A third of employees think they have faced discrimination when applying for a job due to their age or favouritism towards other candidates in the same firm, research has revealed.
Workers in the north of England were the most likely to suffer from favouritism, or other candidates better fitting a company’s ‘personality’, according to a survey of 2,000 adults by the Employers Forum on Age.
Chief Executive, Denise Keating, said: “Whilst age is the biggest discriminator in the workplace, it is important not to overlook other biases, such as favouritism or gender.
“There seems to be a very high instance of people being selected for a new job or promotion if their face fits, which unfortunately means some people feel that talent isn’t enough to overcome prejudices.
“Whilst many companies have solid diversity policies, this may not run throughout the company down to individual team level, which is an issue that needs to be addressed.”
Copyright © Press Association 2011
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“This does not seem to take in to account the person who has it all on paper but would not work in the team. having interviewed for an HCA post recently we came up against someone who on paper had it all but was awful at interview I would not have let her anywhere near a patient and feel she would have made a lot of trouble in the team. Equally we took an outside candidate when our senior administrator retired because she was the best person for hte job though our internal applicant would definitely have worked in the team because she was already in the team. It can be very difficult. I would urge everyone to keep very full records of their actions and to standardise questions etc between interviews protect your back” – Name and address withheld
