Is it okay to query job rejection under disability scheme

[DCapplicant]

apologies posting here for traffic.
I have ASD and applied to a junior role with a public sector regulatory body who is part of the disability confident scheme. Not civil service.
This is their words from job ad:

“Minimum
We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Prior experience of payments, financial services or policy making
• Prior experience in a role which has involved teamwork and collaboration with others.”

I applied under the scheme (ticked box on their form) as someone who has experience in all of the above criteria, mentioned on my CV / application.

I also exceeded the minimum criteria for applying under the disability confident scheme and met the more general criteria too.
Don’t want to out myself but I work within Payments for a central bank which operates very similarly to the company hiring who rejected me. I can’t think of a more similar company than my own to this company I got rejected from.

Usually I would never query a job rejection from the first stage even if I meet all requirements but it’s only as I applied under the disability confident scheme and work for such a similar company, with similar background.

Even if it’s a case of them getting swamped with applicants, I can’t imagine that many others were applying under the disability confident scheme who also had such a similar background.

I have also applied twice previously to this company under their disability confident scheme and was rejected then too (similar story of meeting minimum requirements but not getting past first stage), but at those times I just thought never mind, better luck next time.

Now being rejected three times in a row when applying under disability confident scheme is really gutting. What else can I do? I don’t understand when I’ve met the min requirements and shown on my CV.
Sounds bit crazy but can I query what they’re looking for as their job ads all have a HR contact email.

I have also had my CV checked by professionals in my industry, the same CV has had me shortlisted for other roles in this industry when I met less of the requirements.

It could just be the sheer number of applicants. If you think it’s likely that they had 500 applicants, that’s a crazy number. Is it for one post? They may have had to be very tough on criteria/past experience to whittle it down to a reasonable number.

We have recently had a lot of ChatGPT applications, and those go straight in the bin but the time wasted wading through them is incredible. Maybe after hours of reading similar shite someone slipped up when it came to yours. We had 180 applications for a recent post and easily half had been written by A.I. It made it hard to focus on the good applications. Also our system has a very small icon to indicate disability and it’s very easy to miss!

I work for the public sector and honestly, we get emails asking about our policies all the time.

They won't blacklist you, plus you're not really asking after a first stage rejection, you're asking for a clearer explanation of their policy, which is fair enough.

This is unlikely. You may not have been a good fit for one role but fine for another. And also, in public sector recruitment, they don’t see your name until you’ve been selected, so they would be unlikely to spot that it was the same person.

I would definitely ask. I’m a public sector recruiter (on a fairly regular basis) and am clear that if the applicant meets the bar on sifting we have to offer them an interview. But our IT system is really unfriendly and I can imagine some people might miss the option being ticked for the guaranteed interview option.

Other departments are likely to use the same system, so worth checking they’ve not missed it.

I would query it. I occasionally recruit for my team of staff and it's down to me to tick a small box on one of several e-pages to ensure a candidate is marked under this scheme. It's the sort of thing someone could easily miss.

If you're worried about sounding 'pushy' rather than just pleasantly confident, you could ask for feedback, stating that you thought your previous experience and skills along with your disability confident status would have resulted in an interview, so please could you have some feedback so you can learn how you did not present yourself in a way to show you met to w essential criteria. That way you come across as proactive while the person reading it will be prompted to check.

Did she actually meet the minimum criteria as per their scoring? In the Cs, this usually means scoring 4 across all competencies, and people not using the scheme maybe needing to score higher. i have rejected quite a few people who applied using the scheme because they scored 3 or less on some of the competencies. Just saying you have done X often isn't enough.

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar sorry no idea how many applicants they received. 500 was a random exaggerated guess from me. I don’t use chatgpt for applications, and for the first stage with this company it’s simply a case of creating an account, filling all your details and then uploading a CV. It doesn’t ask any motivational questions or anything.

Although I applied for an internal role at same ‘grade/scale’ with my own company which is very similar to theirs, and in the same city. I did get to the final stage for the internal role but ultimately didn’t get it, but when the hiring manager kindly gave feedback they had mentioned receiving around 150 applicants.

@DaniMontyRae “Just saying you have done X often isn't enough”
thank you for your post, and apologies I sound really stupid but I don’t understand how else applicants can prove they’ve done XYZ in stage one of an application. I don’t understand how their judging works in first stage. It didn’t give me a chance to provide a cover letter or answer motivational questions, to expand on in detail or give STAR examples for how I meet requirements.

instead, I just accurately input details and tailored my CV so it read very easily and shows to a stranger how my job and experience meets minimum requirement. I’m not sure what else can do to get through first stage

Oh sorry, I misread, thought you'd had an interview but not progressed. In that case email them, it might have been missed. Did you definitely make the closing date?

Can I ask why you would respond without knowing anything about the scheme the OP is referring to?

Unless I've misunderstood the post, the OP was rejected at the first round ie did not receive an interview despite being guaranteed one under the scheme, providing she met the minimum criteria.

