Job applications that ask what your sexual orientation is!!!

[Geri]

I had to fill in an application form once and they asked me if I had regular periods.

 

[cesare]

If people dont want to be accused of discrimination surely it is best that they dont ask at all. If it turns out that a compnay don't employ any gays, lesbians, racila minorities whatever the maybe it was because they didnt make the grade. If the employer was unaware of the sexual orientation how can they be discrimating?

Going back to the OP I would suspect that non -heterosexuality would be an advantage in an arts position!

Having an effective method of monitoring the equal opportunities policy (of which recruitment and selection procedures form part) is one factor needed for an employer to show that it had taken all reasonable steps to prevent unlawful discrimination.

 

[bi0boy]

Going back to the OP I would suspect that non -heterosexuality would be an advantage in an arts position!

Yeah like being a woman would be an advantage in a cleaning job

They are supposed to be monitor forms to indicate potential discrimination. I would have thought in arts theyre wouldn't be problems towards non-heterosexuals.

Yes that's right, no one who works in an art type environment can be homophobic.

 

[Wookey]

If people dont want to be accused of discrimination surely it is best that they dont ask at all. If it turns out that a compnay don't employ any gays, lesbians, racila minorities whatever the maybe it was because they didnt make the grade. If the employer was unaware of the sexual orientation how can they be discrimating?

Many gay and lesbian people are openly and happily gay and lesbian, and live and work openly as gay and lesbian people, and are sacked for doing so. That's why orientation monitoring is so important.

My employer is fully aware of my orientation, and I've never been asked about it.

 

[scifisam]

Wow - here is is illegal to ask what gender you are.

It's illegal here to ask that sort of thing on the application form itself too - this is a separate form.

 

[zippyRN]

equal opps montiorig dorms are not part of the application

'best practice' applicatio nforms are i nthree parts

1. personal details
2. qualifications, work hisotory, additional info/ personal statement
3. equal opps monitoring form

all three parts go to HR

hr sends part 2 on to the appointing manager who short lists from the part 2 's , part 1s for the shortlist are sent for and peopel invited to interview

part 3 never leaves HR

 

[fuBganger]

The last application I filled in there was the option to 'rather not say' on sexual orientation, which was fine really. The bit that got me was the 'are you from the Protestant or Roman Catholic or Other tradition' (this is a standard equal opps question here in Northern Ireland ) with the small print informing you that if you did not answer, conclusions would be drawn from 'other personal information.' As a person from neither tradition, I'm a little alarmed that I do not have the option to not answer if I don't want assumptions to be made on where I went to school or my name. I know it has no bearing on my job application but surely it's a bit of a strange way of compiling statistics - they could have a good argument for putting me in either the Protestant or Catholic box, depending what they looked at.

 

[equationgirl]

I had to fill in an application form once and they asked me if I had regular periods.

Why on earth would they want to know that?

 

[CRI]

I work in a very small organisation but we still manage to separate out the equal ops monitoring form from the application. If someone requests a printed application, they are also given a separate envelope for the Equal Ops form and these aren't even opened until after the selection is made. More people now apply by email but the equal ops form is a separate document and the administrator prints and files the form and it's not looked at until after the appointment is made.

It's true that the administrator could "sneak a peak," but they could also do that and find out about the person's sickness record, disability or other informtion that they might not want the whole office to be party to. However, there will always be some staff who will have access to things like payroll and other stuff that has to be kept confidential.

Of course applicants don't have to answer all the questions on the form or return the form at all and it will make no difference to their application. Actually, we remove the name and all personal details from forms until shortlisting is complete. Okay, you may be able to tell gender and age from other info on the form, but at least those factors can less blatantly influence the shortlisting.

Employers are really damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't collect data, they will have no idea whether they are genuinely promoting equality of opportunity or not, if they are indirectly discriminating against this or that group or not. If they do collect it, taking all possible steps to maintain confidentiality, they will still be accused of using the info for sinister reasons. Aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh.

 

[ethel]

The last application I filled in there was the option to 'rather not say' on sexual orientation, which was fine really. The bit that got me was the 'are you from the Protestant or Roman Catholic or Other tradition' (this is a standard equal opps question here in Northern Ireland ) with the small print informing you that if you did not answer, conclusions would be drawn from 'other personal information.' As a person from neither tradition, I'm a little alarmed that I do not have the option to not answer if I don't want assumptions to be made on where I went to school or my name. I know it has no bearing on my job application but surely it's a bit of a strange way of compiling statistics - they could have a good argument for putting me in either the Protestant or Catholic box, depending what they looked at.

use the neither box i'm nominally protestant but i always tick neither. don't know why though.