-old girls to spend hours each day taking selfies, editing selfies, and posting them for friends, enemies, and strangers to comment on, while also spending hours each day scrolling through photos of other girls and fabulously wealthy female celebrities with (seemingly) vastly superior bodies and lives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2020 Haidt published <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00296-x">research</a> showing girls are more vulnerable to “fear of missing out” and the aggression that social media tends to amplify. Since then he’s become even more convinced of the correlation.</p>
<p>Social media, by design, is addictive. </p>
<p>With TikTok, for example, videos start automatically, based on what the algorithm already knows about you. But it doesn’t just validate your preferences and feed you opinions that confirm your biases. It also varies the content so you don’t know what is coming next. This is the same trick that keeps gamblers addicted.</p>
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<h2>Tips to get back into books</h2>
<p>If you are having difficulty choosing between your phone and a book, here’s a simple tip <a href="https://www.katymilkman.com/book">proven by behavioural science</a>. To change behaviour it also helps to change your environment. </p>
<p>Try the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Carry a book at all times, or leave books around the house in convenient places. </p></li>
<li><p>Schedule reading time into your day. <a href="https://howtoliveameaningfullife.com/you-should-read-everyday-but-for-how-long-the-science-says/?fbclid=IwAR03mbaXPpM19aoaO4p1AsTD0EvZsLgFQJy0RoJo8JTx9g1Q6ukh4_FEbIU">20 minutes is enough</a>. This reinforces the habit and ensures regular immersion in the book world. </p></li>
<li><p>If you’re not enjoying a book, try another. Don’t force yourself.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>You’ll feel better for it – and be prepared for a future employer asking you what books you’re reading.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our research showed reading as a teenager was a stronger indicator of curiosity than, say, their mathematical ability.Meg Elkins, Senior Lecturer with School of Economics, Finance and Marketing and Behavioural Business Lab Member, RMIT UniversityJane Fry, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of MelbourneLisa Farrell, Professor of Economics (Health Economist), RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1943272023-01-05T13:26:07Z2023-01-05T13:26:07ZDiversity of US workplaces is growing in terms of race, ethnicity and age – forcing more employers to be flexible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500804/original/file-20221213-22444-pi89ao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=234%2C48%2C6233%2C3336&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The aging of the U.S. workforce is further along for librarians than most other professions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-men-in-library-looking-at-computer-screen-royalty-free-image/1130541786?adppopup=true">kali9/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Increased immigration, longer life expectancy and a decline in birth rates are <a href="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/2021/09/01/a-labor-day-look-at-how-american-workers-have-changed-over-40-years/">transforming the U.S. workforce</a> in two important ways. The people powering this nation’s economy include far more <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2015/article/labor-force-projections-to-2024.htm">people of color</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/productiveaging/dataandstatistics.htm">workers over 55</a> than was the case four decades ago. </p>
<p>And this diversity will keep growing in the years ahead, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/new-census-data-shows-the-nation-is-diversifying-even-faster-than-predicted">economists predict</a>.</p>
<p>The share of U.S. workers who are <a href="https://blogs.bls.gov/blog/2021/09/01/a-labor-day-look-at-how-american-workers-have-changed-over-40-years/">nonwhite, Latino or both nearly doubled to about 40%</a> in 2019 from roughly 23% in 1979, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With more older people staying economically active, over <a href="https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2020/employment-data-digest.html">37 million U.S. workers are 55 and up</a> today. They account for nearly 1 in 4 of the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/data/latest-annual-data/working-women#Percent-Distribution-of-the-Labor-Force-by-Age-and-Sex">160 million Americans engaged in paid work</a>. In 1979, fewer than 1 in 7 U.S. workers were in that age group.</p>
<p>The government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecopro.pdf">ranks of older workers will keep rising</a> in the years ahead – including people who are well into their golden years. The number of Americans 75 and older remaining in the labor force will <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/number-of-people-75-and-older-in-the-labor-force-is-expected-to-grow-96-5-percent-by-2030.htm">nearly double between 2020 and 2030</a>, while the number of all workers rises by only 5.5%, according to the bureau.</p>
<p>The share of white workers will have declined to 74.7% by 2031, from 77% in 2021, the bureau predicts.</p>
<p>The agency is also tracking the prevalence of workers of Hispanic origin who can identify as white, Black or mixed race. It says that the share of such workers will <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/civilian-labor-force-summary.htm">rise during that decade to 21.5% from 18.3%</a> of the workforce – up sharply from 12.1% in 2001.</p>
<p>How are U.S. employers responding to these changes? </p>
<p>I’m a sociologist who studies how <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/authored-by/Wingfield/Adia+Harvey">racial and gender inequality persist</a> in professional occupations. One likely consequence I expect to see is employers finding themselves forced to do a better job of attracting and retaining underrepresented and older workers through diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.</p>
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<h2>Diversity initiatives already widespread</h2>
<p>It’s already very common for employers to take <a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/pamela-newkirk/diversity-inc/9781568588230/">diversity, equity and inclusion</a> measures. A 2019 survey of 234 companies found that nearly 2 in 3 employed diversity managers.</p>
<p>Their responsibilities can range widely. Some examples include creating a culture that values and welcomes workers from diverse backgrounds and increasing the numbers of employees from backgrounds that are underrepresented in a particular field.</p>
<p>In finance this might mean bringing in more female, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/closing-the-gender-and-race-gaps-in-north-american-financial-services">Black and Latino analysts</a>. In nursing this could mean attracting more men of all races into a profession that’s still <a href="https://minoritynurse.com/nursing-statistics/">dominated by white women</a>.</p>
<p>In these fields and others, changing the culture can mean collecting data about which workers are underrepresented, trying to fill any gaps detected, or <a href="https://iuslaboris.com/insights/a-guide-to-hair-discrimination-laws-and-their-impact-on-employer-grooming-codes-in-the-us/">revising dress and grooming codes</a> that ban hairstyles more commonly worn by Black workers. </p>
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<h2>2 common yet ill-advised strategies</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, many companies are using diversity <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674276611">strategies that aren’t proved to work</a>. </p>
<p>These can include <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/diversity-training-in-the-workplace">mandatory diversity training</a>, often in the form of professional webinars or workshops with interactive exercises. </p>
<p>Diversity training is supposed to make people better at working and interacting with colleagues and customers with cultural backgrounds that differ from their own. But it <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210614-why-ineffective-diversity-training-wont-go-away">often fails to do that</a>. </p>
<p>One complication is that employees resent the feeling of being controlled.</p>
<p>Another is that they may see this mandatory training as a waste of their time. And there’s evidence suggesting that it <a href="https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2020/09/after-damaging-diversity-training-city-wont-use-company-again-for-similar-workshops/">can even be counterproductive</a> by reinforcing rather than debunking stereotypes and <a href="https://ideas.darden.virginia.edu/race-and-leadership">alienating Black workers </a>.</p>
<p>The other strategy that’s more common than it should be is the <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674276611">use of skills tests</a> that job applicants must pass as a condition for hiring. In tech, for instance, a skills test could mean that applicants are asked to solve a particular problem so that hiring managers can objectively assess their skills as well as their ability to work cohesively with a team.</p>
<p>The problem with skills tests is that hiring managers often <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674276611">weigh the outcome of these tests differently</a> for Black and white workers due to a <a href="https://hr.uw.edu/diversity/hiring/bias-and-hiring/">range of biases</a>, some of which they may not be aware.</p>
<p>Recent research also indicates that neither of these popular approaches is leading companies to make their <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dobbin/files/dobbin_-_aatraining_clean.pdf">workforces more racially diverse</a> through their hiring practices.</p>
<p>I believe that employers use these strategies anyway because they are easy, widespread and popular. Companies may proceed with what they’ve used in the past rather than trying something new.</p>
<p>Fortunately, new research is pointing to more successful strategies. </p>
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<h2>What seems to work better</h2>
<p>Employers can respond to today’s and tomorrow’s demographic realities by changing how they handle hiring. They can start by <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674276611">recruiting more workers from historically Black</a> colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions.</p>
<p>A promising strategy that aids in the retention of workers of color is the <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/06/dont-just-mentor-women-and-people-of-color-sponsor-them">development of mentoring programs</a> that are open to all, rather than by invitation only. That way, implicit biases don’t exclude workers of color. </p>
<p>Companies can also implement what’s known as “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674276611">upskilling</a>.” </p>
<p>Workers in upskilling programs try out a variety of different roles in the organization. This strategy helps develop underrepresented workers’ skill sets and connects them to managers who might otherwise overlook them.</p>
<h2>Aging workers and those coming of age</h2>
<p>The aging of the workforce is especially marked in some sectors of the economy. While the median age of a U.S. worker was 42.2 in 2022, it was <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11b.htm">55.6 for bus drivers and 49.9 for librarians</a>.</p>
<p>The prevalence of older workers in these jobs means that some employers will need to heed what these workers need to retain the staff they require.</p>
<p>Those changes could include implementing <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/commentary-heres-aging-workforce-means-191900072.html">phased retirement</a> options – that is, letting employees gradually transition out of full-time work with the freedom to work part time for several years before exiting the labor force altogether.</p>
<p>It’s also a good idea to strengthen measures that protect these workers from <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/discrimination/agedisc">age-based discrimination</a> – which is a <a href="https://www.seniorliving.org/research/age-discrimination-statistics-facts/">common occurrence</a> despite its being illegal.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/econ/2021/older-workers-age-discrimination-covid-19-pandemic-infographic.doi.10.26419-2Fres.00445.003.pdf">Older workers</a> often find themselves mocked, harassed and bullied. They also get passed up for raises, promotions and other opportunities.</p>
<p>But employers shouldn’t adjust their expectations to accommodate only the needs of older workers. A growing share of employees under 40 are also making demands of their own.</p>
<p>These workers, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, are being more open with their bosses about their <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-versus-gen-z-workplace-trends-flexibility-work-life-balance-2021-11">preferences for work-life balance</a> than their colleagues who are 50 and up. </p>
<p>Many workers in their 20s or 30s are rejecting a model of work that requires them to be on call and available at all hours, demands inflexible scheduling and places ever-encroaching demands on employees. They want jobs that allow them to engage more fully with their families and in leisure activities.</p>
<h2>Employers may have no alternatives</h2>
<p>Ultimately, more workforce diversity in terms of age, race and ethnicity may force employers to change at least some of their ways. </p>
<p>With the aging of workers born after 1990, employers may have to try harder to accommodate their preferences – particularly as they stand to replace those older workers who retire or shift into <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/who-chooses-part-time-work-and-why.htm">part-time employment</a>. </p>
<p>Whether it’s by design or necessity, I believe employers will hire staffs that are more racially and ethnically diverse. In addition, I foresee that they may have no choice but to let their workers have more flexibility and freedom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adia Harvey Wingfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Employers need good strategies to hire and retain more workers of color and older workers. The mandatory diversity training and requisite skills tests many of them now rely on don’t measure up.Adia Harvey Wingfield, Professor of Sociology, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962822022-12-12T04:28:49Z2022-12-12T04:28:49ZWill AI decide if you get your next job? Without legal regulation, you may never even know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500327/original/file-20221212-81291-3fgs0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated decision-making tools in recruitment is on the rise among Australian organisations. However, research shows these tools may be unreliable and discriminatory, and in some cases rely on discredited science. </p>
<p>At present, Australia has no specific laws to regulate how these tools operate or how organisations may use them. </p>
<p>The closest thing we have is <a href="https://www.mpc.gov.au/resources/guidance/myth-busting-ai-assisted-and-automated-recruitment-tools">new guidance</a> for employers in the public sector, issued by the Merit Protection Commissioner after overturning several automated promotion decisions. </p>
<h2>A first step</h2>
<p>The commissioner <a href="https://www.mpc.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do">reviews promotion decisions</a> in the Australian public sector to make sure they are lawful, fair and reasonable. In the 2021-22 financial year, Commissioner Linda Waugh <a href="https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australian-public-service-commission/reporting-year/2021-22-47">overturned 11 promotion decisions</a> made by government agency Services Australia in a single recruitment round. </p>
<p>These decisions were made using a new automated process that required applicants to pass through a sequence of AI assessments, including psychometric testing, questionnaires and self-recorded video responses. The commissioner found this process, which involved no human decision-making or review, led to meritorious applicants missing out on promotions. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/algorithms-can-decide-your-marks-your-work-prospects-and-your-financial-security-how-do-you-know-theyre-fair-171590">Algorithms can decide your marks, your work prospects and your financial security. How do you know they're fair?</a>
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<p>The commissioner has now issued <a>guidance material</a> for Australian government departments on how to choose and use AI recruitment tools. </p>
<p>This is the first official guidance given to employers in Australia. It warns that not all AI recruitment tools on the market here have been thoroughly tested, nor are they guaranteed to be completely unbiased.</p>
<h2>AI recruitment tools risky and unregulated</h2>
<p>AI tools are used to automate or assist recruiters with sourcing, screening and onboarding job applicants. By <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/blog/ai-recruitment-friend-or-foe">one estimate</a>, more than 250 commercial AI recruitment tools are available in Australia, including CV screening and video assessment. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/media-releases/inclusive-ai-work-recruitment-cautious-converted">recent survey</a> by researchers at Monash University and the Diversity Council of Australia found one in three Australian organisations have used AI in recruitment recently.</p>
<p>The use of AI recruitment tools is a “<a href="https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/">high risk</a>” activity. By affecting decisions related to employment, these tools may impact the human rights of job seekers and risk locking disadvantaged groups out of employment opportunities. </p>
<p>Australia has no specific legislation regulating the use of these tools. Australia’s Department of Industry has published <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australias-artificial-intelligence-ethics-framework/australias-ai-ethics-principles">AI Ethics Principles</a>, but these are not legally binding. Existing laws, such as the Privacy Act and anti-discrimination legislation, are in urgent need of reform.</p>
<h2>Unreliable and discriminatory?</h2>
<p>AI recruitment tools involve new and developing technologies. They <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4RSccTt3kQ">may be unreliable</a> and there are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight-idUSKCN1MK08G">well-publicised examples</a> of discrimination against historically disadvantaged groups. </p>
<p>AI recruitment tools may <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3866363">discriminate against these groups</a> when their members are missing from the datasets on which AI is trained, or when discriminatory structures, practices or attitudes are transmitted to these tools in their development or deployment. </p>
<p>There is currently no standard test that identifies when an AI recruitment tool is discriminatory. Further, as these tools are often made outside Australia, they are not attuned to Australian law or demographics. For example, it is very likely training datasets do not include Australia’s First Nations peoples.</p>
<h2>Lack of safeguards</h2>
<p>AI recruitment tools used by and on behalf of employers in Australia lack adequate safeguards. </p>
<p>Human rights risk and impact assessments are not required prior to deployment. Monitoring and evaluation once they are in use may not occur. Job seekers lack meaningful opportunities to provide input on their use. </p>
<p>While the vendors of these tools may conduct internal testing and auditing, the results are often not publicly available. Independent external auditing is rare.</p>
<h2>Power imbalance</h2>
<p>Job seekers are at a considerable disadvantage when employers use these tools. They may be invisible and inscrutable, and they are changing hiring practices in ways that are not well understood. </p>
<p>Job seekers have <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/agispt.20221122078286">no legal right to be told</a> when AI is used to assess them in the hiring process. Nor are they required to be given an explanation of how an AI recruitment tool will assess them. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-can-deepen-social-inequality-here-are-5-ways-to-help-prevent-this-152226">Artificial intelligence can deepen social inequality. Here are 5 ways to help prevent this</a>
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<p>My research has found this is particularly problematic for job seekers with disabilities. For example, job seekers with low vision or limited manual dexterity may not know they will be assessed on the speed of their responses until it is too late.</p>
<p>Job seekers in Australia also lack the protection available to their counterparts in the European Union, who have <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/art-22-gdpr/">the right not to be subjected to a fully automated recruitment decision</a>.</p>
<h2>Facial analysis</h2>
<p>The use of video assessment tools, like those used by Services Australia, is particularly concerning. Many of these AI tools rely on facial analysis, which uses facial features and movements to infer behavioural, emotional and character traits. </p>
<p>This type of analysis has been <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1529100619832930">scientifically discredited</a>. </p>
<p>One prominent vendor, HireVue, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/job-screening-service-halts-facial-analysis-applicants/">ceased the use of facial analysis</a> in its AI tool after a formal complaint in the United States.</p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>The Services Australia example highlights the urgent need for a regulatory response. The Australian government is currently consulting on the <a href="https://consult.industry.gov.au/automated-decision-making-ai-regulation-issues-paper">regulation of AI and automated decision-making</a>. </p>
<p>We can hope that new regulations will address the many issues with the use of AI tools in recruitment. Until legal protections are in place, it might be best to hold off on the use of these tools to screen job seekers.</p>
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<p><em>Correction: an earlier version of this article suggested HireVue was forced to stop using facial analysis as a result of a complaint filed against them. This has been amended.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196282/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Sheard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The use of unreliable, discriminatory automated recruitment tools is on the rise – and they’re completely unregulated.Natalie Sheard, Lawyer and PhD Candidate, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832602022-05-18T14:55:22Z2022-05-18T14:55:22ZShortage of workers threatens UK recovery – here’s why and what to do about it<p>For the first time since records began, there are more job vacancies in the UK than unemployed people, <a href="https://www.fenews.co.uk/fe-voices/ons-labour-market-figures-for-may-2022-employment-rate-of-75-7-and-21-4-economic-in-activity-rate-sector-reaction/#:%7E:text=Sector%20Reaction-,ONS%20Labour%20Market%20figures%20for%20May%202022%2C%20Employment%20rate%20of,Sector%20Reaction&text=The%20latest%20ONS%20Labour%20Market,economic%20inactivity%20rate%20of%2021.4%25.">according to</a> the latest monthly labour market figures. This has been driven mainly by a near-fourfold surge in job vacancies to around 1.3 million since the summer of 2020, when economic activity was allowed to resume at the end of the first COVID lockdown. </p>
<p>Record vacancies might seem like a good thing in terms of maintaining low unemployment. But employers across all sectors of the economy are struggling to fill vacancies, which limits economic recovery. So what explains all these vacancies, and what can be done about them?</p>
<p>First of all, the spectacular rise in job vacancies goes far beyond a pre-pandemic “bounce back”. Although the biggest shortages are in hospitality, there have been substantial rises across most sectors. All are above pre-pandemic levels.</p>
