Thanks Naseem for this.  This concurs with my personal observation in
particular in relation to accessibility issues. This has implications
for students as well as staff. Even reasonably easy things to do like
providing alternatives to pdf documents i.e word or rtf is  uncommon and
those who need them in a different format are expected to ring and ask
for information which takes time to be reformatted and sent out and not
always in the format requested!. So in addition to not having an equal
service at source, additional barriers are created in that disabled
candidates have less time to apply for jobs and this is not always
considered. Some organisations (including our sector) also bring closing
deadlines forward once they have received a certain number of
applications (or state once they've received a specified number of
applications no more will be considered). This is yet another barrier
for those who need a bit more time due to their access needs or other
reasons. In terms of promoting good practice can we start by influencing
our HR departments to make the sector's recruitment websites including
the information downloadable more accessible. Would value your thoughts
on this bearing in mind that there is some really good practice in some
institutions.

Kind Regards

Anne  

-----Original Message-----
From: HE Administrators equal opportunities list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Naseem Anwar
Sent: 24 February 2011 18:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 97% of recruitment websites provide no Equality or Diversity
information

Colleagues

Fyi

Regards

Naseem

--------------------------
97% of recruitment websites provide no Equality or Diversity information

The UK recruitment industry needs to take urgent action to improve
recruitment websites to make them accessible and welcoming for all
users.

This is the main finding of a report published recently, aimed at
provoking the recruitment industry into 'getting its Equality Act
together'.

'Recruitment Equality - Accessibility, Equality and Diversity on
Recruitment Websites' is the outcome of a study by Anne Tynan, an HR
Equality & Diversity specialist. Over a three-month period, Anne
screened a cross-sectoral selection of 300 recruitment websites and
analysed the results.

Several of the report's findings suffice to set the scene:

*54% of websites offered no Accessibility features for disabled people
and provided no Equality or Diversity information
*97% of websites - remember that these are recruitment websites -
provided no Equality or Diversity information within their Application &
Recruitment procedures or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
*'Recruitment Equality' provides an insight into the recruitment
industry's standpoint on equality issues. To say that there is room for
improvement could possibly prove to be one of the greatest
understatements of 2011.

A PDF copy of the report can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/64aaf3w

A Word version can also be viewed online, kindly hosted by Diversity
Jobs, at http://www.diversityjobs.co.uk/diversityjobs/


*****************************************************************************************
To view the terms under which this email is distributed, please go to http://www.hull.ac.uk/legal/email_disclaimer.html
*****************************************************************************************