OP, I've had exactly the same experience with a public sector body, which leads me to believe the whole thing is absolute bullshit - the disabled equivalent of greenwashing. Nice PR for the organisation, lovely logo etc and absolutely fuck all benefit for the disabled applicant. If anything, it's harmful - all these schemes to help and I still can get a job, it really must be me. I've spent decades being an eternal optimist but for me, the Disability Confident scheme has exposed these initiatives for what they are.

Also it’s interesting to hear that this department used CVs still. We have competency based applications which you can use the STAR based examples. Makes it easier to score objectively.

I think people here are giving you a bit of a hard time tbh. Unless the applicant numbers were stratospheric, I think based on their own criteria you should have been taken through to the next round. I would definitely query it, or ask for feedback given that you applied under the DC scheme. They shouldn't shout about how inclusive they are if they aren't actually going to respect the guidelines.

@DCapplicant they probably had applicants with better experience than you. no one can expect an interview just because they fit the criteria and can do the job!

OP definitely ask. A lot of the initial sift is often done by HR temps who have no clue.

But also, the wording you pasted says nothing about a guaranteed interview for applications that do meet the criteria. It says those that best meet it.

Sometimes it's an admin error but also sometimes they've already got someone in mind. In the latter case you could get offered an interview but you won't be getting the job. Do you want to waste your time?

If you've applied 3 times and haven't got in you might need to consider networking etc.

@allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld you may be right, it may simply come down to this. However just to clarify I don’t expect an interview just because I meet the criteria when applying normally, it’s only as this company mentioned having the DC scheme and have now rejected me three times. Also, even if there were lots of other DC applicants, I (perhaps naively) thought I’d still be an ‘above average’ applicant out of the DC applicant pool because my company is so similar to this one.

I mean you can expect that when that is literally what they’re saying they do.

THEY CAN, that is Exactly what the Disability confident scheme is - a guaranteed interview if you meet the minimum essential criteria.

Why on earth are people relying without reading and understating the OP's post. It's embarrassing.

It’s not though. Because that is not practical a lot of the time. See the example I gave above.

You can give whatever example you like. The advert I applied for under the Disability Confident Scheme guaranteed an interview to any disabled candidate who met the minimum criteria. I exceeded that criteria by a considerable margin and was not offered an interview. The OP has had a similar experience. What you believe to be practical is irrelevant.

What is interesting is why you think it is acceptable for employers to waste our time and raise expectations with false promises? Why you're making excuses for this? Is our time worth less, or is it that you don't believe what your being told because it hasn't happened to you?

Would you prefer disabled people to claim benefits? I'm at the stage where I'm not bothered either way. No-one wants to employ me despite being highly qualified and having considerable experience and I don't qualify for benefits. What sort of society are you advocating?

I don’t think they have had an interview though, seems they aren’t keeping to the disability confident scheme - similar happened to my sister and it was a government department that rejected her after she ticked the disability box and met the minimum criteria

Ah, I see - I missed that bit. But perhaps it would be better to not have an interview for a job you probably wouldn't have been offered anyway. If they'd been interested in your CV, they would have called you for an interview.

I do think feedback would be good though ie "thank you for applying. we've decided not to waste your time by calling you for interview as we don't feel you have as much experience in xxx as some of the other candidates"

Do you actually meet the criteria for the scheme with asd?

I'm in completely different sector (not public sector) which is very open to employing people with neurodiversity & people with asd are actually over represented in the company. Theres a similar disability confident scheme but it does not include applicants where the only disability is asd. (Also dyslexia)

Read my post about the 100+ eligible DC candidates on one of our recent roles.

as it happens, I could tick the DC box myself and am not eligible for benefits either.

fact is few companies could afford to interview 200 candidates, so while the intention is good, the practivalities don’t work.

I’ve spent 20+ years in HR trying to improve things for people with disabilities.

Do you actually meet the criteria for the scheme with asd?

Yes, it is generally considered a disability under the Equality Act.

Interesting that your scheme doesn’t. Wonder how they legally get around that.

And dyslexia. Which is far more that struggling to read.

What exactly did the application require OP?

Was it just a CV/work history or did it also require a personal statement and/or competency based questions?

If it is the latter, and that is part of the scoring matrix at the essential criteria level, it may be where you are dipping below the interview bar.

However if it is just a CV/work history as the initial application then either they’ve messed up or they could be viewing your CV as not demonstrating the essential criteria. (Have you had someone check over your CV to make sure you’re not hiding your light under a bush? - I’m terrible for this!)

One other element to check is any nationality or clearance requirements - some jobs need you to have X numbers of years residency, again this is essential criteria (although often at the bottom of the advert and not in the essential criteria list) and if you don’t meet it you may be being excluded on that basis.

The above are just some thoughts and I’m not trying to blame you for getting rejected in anyway OP. It’s utterly frustrating and i definitely think it is worth sending an email asking for some clarity around their application of scheme and asking for your application to be reviewed if you feel comfortable asking for that.

Good luck!