<p><strong>Job vacancies and unemployment (thousands)</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph plotting numbers of unemployed and job vacancies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463624/original/file-20220517-16-p7g80n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Office for National Statistics (2020), Vacancy Survey and Labour Force Survey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Demand for labour (that’s all employment plus vacancies) has recovered to almost exactly its pre-pandemic level. But the data indicates that the increase in vacancies is not due to a surge in demand for labour, but because the labour force is shrinking: it dropped by 1.6% or 561,000 between the first quarters (Jan-March) of 2020 and 2022, which is greater than the increase in job vacancies over the same period (492,000).</p>
<p>Notably, people’s reasons for being economically inactive have changed over the past couple of years. Following the first COVID lockdown, the large drop in labour supply among 16-64s (those of working age) was mainly driven by rises in long-term sickness (139,000) and early retirement (70,000). </p>
<p><strong>Reasons for economic inactivity over time, 16-64 year olds</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing why 16-64s are economically inactive over time" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463637/original/file-20220517-22-w2rgyg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Note: the chart shows quarterly rolling years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author calculations of ONS Annual Population Survey, accessed via Nomis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The drop in the workforce also masks a considerable churn within it, which may be adding to employers’ difficulties in recruiting staff. During the first lockdown, the number of EU workers fell by <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/summaryoflabourmarketstatistics">some 300,000</a>. This has partially recovered, as you can see in the chart below, but there are still around 100,000 fewer than at the start of the pandemic. </p>
<p>Yet this has been more than offset by continued long-term growth in the number of non-EU foreign-born workers in the UK, increasing by some 170,000 since the start of the pandemic. Brexit, in other words, in tandem with the pandemic, has been a source of churn in the labour market. </p>
<p><strong>Change in non UK-born workforce 2019-21</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing what has happened to non-UK nationals working in UK over time" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463639/original/file-20220517-2769-7fhtd0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Note: although likely to be indicative of trends, non-UK residents may be underestimated due to the Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey shifting from face-to-face to online data collection during the pandemic. Data is currently subject to review and may be revised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors' calculations of ONS (2022) Labour Force Survey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The geographic dimension</h2>
<p>Until now, little has been known about where this sharp rise in vacancies has been happening, which is an important question if the government is to be able to address geographical imbalances in the economy through its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-the-united-kingdom">“levelling up” policy</a>. </p>
<p>To help remedy this, we have been studying comprehensive online job vacancy data obtained under a special research agreement with the <a href="https://www.ubdc.ac.uk/">Urban Big Data Centre</a> at the University of Glasgow to <a href="https://www.ubdc.ac.uk/media/2192/data_profile_adzuna_17062021.pdf">use data</a> scraped from the Adzuna job vacancy search engine. Our data analysis is not yet published in the academic literature, but it provides an early indication of the overall pattern. </p>
<p>The rise in the rate of job vacancies appears remarkably uneven across local authority districts in Great Britain. The two maps below show the change from before the pandemic in February 2020 (on the left) to July 2021 (on the right), the most recent month for which we have been able to compute data. This is likely to still be indicative of the most recent geographic pattern.</p>
<p><strong>Vacancies growth between February 2020 and July 2021</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="GB maps showing job vacancies by council district" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463632/original/file-20220517-26-jj3g14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors’ calculations based on Adzuna vacancy data (Adzuna. Economic and Social Research Council. Adzuna Data, 2022 [data collection]. University of Glasgow - Urban Big Data Centre), ONS Business Register and employer survey and ONS local authority boundaries</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It shows huge increases in vacancies in relatively few districts, while most others show either modest increases or falls. The highest rates are particularly found in remoter rural areas, particularly in the south-west and north-west of England, and in parts of inner London.</p>
<p>Many of these districts are dependent on foreign labour, particularly for agriculture in rural areas, and hospitality and other sectors in London. Again, this may be a sign of the effect of Brexit and the pandemic choking off the growth in the number of EU workers.</p>
<p>What can’t be denied is that the employment market has been restructured in several major inter-related ways in a relatively short period, not only with Brexit but also thanks to rapid increases in remote online working, disruption to global supply-chains and COVID-related ill health. </p>
<p>It would make sense for these factors to produce “mismatches” between the skills and locations of workers and vacancies. For example, many job seekers have skills in declining occupations, such as <a href="https://voxeu.org/article/job-search-and-mismatch-during-covid-19-pandemic">skilled manual work</a>. Our own analysis backs this up, since we see more job seekers than vacancies in some former industrial towns, particularly in the West Midlands and northern England – exactly the opposite problem to some inner London boroughs and rural districts.</p>
<h2>What should be done</h2>
<p>Places across the UK where job vacancies are concentrated are likely to experience sharp economic contractions if they are unable to attract more workers soon. Yet the areas that have experienced drops or weak growth in vacancies compared to before the pandemic are also a concern, as they may have been hit harder by issues like global supply chains and the pandemic and may not have enough jobs to go around. </p>
<p>Policies to combat Britain’s labour shortage must therefore be geographically targeted. Areas in need of more jobs, particularly higher-paying jobs, often require long-term investment in infrastructure and skills. </p>
<p>But to help areas in need of more workers, there will need to be creative solutions such as employers offering attractive packages including training and flexible working, and local and national authorities ensuring adequate local availability of affordable housing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The nation has very low unemployment figures, but that masks a complex labour market.Donald Houston, Professor of Economic Geography, University of PortsmouthPaul Sissons, Professor of Work and Employment, University of WolverhamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1815592022-04-20T12:41:28Z2022-04-20T12:41:28ZHiring friends and family might actually be good for business – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458866/original/file-20220420-13-wiqc0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'He's a bit stupid but we go wayyyy back.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-american-boss-black-hr-executive-1027563385">fizkes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta/Facebook, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/18/mark-zuckerbergs-young-people-advice-focus-on-building-relationships.html">recently remarked</a> in a podcast interview that when it came to hiring new staff, his preference was people whose “values aligned in the things that you care about”. This, he said, was akin to “choosing a friend or a life partner”. He went on to state that many young people were too “objective-focused” and “not focused enough on connections and … people”.</p>
<hr>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>This speaks to one of the eternal questions for managers in deciding who to hire: do you choose the candidate who has objectively higher ability or the one whose values are more in common with your own? </p>
<p>While some would unambiguously select the higher ability candidate, others like Zuckerberg might weigh differences in candidates’ abilities against the extent to which they share the values of the employer. Some would go further and hire family or friends. </p>
<p>Many firms actually promote this with employee-referral incentive schemes that encourage hiring individuals of similar characteristics – or at the very least those who move in the same networks. The <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/07/why-friends-matter-at-work-and">stated purpose</a> of such schemes is to reduce the costs of hiring, increase employee retention rates and improve employee engagement. There are <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/03/how-to-have-friends-at-work-when-youre-the-boss-2">even guides</a> dedicated to helping managers who hire their friends. </p>
<p>On the other hand, such a buddying approach to recruitment seems to contradict anti-discrimination laws. These have been enacted around the world to ensure that certain groups of individuals are not treated more poorly than others. For example the UK’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents">Equality Act 2010</a> makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of age, gender, religion, race or sexual orientation (among others). The US equivalent, the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/laws-enforced-eeoc">Equal Employment Opportunities laws</a>, similarly aims to reduce workplace discrimination. </p>
<h2>The problem with hiring your friends</h2>
<p>Broadly speaking, anti-discrimination laws promote diversity, while prioritising hiring friends, family or those with shared values seems to do the opposite. The American psychologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Allport">Gordon Allport</a>, in his 1954 work <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/169767.The_Nature_of_Prejudice">The Nature of Prejudice</a>, noted a distinction between hiring based on negative prejudices (discrimination), and hiring based on positive prejudices (factors other than ability). He claimed that while hiring based on negative prejudices created social problems, hiring based on positive prejudices did not.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Becker">Gary Becker</a>, the American economist, made a similar distinction in his 1957 book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174242.The_Economics_of_Discrimination">The Economics of Discrimination</a> but reached a different conclusion. He termed hiring based on negative prejudice as discrimination, and hiring based on positive prejudice as nepotism, and he argued that both led to economic inefficiencies. This was because both involved hiring workers for reasons other than ability, which he reasoned was the greatest predictor of output. </p>
<h2>The role of human behaviour</h2>
<p>But why would many companies explicitly focus on recruiting friends and family if it were really bad for business? Could it be that hiring decisions that don’t prioritise a candidate’s abilities might lead to lower output, but having employees with shared values is still better for an organisation overall? </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecin.13080">recent paper</a> myself and two research colleagues, Catherine Eckel and Rick K. Wilson, sought to find out. We conducted a controlled laboratory experiment with a sample of university students with strong social ties at Rice University, Texas. Upon admission, students at Rice are sorted into “residential colleges”, which are essentially housing where they typically stay throughout their studies. Students of the same college live together, eat together and compete against other colleges in a variety of activities, inculcating a strong college-based identity and shared values. </p>
<p>In our experiment, we got the students to play a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825685710275">famous two-player game</a> that economists use to measure trust. This simulates a manager-employee relationship by first giving an individual in the role of a manager a small sum of money – usually US$10 (£7.66). </p>
<p>They are then asked how much they would like to transfer to an individual in the role of an employee. Whatever they transfer is then multiplied, usually by three, and given to the employee. The employee must decide how much to give back to the manager. Both are trying to end up with as much money as possible. Hence the manager is investing in the employee and trusting them to return some of the investment. The employee chooses how much to send back to the employer, which is a measure of reciprocity/effort.</p>
<p>In our version, managers had to choose between investing in an employee from the same residential college (meaning they had shared values), and one that was not. They were also made aware that different employees had different “abilities”, in the sense that the multiplier that determined how much money they received from the investment would be smaller – for example, 2.5 instead of three. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cartoon of a man and woman having a meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458875/original/file-20220420-24-gqx87u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deal or no deal?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/job-interview-meeting-hr-manager-vector-1305032944">TeraVector</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In some cases, the employee with the shared values was “lower ability”. This meant that the manager would need to trust them to give back a higher proportion of their money than the alternative choice would give back. </p>
<p>When faced with employees of equal ability, 80% of managers chose the one from their college. Even when their fellow college member was “lower ability”, 40% of managers still chose them. In other words, while at least some managers were choosing partners based on ability, a significant proportion incorporated college membership into their decision. </p>
<p>Employees from the same college exerted more effort for their managers (meaning they returned a larger share of the money) when they were “lower ability” than the other candidate. This suggested that “lower ability” group members compensated for their handicap by increasing their effort. On average, when managers with a choice of candidates of “equal ability” went with their college mate, they made 10% more money. And among those offered a “lower ability” college mate and a superior outsider, they made 7% more by going with the college mate. </p>
<p>These results imply that focusing on ability alone ignores the contribution to output of behavioural factors such as engagement, trust, motivation and effort. As long as differences in ability are not too large, hiring from within employee networks would appear to be a profitable strategy. Becker had it wrong, in other words. </p>
<p>So while it was previously thought that hiring based on network or familial ties was mainly altruistic, our research suggests otherwise. It may still bring up <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/03/how-to-have-friends-at-work-when-youre-the-boss-2">managerial challenges</a>, such as having to tell these employees what to do, or calling them out when they don’t meet expectations. But employers trust employees more when they share their values, and the employees may compensate for their lower ability by working harder, benefiting the organisation as a result.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sheheryar Banuri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nepotism is not such a bad move, it seems.Sheheryar Banuri, Associate Professor, School of Economics, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1729522021-12-02T23:46:33Z2021-12-02T23:46:33Z10 ways New Zealand employers can turn the ‘great resignation’ into a ‘great recruitment’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435206/original/file-20211202-23-m65qpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C5582%2C3741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Internationally, and especially within the US, there has been a lot of talk about the so-called “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/great-resignation-accelerating/620382/">great resignation</a>” – the trend seeing large numbers of workers leaving their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, having reevaluated their priorities or simply because there are more opportunities than ever before.</p>
<p>While there isn’t enough firm data to confirm this is happening in New Zealand yet, there is little doubt a <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/457103/skills-shortages-top-challenge-facing-company-bosses-survey">chronic skills shortage</a> has given workers more bargaining power. Perhaps not surprisingly, <a href="https://news.aut.ac.nz/news/the-great-resignation,-nz-style">research</a> shows more and more workers are at least thinking about either changing or quitting their jobs since last year.</p>
<p>But this phenomenon – defined as “turnover intentions” – could also fuel what we’re calling the “great recruitment”. After all, as physics teaches us, for every action there is a reaction. </p>
<p>Calling it the great recruitment is obviously related to the sheer volume of recruitment activity that logically follows a great resignation. But it is also a reference to the related importance of a positive – great – recruitment experience for potential employees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435205/original/file-20211202-25-bujsov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Not a negative trend</h2>
<p>Classic supply and demand principles tell us that if more workers are seeking greener employment pastures, there will be more ready-to-hire talent in the marketplace. For that reason alone, we urge organisations not to consider the great resignation a negative trend in the job market.</p>
<p>Of course, to be successful the great recruitment must be supported by businesses that prioritise the recruitment process, from candidate care to the vetting and hiring team, to the use of technology and protecting the organisation’s reputation and brand. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-lockdown-where-does-work-end-and-parenting-begin-welcome-to-the-brave-new-world-of-zigzag-working-169088">In a lockdown, where does work end and parenting begin? Welcome to the brave new world of ‘zigzag working’</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, there are many practices that not only undermine but entirely defeat the positive potential of a great recruitment, including: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/02/17/a-new-study-by-indeed-confirms-that-ghosting-during-the-hiring-process-has-hit-crisis-levels/?sh=7bdd556599c4">ghosting</a>”, where candidates apply for a role but get no response or experience a sudden silence part way through the process</p></li>
<li><p>posting vague or corny job descriptions – “customer services expert” anyone? – that do nothing to excite or provide context for potential applicants</p></li>
<li><p>relying too heavily on quasi-scientific personality profile tests and asking questions that are at best tokenistic, at worst discriminatory. </p></li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1466098771125805060"}"></div></p>
<h2>Making recruitment great</h2>
<p>We also see recruitment processes stumble at the last hurdle by engaging in Game of Thrones-style salary negotiations, where candidates feel like they’re challenging a noble family. This is particularly disadvantages <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/07/stop-asking-job-candidates-for-their-salary-history">women</a> and <a href="https://www.employeenetworks.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Pou-Matawaka-Final-Report-Ethnic-Pay-Gap-March-2019-for-release-.pdf">ethnic minorities</a>.</p>
<p>How then to ensure your organisation is capturing the talent potential released by the great resignation and maximising the employment potential of the great recruitment? Here are our top 10 tips:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Choose your words carefully: write inspiring, authentic job advertisements. If your recruitment team can’t do it, get someone who can. </p></li>
<li><p>Be realistic: create reasonable candidate specifications – wanting extreme levels of skill, attitude and experience is likely put off good candidates. </p></li>
<li><p>Canvas others: when designing employee value propositions, get input from recruiters and current employees.</p></li>
<li><p>Remember glass houses: recognise there is no such thing as perfect behaviour when using behavioural-based interview questions, especially given the organisation itself may be questionable in some of its conduct.</p></li>
<li><p>Consider the context: give due consideration to reference check results – if a candidate’s last boss says he or she was disconnected in the end, perhaps it’s because they were already in a high state of turnover intention. </p></li>
<li><p>Go back to the future: be open to hiring past employees. Initiatives such as alumni programmes can be used to connect with and recruit former employees.</p></li>
<li><p>Know your team: be open to conversations about the attributes and attitudes of the person a successful candidate will be reporting to, and the team they will be working with. </p></li>
<li><p>Be technology wise: use automated recruitment technology (such as SnapHire, JobAdder or QJumpers) to enhance – not replace – an integrated people-oriented recruitment experience. </p></li>
<li><p>Provide <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/salary-most-important-part-job-ad.aspx">clear pay ranges</a>: if an applicant knows what the pay is from the outset, it saves everyone valuable time and energy.</p></li>
<li><p>Be gracious: formally thank all candidates for applying – this can help ensure you retain them as future applicants and/or customers.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-resignation-is-a-trend-that-began-before-the-pandemic-and-bosses-need-to-get-used-to-it-170197">The ‘great resignation’ is a trend that began before the pandemic – and bosses need to get used to it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Great expectations</h2>
<p>With more talent in the market, those in recruitment will need to sharpen their games. Given much recruitment activity is outsourced and many recruiters will be booming in the current climate, organisational clients should have great expectations of recruitment professionals, too.</p>
<p>Employees face enough challenges in their working lives without having to endure a recruitment experience that is anything less than great.</p>
<p>Finally, the great recruitment must also account for future talent. Before we know it, the <a href="https://www.webwise.ie/parents/explainers/explained-what-is-roblox/">Roblox</a> generation will be hitting the workforce, already adept at digital creation and collaboration, and expecting similar things from recruiters.</p>
<p>If we get it right, the great recruitment is a chance for employers to recast the great resignation as an opportunity for everyone to do better – now and into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The flipside of workers quitting or changing jobs during the pandemic is a huge new talent pool in the market – are employers and recruiters ready to make the most of it?Candice Harris, Professor of Management, Auckland University of TechnologyJarrod Haar, Professor of Human Resource Management, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1668082021-09-03T12:36:20Z2021-09-03T12:36:20ZAl-Qaida, Islamic State group struggle for recruits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418733/original/file-20210831-25-jkbd75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C19%2C3165%2C2342&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2014, the Islamic State group could draw crowds of supporters, like these in Mosul, Iraq. But actual fighting recruits have been harder to come by.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Iraq/f15b627c445b4d5ca1949944c72f5462/photo">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Al-Qaida was planning two sets of terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. On Sept. 11, 2021, as Americans commemorate and mourn the lives lost that Tuesday morning 20 years ago, it is important to remember the second plot as well – the attacks that didn’t happen.</p>
