We won`t hire you due to your name :-(
There was a great article in DN today about Claudia Antwi-Adjei Hedegaard and her struggle with getting to interview due to her name. Now she is part of the management team at Aker Energy. ??
The debate about companies in Norway hiring/ not hiring people with a foreign name is a "hot topic". We read and hear stories from foreigners, and Norwegians with foreign name about how they experience discrimination due to their name. It is sad to experience discrimination of this nature in 2019, and absolutely time for those companies discriminating to “grow up” and realise what world we live in.
Not only is it bad for those effected but it is also incredible damaging for your company employer brand (Our clients Employer Brand if you are a recruitment company) and for the future success / failure of the company.
So why should you open your eyes and “wake up”?
Well, perhaps it is time to look at the benefits of having cultural diversity with the business:
- Better and broader spectre of competence to choose from.
- Better prerequisite to make the company an international success.
- Better prerequisite of securing a broader range of customers.
- Better chance of also securing the best Norwegian talent from Generation Z (They like international environments and want to work in a company with cultural diversity)
- Better work environment, thus ensuring higher chance of retaining staff.
My questions to companies that are part of the statistic of discriminating: Do you really want high calibre candidates go a miss because of their name? Do you really want human beings to change their name due to your ignorance? Are you willing to jeopardise the company`s future success based on ignorance? Do you want to damage peoples career prospects simply due to them being called a name in which you are not familiar with?
Let`s remember that some of the largest corporations in Norway such as Telenor, Equinor, Statkraf, Nordea and DNB all have employees from often 20 + different nationalities. If they can do it, then so can everyone else.
Cultural diversity is the backbone of a healthy and profitable organisation. It is well on time that we realise this.
Finally, this also goes for companies within the recruitment industry. Perhaps discrimination is even more significant here in comparison to companies that hire direct. If you use a recruitment agency, then don’t let them get away with it.
Service Manager Lysprodukter og V?pen sivilt marked.
5 年Til det kjedsommelige. Jeg er helt enig i det denne artikkelen omhandler men tror fortsatt det er en ting til som diskrimineres ifm jobbs?knader og det er alder. Dette tror jeg er mer utbredt blant rekrutterere.
Director of Organisational Development
5 年Thank you for writing this article Erik.?Diversity is so important to the success of a business. As a foreigner living in Norway (and loving living here), I have heard this story so many times, and experienced it myself when job hunting. This is such an important topic, and sometimes as a foreigner, I feel that I should not, or am not 'allowed' to comment on this topic. There are so many highly qualified, capable people here who are wanting to work, have learned the language, attempted to integrate and build a network, but to no success. It also shocks me the amount of age discrimination that takes place and that many recruiters openly ask about a candidate's age, when it is a prohibited ground under discrimination laws.? I am also proud to say that I work for a company which has people from more than 50 countries working in Norway :-)
Senior Contracts Engineer
5 年Quite amazing and shocking that the Norwegian companies pay attention to the names and not the qualification?
"Make it work" and then "Make it work better". I am good at testing, debugging and getting solutions to work. New unknown technology is a challenge, not an obstacle.
5 年Det trenges kunnskap til ? gj?re jobben. Det ? passe godt inn i kollektivet er ogs? viktig. Men ellers vil bedriftene bare tape hvis de ikke vil ha den som er best egnet til jobben.
Research Manager and Senior Research Scientist in SINTEF’s Trustworthy Green IoT Software Group | ex-Entrepreuneur | Ph.D. (INRIA)
5 年Looks like history is not part of the Norwegian school curriculum. We need a civil rights movement all over again.