L03 Recruitment Methods

There are many ways in which employers recruit potential employees. Few of the methods are inherently discriminatory. However, results and a review of why they occur are necessary for that finding. Because of that possibility, employers should use multiple recruitment outlets to lessen the potential exclusionary effects of one method. Let’s look at a few situations to contemplate in this context:

• An advertisement in the town flier for a community that is predominantly Caucasian is not inherently discriminatory. It is likely to result in a recruitment pool that is mostly Caucasian. The recruitment effort should include a method that reaches a more diverse group. If that is not done, reliance on the local town flier could be considered an attempt to exclude minorities, though there may be circumstances that limit an employer’s efforts to attract a diverse pool of applicants.
• An advertisement for RNs, which is unlikely to attract many male applicants as 87.7% are female.  Like the previous example, this is not intentionally discriminatory, though it results in a predominantly female recruitment pool.  The nature of this trend is not due to discriminatory practices, but rather the nature of a field like nursing, which tends to contain more females to begin with.
• Other professions where there is limited representation for some ethnic groups, such as neurosurgeons and attorneys, and others where one gender is dominant, such as plumbers and engineers.

In this lesson, we will consider statistics and their use in cases alleging discrimination. An excuse that seldom works goes along the lines of “we tried – but they just aren’t out there.” While there are situations where that is true, with others, the problem is a lack of targeted or multiple recruiting methods. There are a variety of recruitment methods available, such as:

• Want Ads and Job Announcements
• Employment Agencies
• Nepotism and Word-of-Mouth Recruiting
• Enlisting Day Labors

Let’s first review want ads and job announcements as a recruitment method used by employers.