<p>Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the organizer of the 9/11 operation, originally envisioned simultaneous attacks on the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States. He <a href="https://archive.org/details/mastermindsofter0000fawd/page/114/">bragged about having had dozens of recruits</a> to choose from.</p>
<p>But the numbers were smaller than he expected. Several people dropped out of the plot and could not be replaced. Ultimately al-Qaida could find only 19 sufficiently trained militants who were willing to die for the cause. As a result, the <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060209-4.html">West Coast plot had to be canceled</a>.</p>
<p>As strange as it may sound, revolutionary Islamist groups suffer from recruitment problems as any other organization does. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=riNVcLgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My</a> <a href="https://kurzman.unc.edu/islamic-terrorism/">research</a> on Islamist terrorism has found that al-Qaida and its <a href="https://doi.org/10.2870/271061">rival offshoot</a>, the Islamic State group, have long had chronic difficulties replenishing their ranks.</p>
<p>These groups complain about their recruitment problems frequently. “We are most amazed that the community of Islam is still asleep and heedless while its children are being wiped out and killed everywhere and its land is being diminished every day,” al-Qaida wrote in one of its online publications in 2004. It is a sentiment that the group has repeated over many years.</p>
<p>The Islamic State group has also expressed disappointment in Muslims’ lack of militancy. In June 2017, for example, it published an article in an online magazine criticizing Muslims who “drag the tail of shame” by remaining “safe in your homes, secure with your families and wealth” instead of joining the revolutionary movement. The problem, according to a November 2017 article in the Islamic State’s online daily newspaper, is “love of life and hatred of death,” a “disease of weakness whose final result will be the supremacy of the enemy over the Muslims.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people push through a wide street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418739/original/file-20210831-15-s3j99m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Arab Spring movement in 2011 was just one of a long line of pro-democracy movements in Islamic societies through the centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ArabSpringADecadeLater/346b74d8eb2d46f1b47b5002d32bd242/photo">AP Photo/Ben Curtis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Democracy, not revolution</h2>
<p>Love of life is only one of the militants’ recruitment problems. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190907976.001.0001/oso-9780190907976-chapter-4">social science surveys</a>, the bulk of the world’s <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/">1.8 billion Muslims</a> find these groups abhorrent. Most Muslims support policies that encourage or enforce Islamic piety, but they don’t support revolutionary violence. A large majority of Muslims support democratic elections, which the revolutionaries consider un-Islamic.</p>
<p>Democratic thought has deep roots in Islamic tradition, including the “<a href="https://kurzman.unc.edu/modernist-islam/">nahda</a>” renaissance of Arab intellectuals in the 19th century, <a href="https://kurzman.unc.edu/democracy-denied/">mass pro-democracy moments</a> in the early 20th century in the Ottoman Empire and Iran, and the <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/mobilization/issue/17/4">Arab Spring</a> movement that started in late 2010.</p>
<p>Islamist militants such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group view democratic efforts as a threat and have repeatedly targeted pro-democracy Muslim scholars and activists for assassination. For instance, Muhammad Nu'man Fazli, a cleric in Afghanistan, was among the recent victims of this sort of violence. His mosque outside Kabul was bombed by the Islamic State group in May 2021 during a cease-fire between the Taliban and the Afghan government, <a href="https://kyleorton.co.uk/2021/05/22/islamic-state-gaza-war-jerusalem-afghanistan-pakistan-kashmir-india-africa/">specifically because of his support of democracy</a>, according to a statement in the Islamic State group’s newspaper.</p>
<p>The world’s governments have made it very hard for people to find and join militant groups. There are few safe places for training, and the ones that do exist are typically in <a href="https://undocs.org/S/2021/655">remote areas that are hard to reach</a>, such as the mountains of northwest Pakistan, the deserts of eastern Mali, the forests of the Lake Chad basin and northern Mozambique, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/despite-defeats-the-islamic-state-remains-unbroken-and-defiant-around-the-world-128971">islands of the southern Philippines</a>.</p>
<p>Even online, militants must constantly seek new methods to avoid detection. Every message they send or receive <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3834325/how-police-hunted-ontario-terror-suspect-isis-anonymous/">risks exposing them to arrest</a> or <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Press%20Releases/DNI+Release+on+CT+Strikes+Outside+Areas+of+Active+Hostilities.PDF">drone attack</a>.</p>
<h2>Competing for recruits</h2>
<p>Nationalist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban are also trying to <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190907976.001.0001/oso-9780190907976-chapter-3">recruit Islamic extremists</a>. Like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, these movements also aim to impose an austere version of Islamic law, at least partly through force of arms. But their ambitions are primarily local, as opposed to the global agendas of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.</p>
<p>The nationalists and globalists may cooperate at times – most notably, the tense alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaida in the years leading up to 9/11. Still, they are fundamentally rivals when it comes to recruitment, and the nationalists are far more successful in drawing on trusted local networks. </p>
<p>In Afghanistan today, the Taliban have <a href="https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2019-01-30qr-section3-security.pdf">tens of thousands of militants</a> among their recruits, according to U.S. government estimates. The Islamic State group’s regional branch, often referred to as ISIS-K, has <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/">approximately 1,000 fighters</a>, and al-Qaida has <a href="https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2018/11/analysis-us-military-grossly-underestimates-taliban-al-qaeda-force-levels-in-afghanistan.php">fewer than 1,000</a>.</p>
<p>Twenty years after 9/11, al-Qaida has never found enough recruits to carry out its second wave of mass-casualty attacks on America. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/terrorism/169/include/terrorism.whitepaper.pdf">only a dozen people</a> in the United States were convicted in the years after 9/11 for links with al-Qaida, and none were involved in large-scale plots. </p>
<p>The Islamic State group has <a href="https://kurzman.unc.edu/muslim-american-terrorism/annual-report">organized or inspired several dozen attacks</a> in the United States, but the numbers fell off sharply in the middle of 2015, when the Turkish government closed its border with Syria. And those were do-it-yourself operations involving <a href="https://kurzman.unc.edu/muslim-american-terrorism/annual-report">small arms, homemade explosives, vehicles and knives</a>, averaging 14 fatalities per year. The Islamic State group has never mobilized enough militants in the West to “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161107092054/https://pietervanostaeyen.com/2015/03/13/so-they-kill-and-are-killed-audio-statement-by-abu-muhammad-al-adnani-as-shami/">destroy the White House, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower</a>, by Allah’s permission,” as it threatened to do in 2015.</p>
<p>Al-Qaida and the Islamic State group remain serious about targeting the United States. But the good news for Americans, on this anniversary of 9/11, is that militants face a recruitment bottleneck – a mundane organizational problem that afflicts these very unconventional organizations.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Kurzman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A second plot was planned on 9/11, but there were too few terrorists to carry it off. Twenty years later, al-Qaida and its offshoot the Islamic State group still have trouble attracting recruits.Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606952021-06-08T06:28:23Z2021-06-08T06:28:23ZWhat’s in a name? How recruitment discriminates against ‘foreign’ applicants<p>Since moving from Pakistan to Australia, Mariam Mohammed has gained a bachelor’s and a <a href="https://www.thewestern.com.au/locals1/making-money-moves-in-conversation-with-moneygirl">master’s degree</a>, co-founded a social enterprise (teaching financial literacy to women) and made the Australian Financial Review’s <a href="https://www.afr.com/women-of-influence">100 Women of Influence</a> list.</p>
<p>But there was a time she was so disheartened at not being able to get a job she <a href="https://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/mind-body/wellbeing/mariam-mohammed-is-calling-out-the-job-discrimination-she-received-because-of-her-surname/news-story/1b35482f2098e42b96598d4babd8dec4">considered changing her name</a> to something less “Muslim” and more “Anglo”. </p>
<p>Her experience is not unique. </p>
<p>In the past 50 years most Western countries have become more tolerant of cultural diversity. Laws now forbid overt forms of discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or age. But unconscious biases remain – with one of the most well-documented being discrimination against job applicants with ethnic minority names. </p>
<h2>Reviewing 123 resume studies</h2>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053482221000115">analysed 123 “resume studies”</a> to get a more fine-grained understanding of name-based discrimination in recruitment. </p>
<p>Resume studies <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijsa.12298">typically involve</a> researchers responding to real job advertisements with very similar resumes of fictitious job candidates. In these studies, some resumes have names indicating an applicant comes from an ethnic minority group, while other resumes have more common names. This enables researchers to compare the responses for the different names. </p>
<p>My review covered studies conducted in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Sweden, and the United States. </p>
<p>More than 95% of the studies identified high ethnic discrimination in recruitment. On average, ethnic minority applicants received about half as many positive responses to their job applications. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-the-pros-and-cons-of-diversity-in-organisations-159524">Vital Signs: the pros and cons of diversity in organisations</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Notable differences</h2>
<p>There were, however, large differences in the degree of discrimination across the studies. </p>
<p>The following chart shows results from a selection of studies in different nations. The “net discrimination rate” is a common measure in resume studies. The higher the percentage, the higher the discrimination. So the resume studies show applicants with Moroccan names in Italy and African or German names in Ireland are more discriminated against than those with Turkish names in Germany. </p>
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<p><iframe id="eG4kb" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eG4kb/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p>Just three of the studies did not find any hiring discrimination against ethnic minorities. Only one reported hiring discrimination against the ethnic majority group – a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13547860.2015.1055948">study in Malaysia</a> finding a Chinese name was more helpful than a Malay name. (Chinese Malaysians represent <a href="https://minorityrights.org/minorities/chinese-4/">less than a third</a> of Malaysia’s population, but are disproportionately represented in the <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Malaysia/sub5_4c/entry-3645.html">business class</a>.)</p>
<h2>Yes, it really is the name that counts</h2>
<p>The most noteworthy finding is the similar degree of discrimination against immigrants and the native-born children of immigrants (or second-generation immigrants). </p>
<p>Studies measured this effect through resumes for candidates with an ethnic minority name but with local educational qualification and work experience. Resumes for first-generation immigrants indicated attendance at foreign schools and universities and no local work experience. The response rate from recruiters was roughly the same. </p>
<p>These results show it is the ethnic minority name that’s the hindrance, rather than an assessment about a candidate’s language skills or a preference for local qualifications and work experience. </p>
<p>This point is underlined by <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0001839216639577">US</a> and <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/593964">Swedish</a> study findings that adopting an ethnic majority name improves job application success.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bias-creeps-into-reference-checks-so-is-it-time-to-ditch-them-88693">Bias creeps into reference checks, so is it time to ditch them?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Anonymous resumes may not help</h2>
<p>One common assumption among recruiters and human resource managers is that deleting the name of the job application should result in a more equal recruitment process.</p>
<p>But the research has returned mixed findings about anonymous resumes.</p>
<p>A 2012 <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001979391206500105">Swedish study</a>, for example, found anonymous resumes did indeed improve the chances for job candidates of non-Western origin (and also for female candidates). </p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20140185">a 2015 study in France</a> reported that anonymous resumes increased ethnic discrimination in recruitment. The researchers suggest anonymous resumes might have led to harsher judgments of “negative signals” such as employment gaps.</p>
<p>So anonymous resumes might not be the solution. What recruiters need to focus on instead is training to recognise their unconscious biases and better evaluate resumes based only on applicants’ actual skills and experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mladen Adamovic does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Discrimination against job applicants with ethnic minority, “foreign” names is still endemic.Mladen Adamovic, Research Fellow in Management, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614482021-06-01T15:10:14Z2021-06-01T15:10:14ZKenya’s civil service is ageing, but adjustments aren’t being made<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402847/original/file-20210526-17-pxn9sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The demographic profiles of countries like Kenya, where a <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/demographic-dividend">high percentage</a> of people are young, would suggest that it’s swiftly renewing its workforce with fresh talent. </p>
<p>But this doesn’t seem to be the case.</p>
<p>We conducted a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-01-2015-0002">study</a> in a public sector organisation three years ago. We found that the bureau had an ageing workforce. More than half of its staff were 50 years old and above. The majority of employees were aged between 51 and 60. This suggests that, in general, Kenya’s civil service is skewed to older people. </p>
<p>The problem hasn’t been helped by the fact that <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/money-careers/article/2001394826/no-extension-of-retirement-age-from-next-year-says-psc">Kenya changed the retirement age</a> from 55 to 60 years in 2009. </p>
<p>Our analysis focused on the <a href="http://www.knbs.or.ke/">Kenya National Bureau of Statistics</a>. The study presents a microcosm of the wider Kenyan public sector environment. </p>
<p>Our study broke new ground because it explored diversity in the workplace from the perspective of age rather than gender and ethnicity as has been the case with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311320477">prior studies</a>.</p>
<p>The main focus of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-01-2015-0002">our study</a> was to look at the recruitment and retention strategies at the bureau. </p>
<p>We concluded from our findings that the bureau faced a serious demographic challenge in the makeup of its workforce and that the problem could be addressed by developing a strategic workforce plan for employees. This included having a clear understanding of recruitment, progression and retention processes that are all inclusive – taking into consideration demographics such as age, gender and to some extent ethnicity. </p>
<p>But this would need to be developed collectively by key parties within the organisation.</p>
<p>More broadly, our research shows that there’s an urgent need for Kenya’s public service to address the problem.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>The main purpose of the study was to investigate organisational sub-groups at the bureau and to tease out the multiple team perspectives as experienced in their everyday lives within the organisation. </p>
<p>We asked a sample of employees the following questions: how had the bureau managed the ageing workforce within its ranks? To what extent could it develop a plan to deal with the challenges posed by an ageing workforce within the organisation? And finally what were the current (recruitment) strategies for developing sustainable employee relations within the inter-generational workforce at the bureau? </p>
<p>At the time of the survey more than half of the bureau’s staff was over 50 years of age. Those aged 40 and below accounted for just over 15% of the workforce while 34% were between the ages of 41 and 50. </p>
<p>This demographic profile was far from optimal. We found that it was affecting the day-to-day activities in the organisation, in particular how people communicated with each other and shared information. For example, older people didn’t regularly use the internet and email, but younger members of the workforce did. The implication of this is that important work updates and news on social media could be easily missed.</p>
<p>The age profile also suggested that the bureau urgently needed to put in place recruitment and retention strategies. We found that most of the older workers at the bureau were retiring. This meant a loss of talent and skills because experience and skills hadn’t been passed along to younger workers. </p>
<p>We found that the bureau had not put in place opportunities for younger members of its workforce to learn from work shadowing, mentorship or apprenticeship as well as leadership development. This is important for continuity.</p>
<h2>Some answers</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly, workplaces face challenges, even with the best laid out plans.</p>
<p>One of the biggest is the question of ensuring that there is a talent pool to replace the current workforce as they approach retirement. This is also known as accession of the younger generation into the workplace. This is particularly pressing in the context of an ageing workforce.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Understanding+Y-p-9780730313816">Research</a> has pointed out that management should be aware of the characteristics of the different generations (notably <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/">Generation Y</a>, also known as the millennials, which refers to a group of people born from the early 1980s through to the turn of the millennium) even though it may also bring about inter-generational conflict in the workplace. </p>
<p>The answer lies in making sure that each generation’s unique values and office expectations are managed. This can be through job rotation, team-bonding, equality and diversity training sessions and the opportunity and space for sharing experiences.</p>
<p>Organisations should also have clearly defined roles and responsibilities to all staff without discrimination to ensure that all employees work in harmony.</p>
<p>For its part, the bureau needed to design a future workforce composition through detailed succession planning and talent management.</p>
<p>There seemed to be some degree of optimism about this among the respondents in our research. Many believed that the bureau would indeed make headway in recruiting in ways that ensured the percentage of young people – as well as women – would increase. They also believed that this would lead to a greater tolerance for minorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Nnamdi Madichie is affiliated with the Unizik Business School, Awka, Nigeria, Coal City University, Enugu, Nigeria and the Bloomsbury Institute London. His is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.</span></em></p>Kenya faces the dilemma of an ageing workforce. The problem can be addressed by developing a strategic workforce plan for employees.Nnamdi O. Madichie, Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Nnamdi Azikiwe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1506702021-01-14T11:52:50Z2021-01-14T11:52:50ZCOVID is changing the way we work – and for disabled people too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372304/original/file-20201201-21-217czu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C0%2C5145%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While working from home can be a relief, it's not ideal for everyone</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/6_NXEMZbUq0">Daniel Bosse/unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Remote working was the most <a href="http://legallydisabled.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Legally-Disabled-full-report-FINAL.pdf">requested but refused</a> accommodation for disabled people in the workplace before the pandemic. Since COVID-19, however, employers have been forced to adapt. A lot of workplaces went online, leading to a <a href="https://wiserd.ac.uk/publications/homeworking-uk-and-during-2020-lockdown">rise in home working</a> and an increase in online recruitment. These new ways of working provide valuable lessons for employers who want to improve their disability inclusion.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://legallydisabled.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Legally-Disabled-full-report-FINAL.pdf">a study</a> we published in January 2020, before the pandemic really hit the UK, we asked disabled people in the legal sector about their experiences in the workplace, and in recruitment. They told us they faced discrimination, bullying, negative attitudes and a poor understanding of disability. </p>
<p>Although it would be easy to assume that remote working and recruiting would automatically reduce these issues, we found in a <a href="http://legallydisabled.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Covid-report-TLS-Oct-2020-FINAL.pdf">follow-up survey</a> during July and August 2020 that working from home and applying for jobs online did not necessarily improve all of these challenges.</p>
<p>Although our research focused on the legal profession, our findings and recommendations easily transfer to other <a href="https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/csj-blog/new-centre-for-social-justice-commission-on-disability-to-be-led-by-lord-shinkwin">professional careers</a>.</p>
<h2>Online working</h2>
