Changes in how firms select candidates can transform workforces | Letters
Ed Sketch responds to an article on resistance to inclusive hiring policiesRegarding your article on HR and diversity (One in three HR leaders face opposition to inclusion schemes, study finds,...
By Guardian Staff · The Guardian Opinion
Ed Sketch responds to an article on resistance to inclusive hiring policies Regarding your article on HR and diversity ( One in three HR leaders face opposition to inclusion schemes, study finds, 3 May ), I was director of HR for the European sales division of Ford in the 1980s. I was concerned that our graduate hiring in the UK for the sales division was overwhelmingly white males and we were not satisfied with how we selected them. Rather than embark on a diversity initiative as such, we decided to work to improve our selection process on the assumption that the talent we were looking for was evenly distributed by gender and race. We spent time defining what the sales department wanted in its hiring by interviewing the more successful hires about their job and their performance. From that we devised a selection process to find such ability in our future hires. Continue reading...