Recruitment & Data Protection Act

[VGkK]

Hello!

A is an established professional in A's sector with solid academic credentials (Master's from top UK university) and relevant experience. A is white but does not have an English-sounding name. Lately, A has been applying for jobs A is more than qualified for, but mostly received rejections. A wonders what on earth is going on: Is A dealing with inept recruiters? Is competition that fierce that A's applications are not worth a response or is something more sinister at play, e.g. discrimination or blacklisting?

A would like to dig deeper in order to find out what is going on. A wonders whether A is able to use the Data Protection Act in order to access files recruiters keep on A.

Does anyone have experience with using the DPA creatively in the recruitment process? For example, does it make sense to make a DPA access request immediately after a rejection in order to salvage the application by going directly to top management in case of recruiter incompetence?

Thank you!

[R0b]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

Have you tried to asking for feedback? do you get rejected at the outset or is this after you have had an interview?

A SAR is just like any other SAR you make and so you make a request in the usual way with the appropriate amount, you may need to specify what exactly you are looking for though.

[VGkK]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

A is mostly interested in instances of rejections based on A's CV alone. A is of course asking for feedback, yet A is interested not in what companies communicate to A, but what is being communicated internally.

A knows about the mechanics of making an SAR and is interested in how to use the DPA to get past HR in order to still secure the job. Has anyone succeeded in getting a job by "appealing" the case to the board of the company in case of HR incompetence and having made in SAR?

[R0b]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

I have never been aware of anyone appealing their application to a board of directors because of HR incompetence. How does A know that the HR team are incompetent?

A will no doubt be aware that companies will conduct their selection criteria in a number of ways; whether that's one person making a decision, or multiple people having a round table discussion etc. So it is difficult to know what is being communicated internally as there may not always be discussions in writing, especially if its done electronically and it is just a one click accept/reject which generates an automated response.

I don't think you can "use" the DPA to get past HR, all you can do really is make a SAR and see what comes up, if there's anything possibly discriminatory then you may have some leverage but that's about it. But you can't force a company to employ someone if the relationship isn't mutual.

[VGkK]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

You have a rather romantic view of the workings of HR! The evaluations done by HR are indeed supposed to be objective. However, in line with the downsizing and cost cutting we have seen over the past 15 years, in most large organisations, the decision who gets interviewed is (in first instance) made by an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) system such as Taleo and not even an HR Assistant, i.e. a human being. Even in those cases where a human being does review the CV in first instance, this is typically a 20-year old girl with "star nail paint design" and a generally limited outlook.

How does A know that HR have been incompetent? Well, assume that the SAR response shows that HR rejected A due to lack of experience when in fact A has plenty relevant experience with a competitor. All that needs to happen is for the ATS system to read the start and end dates of a job incorrectly. I would strongly suggest that top management would typically like to interview such a person, be it just for intelligence purposes!

[R0b]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

Well, just my experience from job hunting that's all if A feels there is merit in sending a letter to a director or board of directors outlining that HR are incompetent in recruitment suitably qualified people then go for it. I myself however, were to receive rejection after rejection, would go back to the drawing board and tweak my CV accordingly.


When you say that A is rejected due to a lack of experience and it is down to the ATS system to read the start/end dates incorrectly I have just a curious question. You make your application, there is an option to upload your CV in which the ATS system attempts to read your start/end dates and puts it in the order it think it should do onto the system. Surely it is down to the applicant to ensure that the ATS system has got this correct and if not, manually amend the start/end dates to show that the applicant has a lot more experience that the system anticipated before submitting the application. So would this not be more of a user error than an ATS system error? Or are you implying that the ATS system is flawed?

Sure, the ATS system will be specifically tailored to the company's selection criteria such as keywords, relevant experience and anything else that the company is looking for. So even if you pass on the experience part you may fail on the keyword selection - which of course is quite common when the applicant sends a one size fits all CV to all companies.

Maybe I do have a romantic view of the inner workings of HR?

[VGkK]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

Maybe I do have a romantic view of the inner workings of HR?

Yes, I think so!

It is also worth keeping in mind that a lot of companies have not updated their ATS for more than 10 years and that these systems were then even more primitive than today's versions. To illustrate this, one could trick the earlier ATS versions by adding the text of the actual job description (a couple of times) to the CV. The ATS would then detect a near perfect match and move the application to the top of the pile! :tape:

And yes, I do believe that ATS are flawed. As a matter of fact, they are an insult to qualified job seekers and represent rotten value for all but the largest of employers. For investment banks an ATS can make sense given the relentless stream of unemployed graduates looking to become investment bankers. In other less competitive fields, ATS only deliver value on paper.

[R0b]

Re: Recruitment & Data Protection Act

To illustrate this, one could trick the earlier ATS versions by adding the text of the actual job description (a couple of times) to the CV. The ATS would then detect a near perfect match and move the application to the top of the pile! :tape:

There I think lies the answer to your problem! business will make decisions for whatever reason and if there is a cheaper and faster way of doing things, then it is likely they will pursue that option, as I'm sure you'll appreciate, the purpose of a business is to make money.

So, the answer then is to play the game, and then you may pass the necessary hurdles to at least have a sniff at getting the job. We can all argue that decisions of organisations are crap or not the best way of going about things, but there's no changing that - you just have to come up of a way to work around that problem.


But going back to your main point, send of a SAR and try the luck with writing to the board and see how far it gets!