<p>Working cultures in the legal sector were rarely disability-friendly before the pandemic, meaning that many with invisible impairments were <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/firms-not-meeting-the-needs-of-disabled-staff-sra-finds-/5103491.article">afraid to tell</a> their employers. <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/multipage-guide/employment-workplace-adjustments">Reasonable adjustments</a> are necessary to help disabled workers progress. But our research found that many people had to fight for this support, and any extras they needed. </p>
<p>Disabled lawyers in our study were often prevented from progressing in their careers due to a reluctance to change traditional working practices. Disabled people may need specialist equipment, allocated parking, communication support or flexible working to remove the disadvantage they face at work. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work">Government grants</a> can fund such adjustments, and companies have a duty to provide reasonable adjustments – they cannot turn these requests down without good cause, such as it being detrimental to the business – but what is “reasonable” is a grey area.</p>
<p>So what now for disabled people who are now more likely to be able to work from home?</p>
<p>Firms told us during roundtable discussions, conducted as part of our research, that they were offering all staff the choice of how they split their time between home and the office. We expect “hybrid” working to become the new norm in many organisations, where some staff are in the office and some work remotely. This will present a new set of challenges for employers to address such as access and communication, and how to prevent those who primarily work from home from becoming isolated.</p>
<p>In our follow-up survey of legal professionals, 70% said that they would like to continue working from home in the future. They said they found more opportunities to network, gain knowledge and skills and train when they worked from home. We believe this has been more by chance than by design, but it’s clear that online working presents new opportunities and can work very well for most employees. Firms <a href="https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/topics/lawyers-with-disabilities/easy-wins-and-action-points-for-disability-inclusion">can now evaluate what works and how this can be improved</a> and built into future workplace strategies.</p>
<h2>Recruitment issues</h2>
<p>Disabled people participating in our research reported many problems with recruitment agencies. Some discovered that disclosure of a disability led to their application being filtered out. Those that did make it through to interview found their requests for reasonable adjustments were often not passed on to the right people. They reported turning up to interviews to find the building was inaccessible or requests for other support had not been passed along, which damaged their performance during the interview and arguably disadvantaged them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman is interviewed by two other women for a job, who are all wearing business suits" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372306/original/file-20201201-17-1j57adp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recruitment is an area in which disabled people face increased discrimination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/bwki71ap-y8">Tim Goouw/unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that online applications and interviews do not necessarily make disabled people’s lives any easier. Many forms or tests are not dyslexia-friendly, nor compatible with screen readers. We found recruiters often assumed that remote platforms used for interviews would automatically increase accessibility and that adjustments were unnecessary. </p>
<p>Our research also found that while the legal profession has invested heavily in training to address unconscious bias in recruitment, we caution against <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ai-hiring-bias-disabled-people">being overoptimistic</a> about the potential of artificial intelligence to eliminate bias. Technological solutions still <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0162243919900965">reflect the values</a> of those who design them and are based on profiles of previous successful candidates. </p>
<p>Trade unions <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-30/labor-unions-work-to-find-ways-to-bargain-with-ai-s-black-box">are concerned</a> that AI is being used to evaluate prospective and current employees without their knowledge. In these cases, it’s difficult to know whether it would help or hinder equality. People with sight or hearing impairments, or who are neurodivergent, may respond to questions or engage with technology in a different way. There is a risk that AI could devalue these differences. There are also skills that only a human could recognise, such as the problem-solving skills disabled people have developed from the unique issues they face in their everyday lives. </p>
<p>If the pandemic is going to shift how we work, disabled people need to be closely involved in the development of more inclusive workplaces and recruitment processes that will actually benefit them. This requires employers to be proactive about understanding and addressing barriers for disabled people, to ensure that provisions are considered for future disabled employees that are genuinely inclusive. </p>
<p>What is clear is that working from home was wrongly denied to many who needed it before the pandemic – and only now do we see that it is widely manageable. But assuming it works for every disabled person is a dangerous assumption. What works for one disabled person may not for another, even with the same impairment. Reducing discrimination must come from inclusive conversations that build a fairer future for everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof Debbie Foster and Dr Natasha Hirst form the 'Legally Disabled?' research team, based at Cardiff Business School. The 'Legally Disabled?' research was funded by the DRILL Programme (now closed) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The updated research on experiences of disabled lawyers during Covid was funded by The Law Society. Both were carried out in co-production with the Lawyers with Disabilities Division of The Law Society.</span></em></p>The most commonly requested, and rejected, reasonable adjustment is now widespread in many organisations. But does working from home really remove barriers for disabled people?Natasha Hirst, Disability Researcher, Cardiff UniversityDebbie Foster, Professor of Employment Relations and Diversity, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1374662020-05-26T12:18:26Z2020-05-26T12:18:26ZHow the coronavirus increases terrorism threats in the developing world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335869/original/file-20200518-83367-kiwpm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3695%2C2440&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When people need food aid, like these Nigerians, research finds they are more susceptible to extremist recruitment efforts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/food-vendor-serving-food-as-people-queue-in-line-to-collect-news-photo/1210357836">Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the coronavirus reaches <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">developing countries in Africa and Asia</a>, the pandemic will have effects beyond public health and economic activity. As the disease wreaks its havoc in areas poorly equipped to handle its spread, terrorism likely will increase there as well.</p>
<p>We are political scientists who study the <a href="https://works.bepress.com/nisha-bellinger/">developing world</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iEBROwoAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">political conflict</a>. Our recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-020-00191-y">published research</a> identifies a potential link between the pandemic and an uptick in violence. We find that food insecurity – the lack of both financial and physical access to nutritious food, which leads to malnutrition and undernourishment in a population – makes citizens angry at their governments. </p>
<p>Citizens conclude that their political leaders are either unable or unwilling to ease their suffering. This anger gives terrorist groups opportunities to recruit new members by providing them a violent outlet for venting their frustrations. In many cases, terrorist organizations do what their governments can’t or won’t do: give people the food and money they badly need to survive.</p>
<h2>An existing food crisis</h2>
<p>Extreme weather, political conflict and economic shocks tend to <a href="https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf">increase food insecurity</a>, especially among children, the elderly, the poor and people with disabilities. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf">2019</a>, about 55 countries from regions in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East and Asia were in food crisis. The <a href="https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/paragraphs/documents/Key%20takeaways%20Preventing%20a%20food%20catastrophe%20during%20the%20COVID-19%20pandemic.pdf">coronavirus pandemic is causing political and economic problems</a> even in wealthy countries. </p>
<p>As the crisis extends to the developing world, nations will face serious problems feeding their people – and keeping the peace.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335871/original/file-20200518-83393-1ctbmxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A camp in Mali for people displaced by violence was largely destroyed by fire in late April, making living conditions even worse than they had been.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/displaced-man-sits-in-front-of-his-burnt-shop-in-the-news-photo/1211184908?adppopup=true">Michele Cattani/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Difficult days ahead in Africa</h2>
<p>The types of conflicts plaguing Africa before the pandemic arrived mostly consist of bands of terrorist organizations using violence to cause political or social changes in their home countries, such as Boko Haram’s violent insurgency in <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/boko-haram-nigeria">Nigeria</a>. </p>
<p>These conflicts happen in places where the government is too weak to monitor and capture the terrorists and their group leaders. Due to weak governance and lack of border restrictions between countries, the violence often spills into <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/niger-75-boko-haram-fighters-killed-operations-200513115236405.html">neighboring</a> weak states, enveloping entire regions.</p>
<p>Even before the pandemic broke out, regional conflicts had already created food crises in parts of <a href="https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/africa-coronavirus-adds-stress-food-shortages">Africa</a>. The national lockdowns will help contain the coronavirus, but they also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-food-africa-insigh/how-africa-risks-reeling-from-a-health-crisis-to-a-food-crisis-idUSKCN2260M2">cause other civic and economic problems</a> that can lead to violence.</p>
<p>For example, Nigeria has a large number of <a href="https://theconversation.com/lockdown-will-hit-nigerias-smallscale-entrepreneurs-hard-what-can-be-done-135362">self-employed people</a> who are now unable to earn a living due to the lockdown. As a result, they do not have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-hunger-africa/millions-face-hunger-as-african-cities-impose-coronavirus-lockdowns-idUSKCN21Y14E">enough to eat</a>, and the government has been unable to provide food to everyone in need. </p>
<p>This food scarcity has led to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52445414">protests</a> in Abuja and food <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/severe-hunger-threatens-africa-during-covid-19-lockdowns/a-53212565">stampedes</a> to collect food supplies from the government in Lagos, Nigeria. People are frustrated with the government’s response in dealing with the pandemic and its inability to provide essential food for all who need it. </p>
<p>Terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram, an organization dedicated to the creation of an Islamic state within Nigeria, are actively using the grief caused by the coronavirus to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/coronavirus-boko-haram-nigeria-niger-cameroon-chad-a9470861.html">strengthen</a> their <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/increased-terror-attacks-in-africa-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/a-53066398">campaigns of violence</a>. Boko Haram is known for recruiting <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/fr/node/255134">unemployed young adults</a> from families who live in poverty without sufficient food. The group is now <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/boko-haram-iswap-recruiting-in-lake-chad-region-says-mnjtf/">increasing its recruitment</a> of young men to carry out ambushes, kidnappings and bombings in the region.</p>
<p>These efforts have resulted in renewed violence across the Lake Chad region, where a recent Boko Haram attack against the <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/383704-how-boko-haram-killed-47-nigerian-soldiers-official.html">Nigerian military</a> killed 47.</p>
<p>In neighboring Chad, the group ambushed a large group of Chadian soldiers, killing 92. It was the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/25/islamists-kill-92-soldiers-chad-one-deadliest-attack-five-year/">deadliest attack ever</a> on Chad’s military.</p>
<p>Even as Nigeria is gradually lifting lockdown measures, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/episode/coronavirus-job-losses-worsen-nigerias-unemployment-status-experts-say-4286451">unemployment</a> is likely to persist, diminishing people’s ability to afford basic goods such as food. </p>
<p>This pattern of violence is extending to other war-torn areas. <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-24-mozambique-jihadists-capture-strategic-port-in-major-victory/">Mozambique</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mali-security-idUSKBN2163WS">Mali</a>, for example, are experiencing an increase in attacks from Islamist insurgents in the wake of the pandemic. It is likely that food insecurity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic is playing a role there as well. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335878/original/file-20200518-83384-fnr8g6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Violence in Kashmir, a disputed region claimed by both Pakistan and India, is ticking upward.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Kashmir-Civilian-Killed/c4a5ef3818004e7fb5de769d5fa53aed/48/0">AP Photo/ Dar Yasin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Increasing violence in Asia</h2>
<p>In Asia, Pakistan was experiencing a <a href="https://www.wfpusa.org/countries/pakistan/">food crisis</a> before the pandemic began, with 60% of the population facing food insecurity because of drought and <a href="https://www.fsinplatform.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/GRFC_2020_ONLINE_200420.pdf">poor economic conditions</a>. </p>
<p>Now, there are over 48,000 positive COVID-19 cases in <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">the country</a>. Lockdown measures are making it difficult for day laborers and tradesmen to earn a living, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/14/833876062/coronavirus-pandemic-further-hurts-pakistans-poor-and-hungry">hunger</a> is an even greater immediate concern. </p>
<p>The government’s efforts to provide food to its citizens may not be able to meet the need. Particularly worrisome are the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/14/831753354/pakistan-has-a-plan-to-keep-millions-from-going-hungry-during-shutdown-will-it-w">one-third</a> of Pakistani citizens who are illiterate and face difficulty reading and applying for aid.</p>
<p>The worsening conditions in Pakistan brought on by the coronavirus are causing an <a href="https://theprint.in/defence/how-pakistan-deep-state-is-using-coronavirus-cover-to-fuel-terrorism-in-kashmir/417857/">increase</a> in terrorism. </p>
<p>The Pakistani-based terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are currently approaching people who have been affected by the coronavirus and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/india/covid-19-and-insurgency-kashmir">offering to provide essential services and assistance</a>. In return, they <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/let-jaish-and-other-terror-groups-exploiting-covid-19-to-recruit-jihadis-warn-western-anti-terror-experts/articleshow/75114794.cms">gain the loyalty of local populations</a> and access to a new pool of recruits for their efforts to set up an Islamist government in the contested territory of Kashmir.</p>
<p>The effort by the two terrorist groups has led to an <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/pakistan-terror-factories-get-active-spike-in-cross-border-firings/articleshow/75037075.cms">increase in the number of terrorist training camps</a> in the region. Indian intelligence sources also indicate that the groups, along with their ally Hizbul Mujahideen, may <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pakistan-groups-trying-to-send-200-terrorists/story-8L2qwLkWH4Hw6rBgS2w1sJ.html">send terrorists into northern India</a> in an effort to seize the contested land from the Indian government. </p>
<p>We are seeing similar recruitment tactics in other parts of the continent.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://central.asia-news.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_ca/features/2020/04/16/feature-02">Turkey</a>, Islamic State recruiters are targeting migrants from Turkmenistan who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. The Islamic State frequently recruits unemployed and disillusioned individuals to join its efforts to create an independent state dedicated to the teachings of its extremist brand of Sunni Islam.</p>
<p>Across the developing world, the coronavirus is magnifying existing societal problems, worsening food and financial shortages that give rise to terrorist violence.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When people are hungry or not sure where their next meal is coming from, they get angry at their governments. This gives terrorist groups opportunities to recruit new members.Nisha Bellinger, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State UniversityKyle Kattelman, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1366542020-05-15T12:13:16Z2020-05-15T12:13:16ZThe lack of women in cybersecurity leaves the online world at greater risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334516/original/file-20200512-82379-8phx6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=494%2C213%2C4974%2C3549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women bring a much-needed change in perspective to cybersecurity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rear-view-of-female-computer-hacker-coding-at-desk-royalty-free-image/1159379067?adppopup=true">Maskot/Maskot via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women are highly underrepresented in the field of cybersecurity. In 2017, women’s share in the U.S. cybersecurity field was <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/cybersecurity/women-in-cybersecurity.html">14%, compared to 48% in the general workforce</a>. </p>
<p>The problem is more acute outside the U.S. In 2018, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03327-w">women accounted for</a> 10% of the cybersecurity workforce in the Asia-Pacific region, 9% in Africa, 8% in Latin America, 7% in Europe and 5% in the Middle East. </p>
<p>Women are even less well represented in the upper echelons of security leadership. Only <a href="https://www.fifthdomain.com/workforce/2019/01/18/how-more-women-on-cybersecurity-teams-can-create-advantages/">1% of female internet security workers</a> are in senior management positions.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qx3YMi4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I study</a> <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783642115219">online crime</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/blockchain-voting-is-vulnerable-to-hackers-software-glitches-and-bad-id-photos-among-other-problems-122521">security</a> issues facing <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9034675">consumers</a>, <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8666661">organizations</a> and <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319405537">nations</a>. In my research, I have found that internet security requires <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137021946">strategies beyond technical solutions</a>. Women’s representation is important because women tend to offer viewpoints and perspectives that are different from men’s, and these underrepresented perspectives are critical in addressing cyber risks. </p>
<h2>Perception, awareness and bias</h2>
<p>The low representation of women in internet security is linked to the broader problem of their low representation in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Only <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=190924&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click">30% of scientists and engineers in the U.S.</a> are women.</p>
<p>The societal view is that internet security is <a href="http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset/article/view/449">a job that men do</a>, though there is nothing inherent in gender that predisposes men to be more interested in or more adept at cybersecurity. In addition, the industry mistakenly gives potential employees the impression that <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/women-working-cybersecurity-gender-gap.aspx">only technical skills matter in cybersecurity</a>, which can give women the impression that the field is overly technical or even boring. </p>
<p>Women are also generally not presented with opportunities in information technology fields. In a survey of women pursuing careers outside of IT fields, <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/450420822/PaloAlto-Networks-partners-with-US-Girl-Scouts-on-security-skills">69% indicated that</a> the main reason they didn’t pursue opportunities in IT was because they were unaware of them.</p>
<p>Organizations often fail to try to recruit women to work in cybersecurity. According to a survey conducted by IT security company Tessian, <a href="https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2020/03/12/cybersecurity-gender-gap/">only about half of the respondents</a> said that their organizations were doing enough to recruit women into cybersecurity roles. </p>
<p>Gender bias in job ads further discourages women from applying. Online cybersecurity job ads <a href="https://www.csoonline.com/article/3490417/gender-diversity-in-cybersecurity-matters-to-the-business.html">often lack gender-neutral language</a>. </p>
<h2>Good security and good business</h2>
<p>Boosting women’s involvement in information security makes both security and business sense. Female leaders in this area tend to prioritize important areas that males often overlook. This is partly due to their backgrounds. Forty-four percent of women in information security fields <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03327-w">have degrees in business and social sciences</a>, compared to 30% of men. </p>
<p>Female internet security professionals put a <a href="https://1c7fab3im83f5gqiow2qqs2k-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Women-in-the-Information-Security-Profession-GISWS-Subreport.pdf">higher priority on internal training and education</a> in security and risk management. Women are also stronger advocates for online training, which is a flexible, low-cost way of increasing employees’ awareness of security issues. </p>
<p>Female internet security professionals are also <a href="https://1c7fab3im83f5gqiow2qqs2k-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Women-in-the-Information-Security-Profession-GISWS-Subreport.pdf">adept at selecting partner organizations</a> to develop secure software. Women tend to pay more attention to partner organizations’ qualifications and personnel, and they assess partners’ ability to meet contractual obligations. They also prefer partners that are willing to perform independent security tests. </p>
