To feel uncomfortable about diversity questionnaires in job applications?

[Keke94LND]

So I am currently applying for jobs, and most if not all of the applications begin with a 'diversity questionnaire' in fairness these questionnaires are voluntary so you can just put 'prefer not to say' for every question, but it feels like a sneaky way for employers to gather private information about applicants? the questions are, what is your age, what is your sex, what gender do you identify as, what is your sexuality, what race are you, where were you born, are you disabled, do you have a neurodiverse condition, did you get free school meals, did your parents go to uni, what occupation was the highest earner in your family growing up etc etc etc .. whilst I understand these questions are so that employers can measure how diverse their applicants or employees are, it feels like a trick? Surely the employers then end up with all this personal information and can then make either a conscious or unconscious assumption/decision about candidates?

Nope, in my experience the actual recruiting managers don't see any of that info (if anything they are actively shielded from info that could bias), and that data just gets guzzled into HR stats to help an organisation see how they're doing and where they can improve.

Afraid I think you're being paranoid.

The way it should work is that the diversity forms go to a central diversity team, not the recruiting team, and are used to do basic analysis of what proportion of people from different backgrounds etc are successful/unsuccessful. So it shouldn't have an impact though I understand it does feel weird - I can say that as a recruiter I have never seen diversity forms and they play no part in decision making.

In every hiring process I've ever been involved in the diversity questionnaire is completely separate to the main application and never gets seen by the hiring panel. It's absolutely your right to 'prefer not to say' to everything, but if you're only ever attracting straight white privately educated men with no caring responsibilities to your organisation, being aware of this is quite important as it suggests something about your recruitment process, job specifications or the perception of your company needs to change.

Fundamental to change for the better is understanding where you are today. It’s the only way organisations can understand who they are attracting as applicants and therefore what do they need to do to change that if it’s not giving them to diversity they want. As others have said, the recruiting manager doesn’t see that information.