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Original poster

Are all HR questionnaires this bonkers these days?

57 replies

NoCloudsAllowed · 17/01/2024 10:03

These were my options for gender and sexual orientation on a job application the other day. Is this typical?! It's been a while since I was job hunting.

Are all HR questionnaires this bonkers these days?
OP posts:
PaterPower · 17/01/2024 12:09

NoCloudsAllowed · 17/01/2024 11:34

They do it so that they can check diversity of workforce, maybe flag up if someone recruits 500 people and not a single one is anything other than straight and white - there might be a problem.

I’d be very surprised if anyone in HR is actually monitoring that data though. IMO it’s a mix of virtue signalling and tick-box compliance, which comes at the expense of applicant privacy.

Even if it was being monitored, the average SMB employer, and many larger national orgs too, aren’t going to be recruiting enough staff annually to generate a statistically meaningful dataset to ‘prove’ bias. Unless they have a horrific churn / turnover rate.

In which case, the problem probably runs a bit deeper than whether Doris in accounts identifies as ‘omnisexual.’

menopausalmare · 17/01/2024 11:36

Honestly, I would answer 'none of your business'.

Original poster
NoCloudsAllowed · 17/01/2024 11:34

They do it so that they can check diversity of workforce, maybe flag up if someone recruits 500 people and not a single one is anything other than straight and white - there might be a problem.

OP posts:
Precipice · 17/01/2024 11:32

PaterPower · 17/01/2024 11:01

I assume this is a US application? I would love to see the justification behind asking job applicants their sexual orientation in the UK or EU.

How could they make that fit with GDPR principles around only collecting and retaining data that’s relevant to the service being provided?

Loads of places ask sexual orientation in the UK... it does under 'equality monitoring'. Universities ask this of all staff and all students at every registration. You can choose 'prefer not to say', but you're still forced to select something. I think it's an inappropriate question about a private non-work related matter, but they are allowed to and do ask it.

Original poster
NoCloudsAllowed · 17/01/2024 11:32

Nope, UK. It's standard to ask about sexual orientation, it's kept confidential and only seen by HR so as not to impact recruitment (in theory at least)

I'm used to being asked these questions, just not to having about 15 gender identity options to choose from!

OP posts:
PaterPower · 17/01/2024 11:01

I assume this is a US application? I would love to see the justification behind asking job applicants their sexual orientation in the UK or EU.

How could they make that fit with GDPR principles around only collecting and retaining data that’s relevant to the service being provided?

ArabellaScott · 17/01/2024 10:33

Certainly not something I've ever seen.