<p>Increasing women’s participation in cybersecurity is a <a href="https://www.scmagazine.com/home/sc-corporate-news/help-sc-honor-women-and-diversity-in-cybersecurity-with-your-recommendations/">business issue</a> as well as a gender issue. According to an Ernst & Young report, by 2028 women will control <a href="http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Issues/Driving-growth/Growing-Beyond---High-Achievers---Women-make-all-the-difference-in-the-world">75% of discretionary consumer spending worldwide</a>. Security considerations like encryption, fraud detection and biometrics are becoming important in <a href="http://www.itproportal.com/2016/05/11/high-profile-data-breaches-affecting-consumer-trust-in-big-brands/">consumers’ buying decisions</a>. Product designs require a trade-off between cybersecurity and usability. Female cybersecurity professionals can make better-informed decisions about such trade-offs for products that are targeted at female customers.</p>
<h2>Attracting women to cybersecurity</h2>
<p>Attracting more women to cybersecurity requires governments, nonprofit organizations, professional and trade associations and the private sector to work together. Public-private partnership projects could help solve the problem in the long run. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334520/original/file-20200512-82383-19c1j21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A computer science teacher, center, helps fifth grade students learn programming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Girls-Tech-Scores/f038776721b740dcb797dce201f86061/10/0">AP Photo/Elaine Thompson</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One example is Israel’s <a href="https://www.rashi.org.il/cybergirlz">Shift community</a>, previously known as the CyberGirlz program, which is jointly financed by the country’s Defense Ministry, the Rashi Foundation and Start-Up Nation Central. It identifies high school girls with aptitude, desire and natural curiosity to learn IT and and helps them develop those skills. </p>
<p>The girls participate in hackathons and training programs, and get advice, guidance and support from female mentors. Some of the mentors are from elite technology units of the country’s military. The participants learn hacking skills, network analysis and the Python programming language. They also practice simulating cyber-attacks to find potential vulnerabilities. By 2018, <a href="https://www.jta.org/2018/09/26/israel/new-program-recruiting-israeli-girls-cyber-warfare-high-tech-futures">about 2,000 girls participated</a> in the CyberGirlz Club and the CyberGirlz Community. </p>
<p>In 2017, cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/450420822/PaloAlto-Networks-partners-with-US-Girl-Scouts-on-security-skills">teamed up with the Girl Scouts of the USA</a> to develop cybersecurity badges. The goal is to foster cybersecurity knowledge and develop interest in the profession. The curriculum includes the basics of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/girl-scouts-fight-cybercrime-new-cybersecurity-badge-n852971">computer networks, cyberattacks and online safety</a>. </p>
<p>Professional associations can also foster interest in cybersecurity and help women develop relevant knowledge. For example, <a href="https://www.wics.es/proyectos/mentoring/">Women in Cybersecurity of Spain</a> has started a mentoring program that supports <a href="https://www.bbva.com/en/female-cybersecurity-experts-take-the-floor-at-bbva/">female cybersecurity professionals early in their careers</a>.</p>
<p>Some industry groups have collaborated with big companies. In 2018, Microsoft India and the Data Security Council of India launched the CyberShikshaa program in order to create <a href="https://cybersecurityventures.com/women-in-cybersecurity/">a pool of skilled female cybersecurity professionals</a>. </p>
<p>Some technology companies have launched programs to foster women’s interest in and confidence to pursue internet security careers. One example is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgenehuang/2016/10/04/why-women-in-tech-should-consider-a-career-in-cybersecurity/#59522d033e6f">IBM Security’s Women in Security Excelling program</a>, formed in 2015. </p>
<p>Attracting more women to the cybersecurity field requires a range of efforts. Cybersecurity job ads should be written so that female professionals feel welcome to apply. Recruitment efforts should focus on academic institutions with high female enrollment. Corporations should ensure that female employees see cybersecurity as a good option for internal career changes. And governments should work with the private sector and academic institutions to get young girls interested in cybersecurity. </p>
<p>Increasing women’s participation in cybersecurity is good for women, good for business and good for society.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nir Kshetri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women are underrepresented in technology fields, but especially so in cybersecurity. It’s not just a matter of fairness. Women are better than men at key aspects of keeping the internet safe.Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina – GreensboroLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1326322020-03-04T12:31:47Z2020-03-04T12:31:47ZThe UK government tried to reshape the civil service with wacky psychology before – here’s how that went<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317795/original/file-20200228-24664-1k1jjb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C52%2C3132%2C2069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dominic Cummings is looking for 'cognitive diversity' but history suggests that's not easy to define.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dominic Cummings, special adviser to the UK prime minister, has been continuing his shake-up of the civil service. Most notably, his plea for “<a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos/">misfits and weirdos</a>” resulted in the appointment of Andrew Sabisky, who was forced to resign after his eugenicist views on the supposed link between race and intelligence came to light.</p>
<p>Cummings is re-imagining the civil service as a force for disruption and innovation along the lines of Silicon Valley. He has been open about his infatuation with the Valley’s peculiar brand of technological utopianism, which imagines a future in which AI and computer forecasting are used to guide policy.</p>
<p>We should be wary of interpreting this shake up as truly progressive. This vision of the future is <a href="https://www.issuelab.org/resource/tech-leavers-study-a-first-of-its-kind-analysis-of-why-people-volunarily-left-jobs-in-tech.html">overwhelmingly white and male</a>. Cummings shuns what he calls “gender identity diversity blah blah” and advocates for “true cognitive diversity”. </p>
<p>However, his is not the first attempt at remodelling the civil service with the help of pseudoscientific thinking. In fact, the civil service experimented with an eccentric approach to recruitment in the 1940s. This post-war scheme also mobilised pseudoscientific concepts of intelligence, character and personality, all of which reflected a discriminatory set of values as to who was “fit” to do the job.</p>
<p>The civil service’s experiment in psychological methods of recruiting was directly influenced by a method of selection pioneered by the War Office. Concerns about the high failure rate of junior officers undergoing training prompted officials in the War Office to rethink their recruitment process. Following experiments by army psychiatrists, the first War Office Selection Board was established in Edinburgh in 1942, with others opening across Britain that same year.</p>
<p>Under this new scheme, candidates were taken to a country house and given a <a href="http://tihr-archive.tavinstitute.org/recreating-war-officer-selection-boards-archivists-experience/">series of assessments over the course of three days</a>. Potential officers took part in a role-play scenario to test their decision-making and teamwork skills as well as a series of what were called “personality pointers”. These included a word association test, a self-description exercise and a “thematic appreciation test”. Here, candidates were required to make up stories using a series of images as prompts. These were analysed for evidence of their aptitude and mental capability for the officer class.</p>
<p>The Treasury requested the War Office’s help in adapting this system to select civil service officers for the new Organisation and Methods division. This section was tasked with increasing efficiency in the civil service following its rapid expansion as a result of the war. The new “Organisation and Methods man” possessed initiative, flexibility and independence. Recruiters saw these traits as new qualities suitable for a reformed, streamlined civil service. They were to be as important in the selection of candidates as the old personality traits of reliability, accuracy and knowledge of precedent.</p>
<p>This experiment proved flawed, however. Senior members of the civil service and experienced members of the War Office Selection Boards came together to grade those who took the experimental test. Both groups gave wildly different marks to candidates.</p>
<p>The War Office even failed some candidates. And since everyone who took the experimental test was already employed in the civil service, this was a serious problem. </p>
<h2>An unflattering postmortem</h2>
<p>All this meant that when the selection process was held up to scientific scrutiny it appeared to fall apart. The report on the experiment tried hard to work out why this might be the case, spending pages upon pages on increasingly complicated statistics.</p>
<p>What none of these calculations did is challenge the basic, and flawed, assumption behind the experiment – personality traits cannot, as they thought, be objectively observed as incontrovertible facts. They are subjective judgements, the result of the interaction between the observer and the observed.</p>
<p>The role that the fledgling discipline of psychology played in these recruitment schemes was a discriminatory one. The personality tests were an attempt to weed out people with “immature” personalities: a euphemism for homosexuality. Potential junior officers or civil servant guinea pigs took intelligence tests alongside the “personality pointers”. Although they were seen as an objective test of natural intellect, they often reflected no more than the individual’s level of schooling, at a time when education provision was even more unequal than it is today. These intelligence tests have their modern counterpart in the IQ tests <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/19/sabisky-row-dominic-cummings-criticised-over-designer-babies-post">so admired by Cummings and Sabisky</a>.</p>
<p>Although these tests were designed in response to criticisms of the army’s elitism, the ways in which the tests attempted to police the boundaries of who was suitable ended up reflecting the same social prejudices the army and civil service had long struggled with.</p>
<p>Cummings’ call for “misfits and weirdos” is similarly superficial. His slavish devotion to techie solutions will continue to favour white, middle-class male computer scientists who don’t look any different from the “Oxbridge humanities graduates” who have tended to make up the civil service.</p>
<p>True diversity looks very different from Cummings’ vision. His and Sabisky’s worrying views on intelligence indicate how little space there is for neurodiverse individuals, disabled people or people of colour within Whitehall. Criticisms of the establishment are always welcome, but what the civil service and the War Office selection boards tell us is that wacky means of recruitment can be a smokescreen obscuring any real progress.</p>
<p>A supposedly meritocratic means of selection, either by personality test or by blogpost, hides the assumptions and biases of those doing the recruiting. More often than not, people pick those who resemble them physically and socially – and who share the same values. A commitment to true diversity is commendable. Unfortunately, I do not see that commitment from Cummings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Whorrall-Campbell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dominic Cummings should read up on a deeply flawed experiment from the 1940s before he reads through those job applications.Grace Whorrall-Campbell, PhD Candidate in History, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1295212020-01-10T11:22:39Z2020-01-10T11:22:39ZDominic Cummings may be right about ‘weirdos and misfits’ – Britain’s top graduate jobs go to corporate clones<p>Dominic Cummings caused a stir with his <a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos">recent blog</a> post about shaking up Britain’s civil service. The prime minister’s special adviser argued that there is a lack of “cognitive diversity” in Downing Street and emphasised a need to hire “weirdos and misfits”. </p>
<p>In some respects, Cummings is right. Many of Britain’s elite employers don’t perform well when it comes to cognitive diversity (thinking differently). I’ve seen this first hand in <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-11-2017-3250/full/html">my research</a> on the so-called big four professional service firms, which shows that their employees offer little variety in terms of ideas, personalities and character traits.</p>
<p>My research suggests that this lack of cognitive diversity at least partly stems from graduate recruitment. Big four firms like to hire a specific type of graduate. They need to be committed, hard working and commercially minded. They need to be confident communicators, who have leadership and team-working skills. They also need to fit in with the culture of these organisations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top companies tend to hire people that think the same.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/two-heads-person-opposite-mindset-concept-1323200312">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Big four recruitment practices compel ambitious students to undergo an elaborate socialisation process to transform them into this type of person. As part of this process, these students spend enormous amounts of their free time studying the largely similar recruitment literature of their prospective employers, attending largely similar campus recruitment events, joining largely similar societies and carefully studying and imitating the largely similar behaviour of big four professionals.</p>
<h2>Corporate clones</h2>
<p>Aspiring big four professionals begin to transform into corporate clones who speak, dress, behave and think like employees of these firms sometimes even before being hired. In the words of one of my interviewees, her fellow aspiring big four professionals “were all the same, they all have the same mindset”. Of course, the big four attract many intelligent, highly committed and hard-working graduates. But they tend to be largely like-minded and uncritical of the way things are done. </p>
<p>The graduate intakes of these firms have become more diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity. This is an important and positive development. But recent <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/03/teams-solve-problems-faster-when-theyre-more-cognitively-diverse">research</a> has shown that gender and ethnic diversity don’t necessarily result in cognitive diversity. That is, they don’t guarantee that a wide range of ideas, attitudes and perspectives are represented in a group. My study indicates that although the big four now hire more female and minority ethnic students, their graduate intakes feature relatively little cognitive diversity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309406/original/file-20200110-97134-rrn8vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spot the difference: diversity doesn’t just apply to gender and race.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elevated-view-large-group-multiethnic-business-145281649">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Graduate intakes dominated by highly committed but uncritical corporate clones may be ideally suited to successfully navigate the professional exams, long hours and often monotonous work characteristic of big four traineeships. But a lack of cognitive diversity among graduates may come at a cost. For example, it may lead to groupthink and limit the range of new ideas and innovations generated by these organisations. It may also blind them to certain opportunities as well as threats. </p>
<p>From a broader societal standpoint, these seemingly like-minded and uncritical graduate intakes could also be problematic. Corporate clones may not be ideally equipped to implement the growing calls among regulators and government for greater <a href="https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/3353c201-13d6-4dfb-854c-57106c272d49/Briefing-Paper-professional-scepticism-March-2012.pdf">professional scepticism</a> and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/852960/brydon-review-final-report.pdf">suspicion</a> among big four auditors. Such calls have grown increasingly <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fa0040fe-3095-11ea-a329-0bcf87a328f2">loud</a> in response to the role these firms played in high profile corporate collapses like BHS, Carillion and Thomas Cook. </p>
<p>So, for their own good, and for the good of society more generally, elite employers, such as the big four, may want to reconsider their graduate recruitment practices so that they can attract people who are not only diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity, but also in terms of ideas, attitudes and personalities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Florian Gebreiter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many of Britain’s elite employers do not perform well when it comes to cognitive diversity.Florian Gebreiter, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1097312019-01-14T11:05:04Z2019-01-14T11:05:04ZCheat sheet for VCs running universities in turbulent times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253366/original/file-20190111-43541-14kc3xb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African students protest outside Parliament in support of students convicted over the #FeesMustFall protests. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At least once a month a headhunting firm calls me seeking advice on a search for a university vice-chancellor. They want to pick my brains because of what I’ve learnt, sometimes the hard way, over seven years as a vice-chancellor, 12 years as an academic dean and two years as an administrator of struggling universities.</p>
<p>By the time the headhunter makes the call, the university would have advertised the position more than once but simply couldn’t find the right person for the job. </p>
<p>I often advise on three starting criteria. In addition, my long tenure in higher education has also taught me that there’s additional knowledge that’s useful for a university leader to have, particularly in these turbulent times facing higher education.</p>
<p>Let me start with the criteria that head hunters should be looking for.</p>
<p>First, candidates need to be major scholars in their field of expertise. Your credibility as an academic is critical in a serious university. If your Senate cannot respect you, you will sound foolish trying to make the case for enhancing the standards of the professoriate or demanding quality scholarship in learned journals. </p>
<p>Second, a competent manager with broad knowledge across the range of university functions – from information technologies to residence management to internal auditing. No vice-chancellor is an expert in more than one of these managerial disciplines. But candidates must know enough to ask their directors or heads of department the right questions. </p>
<p>And third, an inspiring leader who has the ability to connect with – and command the respect – of diverse people across the institution from workers to junior lecturers to senior professors. </p>
<h2>Some pointers for candidates</h2>
<p>Potential candidates should consider what they need to offer inspiring leadership and effective management to universities. Based on my experience, this is what you need to know, and how you need to be.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>A good dose of humility</strong>. The four opening words from the best-selling book, in The Purpose Driven-Life by evangelical pastor and author Rick Warren is all you need to read: </li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s not about you. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>People will sing your praises but they will demand things from you. They will look up to you but they will also blame you. In good times and bad, remember, it’s not about you. You are privileged to lead your institution but on behalf of others. The adulation could go to your head. Keep telling yourself it is about the students, the academics, the staff and the workers. You exist to serve them. It definitely is not about you.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>A sense of your own limitations.</strong> A vice-chancellor stands or falls by the quality and cohesiveness of the senior team. It’s crucially important that the absolute best people are hired as deputy-vice chancellors for the key portfolios such as finance, research, teaching and information technologies. These are persons who should complement the competency set of the vice-chancellor and who are resolutely committed to the academic mission of the university. The vice-chancellors role is to keep them together (not always easy) and listen to their counsel.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>A singular ambition.</strong> Sitting in the main office, you tend to overreach by wanting to do everything on a long list of goals. Do one or two big things well and you are more likely to make an impact. That ambition may be to dramatically raise the academic standard of a mediocre university or to stabilise the finances of an institution after a near terminal crisis. Choose a few things that resonate with the university community and put all your energy into making those commitments real.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>A short line to your boss.</strong> Your nominal boss is the Chair of Council. It is the single most important relationship you should develop. Most universities that fall into crisis do because of a breakdown between governance (Council) and management (Executive). Meet at least once a fortnight to build the interpersonal relationship, share your agenda and remind each other of the line that must not be crossed—managers do not govern and governors don’t manage. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Invest in your own development.</strong> Make sure you build into your contract negotiations with Council the necessary time off to continue your own research and writing especially when your goal is to re-enter academic life at a later stage. A vice-chancellor who is academically active sets a powerful example to both staff as well as students. Furthermore, taking off regular time to rebuild your energies in a demanding job is the best way in which to continue doing your job well.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>It is a university.</strong> The constant protests and instability on some campuses constantly threaten to distract vice-chancellors from the core business of a university. Find ways of delegating demanding functions like constant negotiations with students or workers to offset protests. Be there, but not all the time. You are running an academic institution and that focus could be easily lost in a context or climate where crisis management redefines the role of the head of a university. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Use the platform.</strong> A vice-chancellor has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address burning issues in the broader society from an institutional platform. Do not draw inwards and disappear from public view. Draw on your specialist training and speak to critical concerns. Whether you like it or not, a vice-chancellor is a public persona who is likely to be listened to by government, the media and the broader community by virtue of the position.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Jansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Certain criteria are needed to lead a university but additional knowledge is also useful.Jonathan Jansen, Distinguished Professor, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1052702018-11-01T10:28:07Z2018-11-01T10:28:07ZAmazon’s sexist hiring algorithm could still be better than a human<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242961/original/file-20181030-76408-oj1ht3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New technology, old flaws.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/artificial-intelligence-ai-machine-deep-learning-571561966?src=23r8JEhgxEk8sNhTL-wVrA-1-27">Jirsak/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amazon decided to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G">shut down</a> its experimental artificial intelligence (AI) recruiting tool after discovering it discriminated against women. The company created the tool to trawl the web and spot potential candidates, rating them from one to five stars. But the algorithm learned to systematically downgrade women’s CV’s for technical jobs such as software developer.</p>
