When Did Positive Discrimination Become Accepted?

I've seen many changes in attitudes over my career such as the way we approach hiring to become more tolerant and accepting. I remember educating clients in the early noughties that they couldn't ask for a female just because they wanted somebody nice to look at or because it was more of a 'females' role. Thankfully its been many years since I've dealt with such attitudes and we have become more tolerant and accepting of people from all walks of life no matter the sex, sexual orientation, race, creed, colour or origin.

I have noticed a pattern recently; everybody is talking about 'Diversity'. When a workforce achieves diversity by bringing a diverse group of people together with a common goal, it encourages closer adhesion and greater productivity. It is so refreshing to think we are pushing boundaries in the UK world of work and leading the way to a fairer and tolerant society for the rest of the world to be in awe of our achievements. Yet, at the same time we still have so far to go...

Employers need to consider a fair, diverse range of peoples for selection from all walks of life, however they can't and shouldn't request a sex or person from a specific background to perform a job. The problem I've seen is that we are no longer just looking for the best candidate. We are positively discriminating by either; trying to find a woman to balance the team, a member of the LGBT community because we don't have enough of them in the business, we need someone from a non red-brick university to represent a wider demographic, the list is endless.

To avoid positive discrimination and hire a diverse workforce the answer is simple. Include a proportionate representation of all backgrounds and sexes during your shortlist and let the hirer select the best candidate for the job based on skills and competence during the interviews. Don't positively discriminate candidates in the latter stages of the process by focusing on diversity over and above the best person for the job.