BME candidates discriminated against by recruitment agencies

Equality campaigners are claiming that employment recruiters would rather hire white job candidates than those from Black or Asian communities.

According to a report commissioned by the Race for Opportunity (RfO), 29 per cent of BME candidates were offered a job through recruitment agencies compared with 44 per cent of white applicants. The results also showed that 29 per cent of both white and BME job candidates were offered jobs when applying to companies directly.

The results were based on the experience of more than 2,500 job applicants over the past 12 months.

Sandra Kerr, director of Race for Opportunity, has been quoted as saying that race is a factor in the decision-making process, be it unconsciously or otherwise, at some recruitment agencies.

"“It is clear that invites to interview and job offers are disproportionately skewed towards white applicants when going through recruitment agencies,” she said.

But not everyone agrees that there is a bias at recruitment agencies in favouring white applicants over BME candidates.

Tom Hadley, of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, which represents 6000 recruiters, said other factors such as experience could influence hirers’ decisions.

He said,

"The role of recruitment agencies is to match candidates to roles on the basis of their skills, experience and suitability for the job, with the employer making the final decision on who to pre-select for interview and who to offer the job to. There is absolutely no reason for recruiters to do anything other than put together the best possible short-list. Of course, there is always more that can be done to champion and improve diversity. This is something the REC and the Institute of Recruitment Professionals (IRP) will continue to drive through research, qualifications and training."

What do you think? Is there a bias against BME applicants when it comes to applying for jobs?