<p>Although Amazon is at the forefront of AI technology, the company couldn’t find a way to make its algorithm gender-neutral. But the company’s failure reminds us that <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-data-algorithms-can-discriminate-and-its-not-clear-what-to-do-about-it-45849">AI develops bias</a> from a variety of sources. While there’s a common belief that algorithms are supposed to be built without any of the bias or prejudices that colour human decision making, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d2a1ab08-f63e-11e7-a4c9-bbdefa4f210b">the truth is</a> that an algorithm can unintentionally learn bias from a variety of different sources. Everything from the <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1809.02208.pdf">data used</a> to train it, to the <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/how-linkedins-search-engine-may-reflect-a-bias/">people</a> who are using it, and even seemingly unrelated factors, can all contribute to AI bias.</p>
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<p>AI algorithms are trained to observe patterns in large data sets to help predict outcomes. In Amazon’s case, its algorithm used all CVs submitted to the company over a ten-year period to learn how to spot the best candidates. Given the low proportion of women working in the company, as in <a href="https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/diversity-in-tech/">most technology companies</a>, the algorithm quickly spotted male dominance and thought it was a factor in success. </p>
<p>Because the algorithm used the results of its own predictions to improve its accuracy, it got stuck in a pattern of sexism against female candidates. And since the data used to train it was at some point created by humans, it means that the algorithm also inherited undesirable human traits, like bias and discrimination, which have also been a <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/0002828042002561">problem in recruitment</a> for years.</p>
<p>Some algorithms are also designed to predict and deliver what users want to see. This is typically seen on social media or in online advertising, where users are shown content or advertisements that an algorithm believes they will <a href="https://ed.ted.com/lessons/beware-online-filter-bubbles-eli-pariser">interact with</a>. Similar patterns have also been reported in the recruiting industry.</p>
<p>One recruiter <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40536485/now-is-the-time-to-act-to-stop-bias-in-ai">reported</a> that while using a professional social network to find candidates, the AI learned to give him results most similar to the profiles he initially engaged with. As a result, whole groups of potential candidates were systematically removed from the recruitment process entirely. </p>
<p>However, bias also appears for other unrelated reasons. A <a href="http://lbsresearch.london.edu/967/">recent study</a> into how an algorithm delivered ads promoting STEM jobs showed that men were more likely to be shown the ad, not because men were more likely to click on it, but because women are more expensive to advertise to. Since companies price ads targeting women at a higher rate (women drive <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleking/2017/05/24/want-a-piece-of-the-18-trillion-dollar-female-economy-start-with-gender-bias/#1bf839a76123">70% to 80%</a> of all consumer purchases), the algorithm chose to deliver ads more to men than to women because it was designed to optimise ad delivery while keeping costs low.</p>
<p>But if an algorithm only reflects patterns in the data we give it, what its users like, and the economic behaviours that occur in its market, isn’t it unfair to blame it for perpetuating our worst attributes? We automatically expect an algorithm to make decisions without any discrimination when this is rarely the case with humans. Even if an algorithm is biased, it may be an improvement over the current status quo.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243011/original/file-20181030-76413-1kn37wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recruitment algorithms have also shown bias.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-finger-selecting-profile-picture-on-156617378?src=FOiljJSB2cq5JvXcKg54zA-2-8">waverbreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To fully benefit from using AI, it’s important to investigate what would happen if we allowed AI to make decisions without human intervention. A <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/133/1/237/4095198?redirectedFrom=fulltext">2018 study</a> explored this scenario with bail decisions using an algorithm trained on historical criminal data to predict the likelihood of criminals re-offending. In one projection, the authors were able to reduce crime rates by 25% while reducing instances of discrimination in jailed inmates. </p>
<p>Yet the gains highlighted in this research would only occur if the algorithm was actually making every decision. This would be unlikely to happen in the real world as judges would probably prefer to choose whether or not to follow the algorithm’s recommendations. Even if an algorithm is well designed, it becomes redundant if people choose not to rely on it.</p>
<p>Many of us already rely on algorithms for many of our daily decisions, from what to watch on Netflix or buy from Amazon. But <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2014-48748-001">research shows</a> that people lose confidence in algorithms faster than humans when they see them make a mistake, even when the algorithm performs better overall. </p>
<p>For example, if your GPS suggests you use an alternative route to avoid traffic that ends up taking longer than predicted, you’re likely to stop relying on your GPS in the future. But if taking the alternate route was your decision, it’s unlikely you will stop trusting your own judgement. A <a href="https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2643">follow-up study</a> on overcoming algorithm aversion even showed that people were more likely to use an algorithm and accept its errors if given the opportunity to modify the algorithm themselves, even if it meant making it perform imperfectly. </p>
<p>While humans might quickly lose trust in flawed algorithms, many of us tend to trust machines more if they have human features. According to research on <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103114000067">self-driving cars</a>, humans were more likely to trust the car and believed it would perform better if the vehicle’s augmented system had a name, a specified gender, and a human-sounding voice. However, if machines become very human-like, but not quite, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNdAIPoh8a4">people often find them creepy</a>, which could affect their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027715300640">trust in them</a>.</p>
<p>Even though we don’t necessarily appreciate the image that algorithms may reflect of our society, it seems that we are still keen to live with them and make them look and act like us. And if that’s the case, surely algorithms can make mistakes too?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maude Lavanchy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Expecting algorithms to perform perfectly might be asking too much of ourselves.Maude Lavanchy, Research Associate, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/958032018-09-13T11:24:54Z2018-09-13T11:24:54ZSurvey: state school teachers say much of their work is meaningless<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230941/original/file-20180807-191031-ydot4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why are so many teachers quitting or off with stress?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is no secret that teaching is facing a crisis. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-workforce?utm_source=9c5cf4fb-928a-486c-b66b-937c8271426f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate">Recent figures</a> show that the number of full-time, qualified teachers starting work in state schools has fallen since 2015 – from 45,450 to 42,430 in 2017. Meanwhile, 42,830 teachers left the classroom for good last year. </p>
<p>My recent <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324994241_Teaching_in_England_Interim_Report_A_comparative_study_of_working_conditions_for_state_and_independent_school_teachers">survey</a> of more than 800 teachers from across England investigates what schools can do to improve teachers’ job satisfaction. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324994241_Teaching_in_England_Interim_Report_A_comparative_study_of_working_conditions_for_state_and_independent_school_teachers">survey report</a> compares working conditions in England’s state and independent schools. I wanted to identify what contributes to teachers’ job satisfaction, and what each sector can learn from the other in order to improve working conditions and address the national teacher retention crisis.</p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>It’s probably not surprising to learn that independent school teachers are more satisfied and less stressed than their state counterparts. But it might be more surprising to learn that, during term time, teachers in both state and independent schools teachers work an average of 55 hours per week. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324994241_Teaching_in_England_Interim_Report_A_comparative_study_of_working_conditions_for_state_and_independent_school_teachers">survey</a> found that the number of hours worked is not linked to job satisfaction for teachers in either sector. But while independent teachers have longer holidays and smaller classes, the nature of the work teachers are asked to undertake – and the ways in which they are monitored – was found to be a big factor in job satisfaction.</p>
<p>Many of the surveyed state teachers reported feeling that much of their work is meaningless. They mentioned activities such as: colour coding complex seating plans, triple marking children’s work, and evidencing verbal feedback in exercise books. After marking, the books are left in school so that they are “inspection ready”. </p>
<h2>Pointless tasks</h2>
<p>Ofsted, the state school inspectorate, is eager to dispel myths about what its inspectors want to find. To this end, it has created a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLq-zBnUkspMMLT3LbN7M00gYw8noHPEi">YouTube channel</a> with “myth-busting videos”, and a dedicated hashtag: #Oftsedmyths. Ofsted’s social media campaign and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-inspection-handbook-from-september-2015/ofsted-inspections-mythbusting">handbook</a> extensively outline what not to do for or during an inspection. But in terms of positive recommendations, Ofsted’s regional director for London, Mike Sheridan, merely advises schools to do “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE78dodnRL0&list=PLLq-zBnUkspMMLT3LbN7M00gYw8noHPEi&index=7%22">what works</a>”. </p>
<p>Despite these messages from Ofsted, schools hold onto these practices without any evidence that they are effective. This could be because schools need clearer guidance about the kind of policies and strategies that do work for pupils and teachers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230944/original/file-20180807-191038-1eedmob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teacher levels are at a record low.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>With these policies in place, school leadership teams conduct book marking inspections, or brief on-the-spot observations – known as “climate walks” or “learning walks”. Such checks ensure that teachers are ready for Ofsted and are following school policies. </p>
<p>Some state school teachers in the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324994241_Teaching_in_England_Interim_Report_A_comparative_study_of_working_conditions_for_state_and_independent_school_teachers">survey</a> identified monitoring processes as contributors to burdensome workloads. A few stated that they felt “watched”, or “not trusted” to do their job –- feelings which can detract from job satisfaction.</p>
<h2>The independent sector</h2>
<p>Independent schools may also have strict marking and feedback policies. The sector’s teachers are also externally inspected and are monitored by colleagues – so why is it that they are less stressed and more satisfied than state teachers? </p>
<p>The extent to which pupil feedback and marking policies differ between sectors is not known. Although some of the independent teachers in the survey identified bureaucracy and reporting to parents as burdensome tasks, very few commented on their schools’ marking, or pupil feedback requirements. This suggests that these areas might not be a major concern for the independent school teachers. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324994241_Teaching_in_England_Interim_Report_A_comparative_study_of_working_conditions_for_state_and_independent_school_teachers">survey</a> and additional interviews with more than 20 teachers from each sector show that independent school leaders do monitor their teachers. But interviewees from the sector saw monitoring processes as professional development opportunities rather than accountability mechanisms. </p>
<h2>Understanding why</h2>
<p>For many of the state school teachers who were interviewed, the link between monitoring and professional or pupil development has broken down. Teachers expressed confusion over the purpose of “learning walks” and “book trails”. </p>
<p>At worst, these processes are viewed as clumsy tools used to judge their professional competence. At best, they experience them as meaningless activities that have little positive effect on their professional development – or social, emotional, or academic outcomes of their pupils. </p>
<p>Schools looking to improve teachers’ job satisfaction might consider evaluating the purpose and audience for existing marking and feedback policies alongside their internal auditing processes. Because if teachers, pupils and parents are truly at the forefront of these policies, then where is the tangible evidence showing that they work to the benefit of those people? If there is none, it’s time for a rigorous research-informed review.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jude Brady is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. She is funded by a Pigott Doctoral Scholarship.</span></em></p>Private school teachers are generally happier than state school teachers, but not for the reasons you might think.Jude Brady, PhD candidate, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1014412018-08-21T19:58:39Z2018-08-21T19:58:39ZResearch shows ‘merit’ is highly subjective and changes with our values<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232231/original/file-20180816-2918-1pywl2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6%2C6&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Selection panels interrupt women more than men and ask them more follow-up questions, subtly questioning their competence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-businesspeople-interviewing-woman-office-144677900">Andrey Popov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who is meritorious, what constitutes merit, and how merit and gender targets can operate together are widely misunderstood questions, as <a href="https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/public-service-research-group/public-service-research-group/research-projects/role-middle-managers-progressing-gender-equity-public-sector">our new research</a> shows. </p>
<p>We spoke with almost 300 public sector middle managers. The vast majority said they wanted “the best person for the job”. They had less idea, however, of just who that “best person” might be. </p>
<p>Merit is assumed to be an objective standard, based on set criteria, which people meet or fail to meet. There are countless examples, however, of public positions that might not have been filled on merit. <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/95942-full-scale-political-row-erupts-over-the-merit-of-three-aps-appointments/">Questions</a> are being raised about several recent high-level appointments in the Australian Public Service. </p>
<p>While generally considered sacrosanct and enshrined in policy, in practice “merit” has been highly subjective and has waxed and waned according to social values. Until the 1960s, seemingly objective recruitment processes were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2006.00471a.x">highly discriminatory</a> on the basis of class, ability and race. There were requirements for minimum health standards, certificates of good character and passes in subjects offered only in private schools. </p>
<p>These processes were also highly gender-discriminatory. Merit was interpreted in ways that benefited men and worked against women. Examples included limits on the number of single women that could be employed, and a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajph.12465">bar preventing married women from competing for jobs</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, there was a brief spotlight on merit and gender. New equal employment opportunity laws <a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/09649420410541263">established clear rules</a> for assessing merit and monitoring gender in employment outcomes. </p>
<p>However, waves of public management reform led to more departmental autonomy and a reduced central focus on merit and gender.</p>
<h2>Two areas of confusion</h2>
<p>Fast forward to today, and this lack of attention to how merit and gender equity can coexist has led to confusion and a simplistic understanding of merit in two main areas.</p>
<p>The first is that managers perceive that they are hampered by process. Public sector managers largely follow a set recruitment procedure. They advertise, develop selection criteria, read resumes, shortlist, interview, check references and then appoint a suitable candidate. </p>
<p>The problem with this is that using the same narrow method and criteria may lead to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition">fallacy of composition</a>, recruiting more of the same without regard to the context and current gaps in a team.</p>
<p>Biases can influence selection panel members’ decisions. Researchers <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2011-04642-001">have found</a> that job advertisements and selection criteria may not be gender-neutral. </p>
<p>Unconscious biases can also come into play when assessing resumes and interviewing candidates. Research shows that selection panels <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/women-face-a-harder-time-than-men-in-interview-recruiting-bias-20170703-gx39j7.html">interrupt women more than men</a> and ask them more follow-up questions, subtly questioning their competence.</p>
<p>The second area of confusion relates to recruitment and gender targets. Some public sector organisations use targets to counter women’s under-representation in senior ranks. In Australia and internationally, <a href="http://www.5050foundation.edu.au/assets/reports/documents/2016-Reporting-Requirements-Targets-and-Quotas-for-Women-in-Leadership.pdf">targets have contributed</a> to an increase in women in leadership positions. </p>
<p>Managers we spoke with, however, were concerned that women being appointed to meet a target were “tokens”, or were chosen over better-qualified men. </p>
<h2>How do you set targets and select on merit?</h2>
<p>Merit and targets can, however, co-exist. Some managers recognised that recruiting to targets can <a href="https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/20131119_PP_targetsquotas.pdf">improve organisational outcomes</a>. Others argued that recruiting a diverse range of employees reflects the community they serve.</p>
<p>Some managers were innovative to advance gender equity while recruiting on merit. We heard stories of senior managers directing selection panels, which had shortlisted only men, to take another look at the women applicants or to broaden their search and encourage meritorious women to apply. </p>
<p>Managers recruiting for an ICT position reviewed the job requirements, realised the skills required were not technical but communication-based, and re-advertised based on an amended job description. This attracted more female candidates and a woman was duly appointed on merit. </p>
<p>Additionally, for jobs requiring technical competence, managers considered that technical skills could be learned on the job over time. They viewed capability as more important. </p>
<h2>Systemic approaches work best</h2>
<p>While training for selection panels is important, systemic approaches can more effectively ensure the merit principle is upheld. Organisations may benefit from approaches that include:</p>
<ul>
<li>recruiting for capability rather than past performance</li>
<li>providing training that recognises the myths around merit</li>
<li>encouraging conversations to counter the pervasive misunderstanding of the merit principle. </li>
</ul>
<p>Some public sector jurisdictions are <a href="https://publicsector.sa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/20070101-Guideline-Protection-of-merit-equity.pdf">providing advice</a> on how to undertake recruitment and selection to minimise biases and promote merit-based processes. But there is still a long way to go for this to become common knowledge. </p>
<p>The public sector has traditionally been considered to be a <a href="http://www.oecd.org/gov/women-government-and-policy-making.htm">model employer</a>. Implementing leading-edge practices that combine merit, gender targets and diversity can ensure it maintains this status.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The New South Wales, Queensland, South Australian and Tasmanian governments participated in, and funded this research; the Australia and New Zealand School of Government was the principal funder. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Colley receives funding from the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) for this research, and from the ARC.</span></em></p>The vast majority of managers said they wanted “the best person for the job”. They had less idea of just who that might be, or how to ensure appointments on merit and equity targets co-exist.Sue Williamson, Lecturer, Human Resource Management, UNSW Canberra, UNSW SydneyLinda Colley, Lecturer, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/936102018-03-22T10:45:49Z2018-03-22T10:45:49ZHow employers can boost social mobility by changing the way they recruit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211063/original/file-20180319-31608-1sz7mcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recruitment processes can play an important role in social mobility. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Social mobility has rarely been far from the top of the political agenda in Britain in recent years. Yet despite two decades of rhetorical commitment to the cause, Britain is still a deeply divided country.</p>
<p>There remains a <a href="https://www.ucas.com/corporate/data-and-analysis/ucas-undergraduate-releases/equality-and-entry-rates-data-explorer">stubborn gap</a> in higher education attendance between children from better- and worse-off families, and the top professions continue to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662744/State_of_the_Nation_2017_-_Social_Mobility_in_Great_Britain.pdf">recruit disproportionately</a> from a narrow strata of society. Only 6% of doctors, 12% of journalists and 12% of chief executives come from working-class backgrounds. And there is a <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/leading-people-2016-education-background/">particular dominance</a> of the privately educated in society’s upper echelons. </p>
