A study by the management company Kronos has found that many employers still consider the ‘ideal worker’ to be a young, unattached, male employee, and that men are two times more desirable as workers than women. This comes as a bit of a surprise, considering all the talk surrounding the benefits of employing a diverse workforce. In today’s workplace, gender bias is becoming more and more outdated, so companies that are still discriminating are hurting themselves in the long run.
Companies that show preference to this ‘ideal worker’ are missing out on a wealth of potential employees that would be happy with reentering the work force. A diverse workforce is at an advantage, because it offers a wider skill set and a larger range of experience levels. And this survey shows that diversity doesn’t just mean employing different races: it means employing all genders at many age levels. Focus on the ‘ideal worker’ is, as Nareen Young puts it, “So damaging.”
Luckily, this discriminatory attitude is held by small sector of employers, rather than the general community. But even so, these employers aren’t going to thrive in the future if their focus of employment is so narrow.
Read the full article discussing the survey here.
Published by Conselium Executive Search, the global leader in compliance search.
