What is positive discrimination in recruitment?
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A group captain of the Royal Air Force (RAF) has resigned as head of their recruitment team following an alleged order to ‘prioritise women and ethnic minorities over white men’ to meet diversity targets.
In an email, reported on by Sky News, the senior officer said:
“I am not prepared to delegate or abdicate the responsibility of actioning that order to my staff,”
She resigned later that day.
In a statement to Sky News, an RAF spokesperson strongly refuted the claims:
"There is no pause in Royal Air Force recruitment and no new policy with regards to meeting in-year recruitment requirements,"
"Royal Air Force commanders will not shy away from the challenges we face building a service that attracts and recruits talent from every part of the UK workforce.
"As with the Royal Navy and British Army, we are doing everything we can to encourage recruiting from under-represented groups and ensure we have a diverse workforce.
"The Royal Air Force has a well-earned reputation for operational excellence that is founded on the quality of all our people. We will always seek to recruit the best talent available to us".
According to Sky News, a minister stated on Friday that any evidence of potential positive discrimination, which is unlawful, will be investigated.
Positive Discrimination
Positive discrimination is defined as ‘Treating one person more favourably than another because they have a protected characteristic. It is generally prohibited under the Equality Act 2010, unless an occupational requirement applies’.
These protected characteristics are as follows:
Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race (including ethnic or national origins, colour and nationality)
Religion or belief (including lack of belief)
Sex
Sexual orientation
Positive discrimination is unlawful in the UK.
What does positive discrimination look like?
A common example of positive discrimination is as follows.
There are two people applying for a job role. One of the individuals applying is better suited for the role than the other. But the recruiting organisation choose to hire the less suited person as they have a protected characteristic, which would boost diversity in their business.
Positive Discrimination vs Positive Action
Positive action is when organisations put things in place to encourage the recruitment of underrepresented groups.
According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, 6 ways an organisation can take positive action are:
Placing job adverts to target particular groups, to increase the number of applicants from that group
Including statements in job adverts to encourage applications from under-represented groups, such as ‘we welcome female applicants’
Offering training or internships to help certain groups get opportunities or progress at work
Offering shadowing or mentoring to groups with particular needs
Hosting an open day specifically for under-represented groups to encourage them to get into a particular field
Favouring the job candidate from an under-represented group, where two candidates are ‘as qualified as’ each other
Taking these actions can make your organisation significantly more accessible to underrepresented groups. However, it’s important that the rest of the recruitment process is exactly the same for all applicants.
If underrepresented groups receive any kind of preferential treatment throughout the recruitment process, this is when positive action can become positive discrimination.
For more advice on how to make sure your recruiting appropriately, check out the Equality and Human Rights Commission website here.