To think this is of no relevance and could lead to discrimination

[bagpuss90]

My DD was invited for a second interview last week with an insurance company - she already works as an underwriter. She finds out tomorrow if she’s got the job. One of the questions was asking what myself and her dad do for a living .AIBU to think this is of no relevance and could lead to discrimination? I don’t actually think it’s any of their business either . Just for the record- her dad works in IT and I’m a former nurse now a trainer . If we were a cpl of jailbirds - well she’s hardly going to say is she ? Also I think it’s a bit of a red flag for the potential employer .

It's the opposite to what you think - they also now look at social background as part of diversity eg did you go to uni, were you on free school meals, what did your parents do

CCSS15
okay….

Genuinely interested to hear that it is a thing now

It’s fairly normal where I work to ask these - it’s part of diversity.

Just worries me that it could lead to stereotyping and discrimination

You don't have to answer.

I never do.

It's a normal question for most companies- I dont think it will lead to discrimination. It is to ensure they employ from all social backgrounds. Its the exact opposite as PP said

They do the same in our place. We had optional surveys asking what our parents did, whether we had free school meals etc, so they could measure whether they were doing enough to encourage social mobility. We have a work page, where there are regularly stories from staff in high positions explaining how they got there from growing up on a council estate.

Massively patronising in my opinion, unless you’re in a place that has traditionally been an old boy’s network and the plebs have been kept out, but I suppose their hearts are in the right places.

It seems like an odd question to me because often it's hard to draw conclusions about salary from job title alone anyway.

It's a fair enough question to ask so as to monitor social mobility in your company. That said, they don't need to ask at interview stage, and providing the information should be optional.

Yes, it's a thing where I work but via anonymous survey & as said by pp it's to do with diversity etc

It’s the same as all the ED&I questions which also could lead to that if used incorrectly. I’m assuming this was part of the written part of the application process, rather than in interview? If it was just a question at interview then that’s really odd.
but if you google “social mobility questions”, your parents occupation is one of the 4 questions which help determine it.
Employers are asking it for two reasons - to ensure no discrimination in the hiring process, and then to measure if people from a low socio economic background are less able to progress their careers in a company.

Labour are also talking about making it a protected characteristic so you’re likely to see it being asked a lot more going forward.

“My father was a toolmaker and my mother was a nurse in the NHS” would have been the correct answer.

Presumably this was on the equality monitoring form.

It's not relevant to whether she can do the job; it is very relevant to allowing the company to monitor whether it is recruiting employees from a wide range of backgrounds, or not.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63316e3ee90e0711d7fbfb7d/The-building-blocks-an-employers-guide-to-improving-social-mobility-in-the-workplace.pdf assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63316e3ee90e0711d7fbfb7d/The-building-blocks-an-employers-guide-to-improving-social-mobility-in-the-workplace.pdf]]]]

It just helps with diversity monitoring & policies

Its for monitoring purposes, the information will be stored without identifying individuals.

Wow. So much for being judged on merits and how well you can do the job. I say this as the child of a state benefit dependant single mother (father absent & abroad) who would have been mortified to be selected because someone thought my background was of equal importance to my qualifications. What happened to blind hiring?

Once again, you don't have to answer. They day they force you to, will be the day you can visit me in gaol.

It’s supposed to stop things like unconscious bias towards middle class white men.

And I’m sure it’s nothing at all to do with them being able to say ‘look at how truly diverse we are. We’ve let the women, people of colour and the poor people have a go. We are to be congratulated!’

Was she asked at interview (bad), or was it a separate diversity monitoring form (good)?

It's diveristy monitoring. There is an increasing awareness that social class is as significant as other characteristics like sex and race in terms of access to certain professions and opportunities in the workplace.

It is hard to assess class so parent's occupation and education and where you were educated are used as a proxy. The answers are kept confidential and not given to those assessing for the role.

Also you don't have to complete it.

If it’s on one of those monitoring forms, she can tick the box for prefer not to answer. To be honest, if the answers are IT and nurse trainer, I definitely wouldn’t answer because they could be seen as too middle class and could therefore be a disadvantage to her.

But (we are told) the answers aren't used in selection.

Quite aside from the fact that you have to buy into the whole philosophy of what they say they are doing (using parents occupations as a proxy for "class", what that is when it's at home), there's also the fact it's forcing you to define yourself in someone elses terms. And anyone who wants to try that with me will be told I don't do that.

Will she be subject to any criminal record checks for the role?

That has nothing to do with DEI.