<p>Education policies at all ages – from provision of affordable quality pre-school, to initiatives to widen participation at university – can make a difference. But such policies alone will never solve all of the issues. </p>
<p>The problems of social mobility extend far beyond the education system. Even people with the same education fare differently in accessing elite professions depending on their <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/div-classtitlewho-gets-the-top-jobs-the-role-of-family-background-and-networks-in-recent-graduates-access-to-high-status-professionsdiv/C9BF038BA2D7D3BC8309B6C24F3FBF3A">background</a> and progress within these jobs is also related to <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/privately-educated-graduates-in-top-jobs-get-bigger-pay-rises/">school type</a>. More broadly, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0003122416653602">recent research</a> has found a pay-gap equivalent to thousands of pounds difference in annual earnings between those from higher- and lower-class backgrounds employed in the same high status professional occupations.</p>
<p>There is huge scope for employers to take the lead in promoting social mobility over the coming years, particularly while central government is preoccupied with Brexit and local authorities are struggling to do more with less following years of austerity cuts.</p>
<p>By recruiting narrowly from universities, firms risk missing out on a wealth of talented individuals who do not have the traditional academic background associated with future success. Employers such as Grant Thornton, Fujitsu and the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) have started to realise this danger and to take action – talking about it at a recent <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/the-challenge-of-improving-social-mobility/">conference</a> my colleagues and I organised. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211255/original/file-20180320-80657-aqobr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Changing the way things work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/273362396?src=Sqx7Aw6n2ejGjXCQaLvXNw-1-34&size=medium_jpg">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Skills and potential, not polish</h2>
<p>These employers are tackling this issue as they would any other business challenge: by formulating a systematic plan to change their recruitment and progression procedures to ensure that all of the brightest talents out there are given a chance.</p>
<p>For all of its recruitment, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/683398/moj-social-mobility-action-plan-summary.pdf">the MOJ</a> has recently moved from a competencies-based model focused on traditional markers of talent, such as university performance, to a strengths-based model that considers each individual’s skills and potential, rather than their academic polish. This has been accompanied by outreach activities targeting young people from schools in disadvantaged areas, and schemes to bring those from poorer backgrounds into summer schools and internships. </p>
<p>Mentoring within these programmes builds young people’s confidence and the mentoring continues within the MOJ, with new recruits from non-traditional backgrounds mentored throughout, helping their career progression. Apprenticeship schemes operate within the ministry so that people are able to move from operational roles into policy roles, breaking through ceilings that may otherwise hinder progression of those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.</p>
<p>Grant Thornton also changed its <a href="https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/en/news-centre/grant-thornton-number-one-employer-for-social-mobility/">recruitment practice</a> in 2012, removing minimum academic entry requirements and focusing instead on key skills and values. Before, it was all about Russell Group graduates. But the company now considers an applicant’s range of interests and experiences. Trainee recruitment includes bespoke help for the applicants, with mentors assisting throughout – a common theme among these opportunity employers. </p>
<p>Once applicants were in the system, Grant Thornton discovered that the information gleaned at the interview stage was a much better predictor of how people would perform in the firm – much more so than degree attainment or exam scores. Evaluation of performance in the job has also revealed that the recruits who come in without degrees and top exam grades perform just as well within the firm, and their assessed potential going forward is just as high.</p>
<p>It’s a similar story for Fujitsu. The company discovered that most elements in its recruitment process – such as telephone interviews, criteria related to work experience or UCAS points – were redundant. From 2015 on, many of its former recruitment metrics were ditched, including the requirement of a 2:1 degree or above. Instead, applicants are now presented with scenarios, in which current employees from a diverse range of backgrounds present real challenges to be solved. This assesses a candidate’s whole range of skills, not just their ability to take exams.</p>
<h2>Steps that work</h2>
<p>As a result of their changes, the MOJ, Grant Thornton and Fujitsu are all highly placed in the <a href="http://www.socialmobility.org.uk/index/">Social Mobility Employers Index</a>, a benchmarking tool constructed by the Social Mobility Foundation which ranks firms on the actions they are taking to ensure that they are recruiting and progressing talent from all backgrounds. There are some lessons from these top opportunity employers:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Use data to understand recruitment patterns and progression within work for people from different backgrounds.</p></li>
<li><p>Reach out to schools and colleges, not just universities, and particularly schools with more disadvantage.</p></li>
<li><p>Support those who can influence and help young people – parents, teachers, school leaders, careers advisors.</p></li>
<li><p>Mentor recruits from non-traditional backgrounds throughout recruitment and beyond, and help to provide the social capital and knowledge of the triggers for promotion and reward so that they progress within the job.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It has often been said that “talent is everywhere, opportunity is not”. Now it seems many employers are beginning to realise that there is value in changing their recruitment practices to extend opportunity to places it has previously been lacking. This is already good news for social mobility and as the best practice of these firms spreads, more employers can start to do for Britain’s mobility what prime ministers have been promising to do for years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Dickson is currently working on projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Department for Education. He has previously received funding from the the European Union, the Low Pay Commission and the Cabinet Office. </span></em></p>Education is not the only way to tackle social mobility, employers also have a key role to play.Matt Dickson, Reader in Public Policy, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886932018-01-02T20:51:03Z2018-01-02T20:51:03ZBias creeps into reference checks, so is it time to ditch them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/199383/original/file-20171215-17848-6xu1sn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows gender bias even invades in the content of recommendations.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Connie/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As much as we’d like to think we’ve refined the hiring process over the years to carefully select the best candidate for the job, bias still creeps in.</p>
<p>Candidates who come from privileged backgrounds are more able to source impressive, well-connected referrers and this perpetuates the cycle of privilege. While the referrer’s reputation and personal clout make up one aspect of the recommendation, what they actually say - the content - completes the picture. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Research: <a href="https://theconversation.com/unconscious-bias-is-keeping-women-out-of-senior-roles-but-we-can-get-around-it-73518">Unconscious bias is keeping women out of senior roles, but we can get around it</a></em></strong></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2819">Research shows</a> gender bias even invades in the content of recommendations. In this study female applicants for post-doctoral research positions in the field of geoscience were only half as likely as their male counterparts to receive excellent (as opposed to just good) endorsements from their referees. Since it’s unlikely that of the 1,200 recommendation letters analysed, female candidates were less excellent than the male candidates, it means something else is going on. </p>
<p>A result like this may be explained by the gender role conforming adjectives that are used to describe female versus male applicants. Women are more likely to be observed and described as “nurturing” and “helpful”, whereas men are attributed with stronger, more competence-based words like <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0016539">“confident” and “ambitious”</a>. This can, in turn, lead to stronger recommendations for male candidates. </p>
<p>Worryingly, in another study <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181659">similar patterns</a> emerged in the way black versus white, and female versus male, medical students were described in performance evaluations. These were used as input to select residents. </p>
<p>In both cases the members of minority groups were described using less impressive words (like “competent” versus “exceptional”), a pattern that was observed even after controlling for licensing examination scores, an objective measure of competence. </p>
<h2>Recommendations aren’t good predictors of performance</h2>
<p>Let’s put the concerns about bias aside for a moment while we examine an even bigger question: are recommendations actually helpful, valid indicators of future job performance or are they based on outdated traditions that we keep enforcing?</p>
<p>Even back in the 90s, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009102609302200106">researchers</a> were trying to alert hiring managers to the ineffectiveness of this as a tool, noting some major problems. </p>
<p>The first problem is leniency, referees are allowed to be chosen by the candidate and tend to be overly positive. The second is too little knowledge of the applicant, as referees are unlikely to see all aspects of a prospective employees’ work and personal character. </p>
<p>Reliability is another problem. It turns out there is higher agreement between two letters written by the same referee for different candidates, than there is for two letters (written by two different referees) for the same candidate! </p>
<p><a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-16993-001">There is evidence</a> that people behave in different ways when they are in different situations at work, which would reasonably lead to different recommendations from various referees. However, the fact that there is more consistency between what referees say about different candidates than between what different referees say about the same candidate remains a problem. </p>
<h2>The alternatives to the referee</h2>
<p>There are a few initiatives that are currently being used as alternatives to standard recruitment processes. One example is gamification – where candidates play spatial awareness or other job-relevant games to demonstrate their competence. For example, <a href="https://www.thinkincircles.com/deloitte-gamify-the-recruitment-process/">Deloitte</a> has teamed up with software developer, Arctic Shores, for a fresh take on recruitment in an attempt to move away from the more traditional methods of recruitment.</p>
<p>However, gamification is not without its flaws – these methods would certainly favour individuals who are more experienced with certain kinds of video games, and gamers are more likely <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/">to be male</a>. So it’s a bit of a catch-22 for recruiters who are introducing bias through a process designed to try to eliminate bias. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-do-you-think-you-are-the-problems-with-workplace-personality-tests-14164">Who do you think you are? The problems with workplace personality tests</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>If companies are serious about overcoming potential bias in recruitment and selection processes, they should consider addressing gender, racial, economic and other forms of inequality. One way to do this is through broadening the recruitment pool by making sure the language they use in position descriptions and jobs ads is more inclusive. Employers can indicate flexible work options are available and make the decision to choose the minority candidates when they are equally qualified as other candidates. </p>
<p>Another option is to increase the diversity of the selection committee to add some new perspectives to previously homogeneous committees. Diverse selectors are <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/elite-labs-hire-more-men-than-women-1.15483">more likely to speak up</a> about and consider the importance of hiring more diverse candidates. </p>
<p>Job seekers could even try running a letter of reference through software, such as <a href="https://textio.com/">Textio,</a> that reports gender bias in pieces of text and provides gender-neutral alternatives. But just as crucial is the need for human resources departments to start looking for more accurate mechanisms to evaluate candidates’ competencies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Wheeler has engaged in paid and pro-bono consulting and research relating to issues of social justice, applied ethics, and gender equality (e.g., Our Watch, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, National Association of Women in Operations). She is affiliated with the Centre for Ethical Leadership, which receives funding from several partner organisations, in the private and public sector, including from the Victorian Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victor Sojo does research with a number of partner organisations. Currently he is working with Cohealth, EACH, Eastern Community Legal Center, Monash City Council and Oxfam Australia. Victor is also a pro-bono consultant in the Victorian Government Recruit Smarter Initiative. Additionally, Victor is a member of VicHealth's Leading Thinkers Taskforce for behavioural insights & gender equality.</span></em></p>Even back in the 90s, researchers were trying to alert hiring managers to the ineffectiveness of this as a tool, noting some major problems.Melissa A. Wheeler, Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneVictor Sojo, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/735182017-03-07T19:24:46Z2017-03-07T19:24:46ZUnconscious bias is keeping women out of senior roles, but we can get around it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159083/original/image-20170302-14721-1n5g5dv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Good luck getting a job if you don’t share the same characteristics as the person hiring you.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people would not consciously decide to hire candidates based on whether they remind them of themselves. But one unconscious bias – affinity bias – may lead people to favour candidates who are like themselves, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/014466600164480/full">research shows</a>.</p>
<p>Affinity or similarity bias is where people seek out those who share their backgrounds, group membership, or experiences.</p>
<p>If hiring managers and boards of directors are made up of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/06/more-men-named-peter-at-the-helm-of-asx200-companies-than-women">mostly men</a> who unconsciously engage in such bias, it stands to reason that more men than women will continue to be hired and promoted – particularly men who share the same background with current managers. This only serves to perpetuate the cycle of men outnumbering women in leadership positions.</p>
<p>Gender targets, de-identifying CVs and structured interviews are but a few of the strategies that can help eliminate such bias in recruiting employees.</p>
<h2>Affinity bias and gender equality in leadership</h2>
<p>It is easier to take the perspective of someone who resembles your own demographic characteristics or past experiences than that of someone who has had a very different upbringing or set of experiences.</p>
<p>Imagine you are a doctor who worked tirelessly and at the expense of your social life to pay your own way through medical school. Now in a position to hire or promote a resident, you are likely to favour the candidates who also made their own way, and to justify your choice by saying the candidates were more qualified as evidenced by their work ethic.</p>
<p>In itself, the process described may not seem problematic. However, in many instances underrepresented groups may be unwittingly discriminated against in recruitment due to affinity bias.</p>
<p>Men <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/06/more-men-named-peter-at-the-helm-of-asx200-companies-than-women">hold the majority</a> of chief executive and chair positions of Australia’s top-200 publicly listed companies. There’s also a <a href="https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/20160801_Industry_occupational_segregation_factsheet.pdf">lack of gender parity</a> among key management personnel in mixed and male-dominated industries.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8551.12133/abstract">2015 study</a> found there was greater gender parity on academic journal editorial boards when the chief editor was high-performing, a younger professional and a woman (that is, 26% women on boards as compared to 16% under lower-performing and older male editors). </p>
<p>These findings are very promising. They suggest that younger professionals may be more used to working closely with female colleagues than older generations are. This leads them to be more likely to bypass the affinity bias, or even to see the female candidate as part of their in-group – regardless of gender.</p>
<p>That more women who get selected for editorial boards when a woman is editor, the more reach leadership positions. This means women will increasingly be appointed to positions that may have once been impeded by the glass ceiling. </p>
<p>This brings up the question of whether boards will eventually become female-dominated as a function of affinity bias by female leaders. It is certainly a possibility, if structural procedures and diversity strategies are not present and enforced.</p>
<p>Increasing gender parity at the highest levels matters. It is a way to break the cycle and provide visible role models to motivate other women to take on leadership positions. </p>
<h2>How to combat it</h2>
<p>Numerous strategies can be followed to tackle discrimination against women, and members of minority groups, as a result of affinity bias. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>implementing <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984315001514">gender targets</a> and quotas to increase gender equality in leadership</p></li>
<li><p>increasing awareness, which can mitigate the effects of affinity bias and other unconscious biases, through training and prompts to serve as reminders before panels meet to make hiring decisions</p></li>
<li><p>de-identifying CVs, or removing all demographic information in applicants’ resumes or other forms of submissions</p></li>
<li><p>designing and enforcing the use of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/peps.12052/abstract">structured interviews</a>, in which all applicants are asked the same set of interview questions. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Non-structured interviews are a hot spot for affinity bias. Candidates who are like their interviewers are asked to elaborate on tangential comments, increasing their chances of <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/50/2/267.abstract">ingratiating themselves</a>.</p>
<p>A lack of structure during an interview also means the interviewer can make their own personal interpretations of questions that are not even relevant to the job description. Therefore, having clear and standardised guidelines to record and interpret responses during an interview is crucial. </p>
<p>Several programs have been put in place around the world to reduce bias in recruitment. The office of the UK prime minister launched an initiative in 2015 to reduce bias through <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-time-to-end-discrimination-and-finish-the-fight-for-real-equality">“name-blind” recruitment</a>. Australia’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has piloted a <a href="https://www.dpmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/behavioural-economics/going-blind-see-more-clearly-unconscious-bias-australian-public-service-aps-shortlisting-processes">similar intervention</a>.</p>
<p>The Victorian state government has partnered with academics, industry and not-for-profit organisations to create the <a href="http://www.vic.gov.au/recruit-smarter.html">Recruit Smarter initiative</a>. This aims to develop and measure the outcomes of several strategies to increase diversity at the selection and recruitment stages. </p>
<p>The interventions are focused on both recruitment strategies – like de-gendering the language used in job ads to ensure they appeal to all candidates – and selection strategies, including de-identifying CVs to remove any unconscious bias in decision-making that may be susceptible to details about gender, ethnicity, or even postcode.</p>
<p>Fostering an inclusive and cohesive society depends heavily on providing opportunities and eliminating barriers for participation in employment and leadership to all – irrespective of their gender, disability status, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious interests, political affiliation, socioeconomic status, or postcode. </p>
<p>There’s enough evidence of the positive impact of reducing bias in employment and the different mechanisms we can use toward this end. It ought to be acted on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Centre for Ethical Leadership receives funding from several partner organisations, in the private and public sector, including from the Victorian Government for work on the Recruit Smarter initiative. Melissa Wheeler has also engaged in paid and pro-bono consulting and research relating to issues of social justice and gender equality (e.g., Our Watch, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, National Association of Women in Operations). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victor Sojo has provided pro-bono support to several not-for-profit organisations working in gender equality and prevention of violence against women (e.g., Women's Health East, Women's Health in the North, Women's Health West, Women's Health Grampians, Our Watch, CoHealth). Over the years, he has worked for research centres that receive funding from several partner organisations, in the private and public sector, to conduct research about issues related to gender equality and diversity management in occupational contexts.</span></em></p>There are many instances where underrepresented groups may be unwittingly discriminated against in recruitment due to affinity bias.Melissa A. Wheeler, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneVictor Sojo, Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/716222017-02-08T18:56:45Z2017-02-08T18:56:45ZHow to get quality teachers in disadvantaged schools – and keep them there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155592/original/image-20170206-18772-x94z63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Remote schools often struggle to recruit and retain great teachers. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Ellinghausen/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/educating-australia-35445">this series</a> we’ll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Quality teaching is one of the <a href="https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf">largest influences on student learning</a>. Yet, not all students have access to a great teacher. </p>
<p>As in other countries, some Australian schools are <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/education-workforce-schools/report/schools-workforce.pdf">harder to staff</a> than others. </p>
<p>Hard-to-staff schools are usually located in remote, rural or poor urban areas.
