Difference a hurdle for NZ job-seekers

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Older people, those with non-New Zealand accents, people from a different culture or disabled job-seekers are most likely to face discrimination.

The Equal Employment Opportunities Trust, which conducted a survey of 243 human resources and recruitment consultants, says results suggest there is less diversity and talent in the workforce than there could be.

It wants those involved in employing staff to check whether they are missing out on the potential of the country's labour pool.

The survey followed a report last year on Sri Lankan immigrants. They have the highest levels of tertiary qualifications in the country, yet 47 per cent said they had faced discrimination in finding a job.

The survey backed up the experiences of the Sri Lankans.

The new report, Recruiting Talent, says the most common discrimination was by clients who thought the applicant would not "fit in."

Stereotyped views, clients wanting a younger employee and clients specifying the kind of person they wanted rather than relying on evidence of merit were also common.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed had felt compromised or embarrassed by an applicant's experience in trying to get a job.

One consultant said some employers felt that if they hired an older person they risked their never leaving. Another said many would consider applicants with a foreign accent or name only as a last resort.

And another said the discrimination often came from a lack of cultural awareness, or because employers did not think about the value of difference.

The trust's executive director, Trudie McNaughton, said the consequences of discrimination were increasingly serious for workplaces. "Older workers, for example, bring enormous experience to a workplace and there is no correlation between increasing age and decreasing performance."

People with disabilities were often overlooked, but research showed they were reliable, cost no more to employ, had an excellent safety record and caused no increase in compensation costs or time lost to injuries.

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