Online recruitment sites 'not accessible'

Posted by Cath Everett in Recruitment on Tue, 01/03/2011 - 09:24


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UK recruitment agencies must take urgent action to improve the accessibility of their web sites, an equality and diversity specialist has warned.

 

 
The report entitled ‘Recruitment Equality – Accessibility, Equality and Diversity on Recruitment Websites’ revealed that 97% of web sites from both large and small providers failed to provide equality and diversity information in their application and recruitment procedures or frequently asked questions sections.
 
A further 54% provided no accessibility functions for disabled people or offered any equality or diversity information at all, while 25% made a one-sided effort, providing either accessibility features or equality and diversity information but not both.
 
The study was written by equality and diversity specialist Anne Tynan, after analysing a cross-section of 300 such sites over a three month period.
 
She said that she decided to undertake the research following outrage among some members of the HR and recruitment community about comments made by entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne after the Equality Act came into force on 1 October last year. He claimed that the Act was “so pedantic” that it would damage “honest employers trying to get on with the job of running the country’s businesses and boosting its economy”.
 
But Tynan said: “I was already aware that the recruitment industry was perhaps not the shining example of promoting Equality & Diversity that some clearly liked to think. The phrase ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’ came to my mind.”
 
While it was all very well professing support for the Equality Act and to, therefore, be upset if someone demonstrated ignorance of it, “I am inclined to think that you are no better than your target of criticism if you have still not put your own recruitment house in Equality and Diversity order,” she added.

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Editor's Note - May 10

Had a busy week with two days at the Responsible Business Summit in London. What struck me was the appetite for sustainability in the corporate world. I spoke to senior figures from multinationals who knew wholeheartedly that businesses in the future would not succeed if the society around them failed.

Much of this appetite was understandably focused on collaboration - the future of sustainability. Words that were previously indicative of success - power, might, scale, size - are no longer enough in the open source, peer-reviewed future where opponents will not simply grumble and moan and then leave you in peace. Companies must work with governments, NGOs, charities and social enterprises as a matter of course. And even competitors, where necessary.

Facilitating this collaboration is the big challenge of the next five years. Highly-strung and ego-centric companies, feverish with the need to protect their brand, will struggle the most, but it's either adapt or die.

The business/charity relationship is one of the most interesting focal points. Business power can drive positive social change in so many ways but charities are the key holders to communities. As businesses are expected more and more to play a stake in the future, charity partnerships should be top of the corporate priority list. Businesses that don't work closely with a charity will find themselves with reputational problems.

There's a lot more to CSR, of course, but collaboration is the bedding on which CSR will rest. Businesses can no longer find the answers to all their problems in their own resources and assets.

And for many that's a scary thought.

Any thoughts, thoughts or questions, drop me a line on editor@hrzone.co.uk.

Best wishes

Jamie

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