School and local facilities may not be as good in these schools as those in middle class urban schools, and students may have additional learning needs. </p>
<p>For these reasons, such schools are not as popular with teachers and often have high levels of staff turnover. </p>
<p>Students in these schools have <a href="https://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PISA-2012-Report.pdf">lower average achievement</a> than those in middle class urban schools. </p>
<p>Given that teachers have a huge impact on student learning, making sure students in hard-to-staff schools have quality teachers is vital. </p>
<p>To reduce the achievement gap, policymakers need to design staffing policies to attract and retain high-quality teachers in the schools that need them most.</p>
<h2>How can we support hard-to-staff schools?</h2>
<p>What policies are in place to attract and retain teachers and maximise quality in hard-to-staff schools?</p>
<p>Most government systems use a range of incentives to attract teachers into these schools; some have incentives to retain them. </p>
<p>Incentive schemes mostly focus on remote and rural schools. But some systems also offer inducements to teachers to take up a position or remain in hard-to-staff urban schools.</p>
<p>Many state school systems use transfer benefits, which allow teachers to transfer to a preferred location after a period of service in a less preferred setting. </p>
<p>Some systems give preference to teacher transfer applications according to the time teachers have served in a hard-to-staff school, potentially increasing teacher retention in those schools. </p>
<p>Systems often provide travel, housing and relocation benefits for teachers in remote schools. </p>
<p>Some systems provide leave for teachers in remote schools to travel to major centres for business, family or health reasons. Some provide extra pay to teachers in remote areas, immediate permanency, and targeted scholarships designed to attract quality people into teaching. </p>
<p>A condition of these scholarships is <a href="http://education.qld.gov.au/hr/recruitment/teaching/teach-ed-scholarships.html">accepting appointment</a> to a hard-to-staff school. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/careers/teaching/Pages/teachaus.aspx">Teach for Australia program</a> is supported by some systems to place high achievers in less attractive districts and schools.</p>
<p>Such policies have tended to emphasise attracting teachers into hard-to-staff schools, with less emphasis on keeping them there. </p>
<p>Benefits for teachers in remote schools mostly compensate for the extra costs and challenges involved, rather than acting as a serious incentive. Policy initiatives tend to target beginning teachers, who have the least experience to draw on in a demanding setting. </p>
<h2>What works?</h2>
<p><strong>Tailored courses to prepare teachers for these settings</strong></p>
<p>Hard-to-staff schools place additional demands on teachers - from isolation through to challenging student behaviour. Providing tailored courses that build the skills required to teach in these settings could increase retention. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.qut.edu.au/education/about/projects/national-exceptional-teaching-for-disadvantaged-schools">National Exceptional Teaching in Disadvantaged Schools program</a> is a good example. This program selects high-quality teacher trainees, and provides them with targeted coursework and practice placements in disadvantaged schools. 90% of these trainees go on to accept a teaching job in a disadvantaged school.</p>
<p><strong>Additional promotion positions</strong></p>
<p>Effective teachers are more likely to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10671-010-9085-2">seek out responsibility</a> and leadership roles. Providing extra opportunities in hard-to-staff schools may help attract and retain them. </p>
<p><strong>Increased professional learning opportunities</strong></p>
<p>Well-designed professional learning can improve the quality of teaching.</p>
<p>Specialised professional development opportunities, such as sponsored places in postgraduate courses, may help attract and retain effective staff. Online courses now make this easier.</p>
<p><strong>Recruiting quality principals</strong></p>
<p>Effective teachers value good school leadership and seek to move away from schools where this is lacking. Effective principals are also <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509688.pdf">better at identifying quality staff</a> and assisting teachers’ professional development.</p>
<p><strong>Reduce emphasis on school choice</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/EDUCATION%20POLICY%20OUTLOOK%20AUSTRALIA_EN.pdf">Research shows</a> that school competition and choice policies increase inequity in systems. Over the last 20 years in Australia, we have seen <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/aje/vol54/iss1/6/">an increased concentration of more advantaged students</a> in some schools, and less advantaged students in others, as more advantaged parents seek to surround their children with high-achieving peers. This can make poorer schools even less attractive to teachers, and, as a consequence, harder to staff.</p>
<h2>What policies should systems avoid?</h2>
<p><strong>Prescriptive curriculum</strong></p>
<p>In some overseas settings, schools with low achievement (which are more likely to be hard-to-staff) may be given very prescriptive curricula, such as <a href="http://www.successforall.org/our-approach/classroom-programs/reading-roots/">Success for All</a>. These are used to “teacher-proof” instruction. Policies like this are likely to drive out those teachers most able to improve student learning. </p>
<p><strong>Pay benefits</strong></p>
<p>Simply adding a <a href="http://educationnext.org/an-effective-teacher-in-every-classroom/">pay loading</a> for challenging schools means that ineffective teachers may be just as likely to be attracted as effective teachers.</p>
<p>Ensuring that students in these settings have equitable access to effective teachers is a critical challenge for Australian principals and policymakers. </p>
<p>Quality teachers provide benefits for those students who depend the most on school for positive life outcomes. Improving their learning helps us become a more equitable and cohesive society.</p>
<hr>
<p>• <em>The authors explore this theme further in a new book called <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/items/165663">Educating Australia: Challenges for the Decade Ahead</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne Rice receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Watt receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Richardson receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Redesigning staffing policies will attract and retain high-quality teachers in the schools that need them most.Suzanne Rice, Senior Lecturer, Education Policy and Leadership, The University of MelbourneHelen Watt, Professor, Monash UniversityPaul Richardson, Professor of Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/666702016-10-16T19:07:21Z2016-10-16T19:07:21ZWe need to rethink recruitment for men in primary schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141731/original/image-20161014-3938-1epjxrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We are experiencing a proportional decline of men in Australian primary schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across Australia there is a shortage of male teachers, particularly in primary schools, where men make up just <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&table%2051a%20in-school%20staff%20(fte),%202001-2015.xls&4221.0&Data%20Cubes&CB19DF51A1B8CCA7CA257F6A000FEAA1&0&2015&03.03.2016&Latest">19%</a> of the full-time workforce nationwide. </p>
<p>While in universities, incentives are offered to women to redress gender imbalance in certain subject areas like science, technology, engineering and maths, the law doesn’t allow for the same incentives to be offered to men. </p>
<p>Although the number of male primary school teachers in Australia is not declining – the number of full time male primary teachers in Australia has remained fairly constant over the last 25 years – the number of female primary teachers has increased dramatically, causing a proportional decline of men.</p>
<p>We know why men are <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/male-teachers-rare-breed-but-still-sought-after-20151030-gkmpp0.html">reluctant</a> to enter the teaching profession – with <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13598660500286176">low salary, status and the perception</a> that teaching young children is better suited to women being chief among these reasons. So why can’t we do anything about it?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140986/original/image-20161009-21447-j9pwp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Full time primary school teachers in all Australian schools by gender.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1991-2015.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The gender imbalance in Australian primary schools is stronger in some areas than others; differing between states and territories and between the public and private sector.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140987/original/image-20161009-21433-1clkniy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Full time primary school teachers in all Australian schools by gender, state and territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The scholarship scandal</h2>
<p>In 2004 the federal government announced <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1100485.htm">A$1 million</a> in scholarships for men studying to become primary school teachers. To date, not a single scholarship has been funded. So why can’t Australia deliver?</p>
<p>Tertiary scholarships have been used successfully in Australia to encourage female students to study traditionally male-dominated subjects, like <a href="https://www.engineering.unsw.edu.au/study-with-us/scholarships/women-in-engineering-scholarship-opportunities">engineering</a> and <a href="https://www.officeforwomen.sa.gov.au/womens-policy/womens-employment-and-economic-status/women-in-stem/scholarships">mathematics</a>. </p>
<p>These scholarships were created to eliminate discrimination against women in male-dominated professions.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, offering male-only scholarships is unlawful. These male-only scholarships would breach the 1984 Sex Discrimination Act – unless, that is, the act is amended or an exemption applied.</p>
<p>A bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act and allow scholarships for men studying primary education has previously been introduced and rejected three times. The reason being that “there was <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd0304/04bd110">insufficient evidence</a> that the gender imbalance was adversely affecting children”.</p>
<p>While this is true in an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411920701532202">academic</a> sense, we know little about effects on children’s experience of schooling more broadly.</p>
<p>Girls, for example, have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540253.2013.796342">expressed anxiety</a> about transitioning to high school because they are unsure of how to relate to male teachers. As one year six girl explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you have a male teacher you have to get used to being around a male person besides someone from your family. You can’t just be around female teachers and then not be around male teachers because I wouldn’t then know how to act or to speak to them because they’re male.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022440512000027">Recent evidence</a> finds that while female primary teachers form closer relationships with girls, male primary teachers form similarly close <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X14000396">relationships</a> with boys and girls.</p>
<h2>Can we target jobs to men?</h2>
<p>Targeting employment opportunities to men or women is OK in particular circumstances. </p>
<p>Exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act allow employers to discriminate on the grounds of sex if, for example, duties include fitting or searching clothing, or entering a lavatory while it is in use by a person of that sex.</p>
<p>In Western Australia, the <a href="http://det.wa.edu.au/careers/detcms/navigation/choose-teaching/males-in-primary/">Males in Primary</a> program was started to raise awareness of primary teaching as a suitable career for young men. The program includes a short <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soi3VcMWibw">video</a> that high school principals were encouraged to share with male students. </p>
<p>Despite visiting hundreds of schools to promote the program, education minister Peter Collier admitted that he is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-19/wa-government-still-failing-to-attract-male-teachers/7524052">frustrated</a> that more young men aren’t becoming teachers, stating that it was not surprising when young men can earn more money driving mining trucks.</p>
<h2>Advertising women-only jobs</h2>
<p>Recently, an Australian university received heavy criticism when they advertised:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will only consider applications from suitably qualified female candidates. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The position was for a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-18/melbourne-university-opens-up-jobs-to-women-applicants-only/7426704">lecturer in mathematics and statistics</a>, where only 30% of associate lecturers were female.</p>
<p>This same statement appeared again last week, when another university announced five ongoing <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/swinburne-uni-seeks-women-for-stem-fellowships/news-story/80e3b0de5a09cbd257989f0ba86d429b">research fellowship positions</a> for female candidates in STEM disciplines, <a href="https://www.seek.com.au/job/32025304">stating</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While women comprise almost half of the nation’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) PhD graduates, less than 20% of senior academics in STEM disciplines at Australian universities are women.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It appears that these universities are using the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act - state legislation - to bypass national sex discrimination legislation and target employment opportunities to women.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that we will see schools targeting employment to men any time soon as doing so may prevent the best candidate for the job being considered. After all, the <a href="http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/559">quality</a> of teaching is far more important than the gender of a teacher. </p>
<h2>Should schools have more male teachers?</h2>
<p>It is true that having more male teachers would not necessarily improve students’ academic outcomes. But this isn’t about academic outcomes at all, it’s about workplace diversity and socialisation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540253.2013.796342">Recent research</a> tells us that primary school students and their parents want more male teachers. The reasons they give are social, not academic. </p>
<p>Boys <a href="http://www.parenthub.com.au/news/kids-news/male-primary-school-teachers/">and girls</a> want to understand how to interact with men. They want teachers that they can relate to, and they want teachers they can confide in.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/placing-a-cap-on-teaching-degrees-doesnt-guarantee-better-teachers-66272">diversity</a> of our teachers should reflect the diversity of society and that of the student population. </p>
<p>Education is not “women’s work”, but it sure seems that way if you’re seven years old.</p>
<h2>How to recruit more male teachers</h2>
<p><strong>1. Realistic goals</strong></p>
<p>Change takes time and needs direction. We need to know where we are and where we’re going. Setting realistic goals to increase the proportion of male teachers in schools is a start.</p>
<p><strong>2. Incentives</strong></p>
<p>Telling men that primary school students need role models or father figures are hardly incentives. </p>
<p>If scholarships are used to attract women into male-dominated professions, then it makes sense that education providers be allowed to use scholarships to attract men into female-dominated professions too. </p>
<p>Incentives for men to stay in the profession are less concerning. Those men who do enter teaching tend to have a longer average <a href="https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/about-us/statistics-and-research/key-statistics-and-reports/workforce-plan-4-school-teachers.pdf">career duration</a> than women.</p>
<p><strong>3. Improve the status of the profession</strong></p>
<p>It is difficult to target recruitment when teaching is regarded as one of the most <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-raise-status-of-teaching-australia-needs-to-lift-pay-and-cut-teacher-numbers-63518">undervalued and underpaid professions</a>. If we want more male teachers, this needs to change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin F. McGrath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We have scholarships specifically targeted at women to redress the gender imbalance in STEM subjects. So why can’t we do the same for men in primary education?Kevin F. McGrath, Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.