On Sat, 30 Oct 1999, Indigo Nights wrote:
> On Saturday, October 9, I took a course at UCL wherein a recruiter was
present. The recruiter is responsible to find staffing for academic and
nonprofit jobs.
>According to that person, recruiters (headhunters) do use posted resumes.
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I've been following this debate with both interest and growing
bewilderment, though not from any of the points of view that have emerged
from the North American side so far!
In Europe, and especially in Britain, the impression is that the USA is at
least 20 years ahead of us in terms of "fair employment" practices: e.g.
equality of opportunity, affirmative action, recruitment and promotion
procedures etc. - and indeed international comparative research supports
this impression.
However, recruitment in response to an unsolicited letter of application,
phone call, visit, or by selecting a posted resume, would be regarded as
utterly unacceptable and a grave breach of fair employment principles. It
could potentially lead to legal action on the grounds of indirect gender,
racial, ethnic, or disability discrimination, (religious descrimination
also in Northern Ireland, though the religious discrimination in
employment law does not apply in England, Scotland or Wales at the
moment).
Complete "transparency" of process at all stages is demanded by most
legally enforcible Equal Opportunities Policies and internal Codes of
Practice - including amongst other things offering all new recruitment
employment opportunities publicly, and notifying all internal promotion
opportunities at least internally. I can't even re-engage a temporary
Research Assistant whose short-term contract finished just a few weeks
earlier for my next project without both external and internal
advertising.
This would not, of course, prevent you from copying an advertisement to
those known to be interested in that sort of job. When I was director of
a large arts & museums service we kept a special file with the names and
addresses of people wanting to be notified of vacancies in their area of
work, but they still had to apply formally through the normal channels.)
Indeed, since 1996 it has even been compulsory in the UK to advertise
publicly completely UNPAID Trustee positions and for other Board or
committee members of publicly financed bodies, including the national
museums and galleries and both national and regional level Arts or Museums
Councils, tourist boards, heritage councils etc. (Note the starting date:
these additional measures were introduced before the change of government
in 1997.)
In all this we THINK we are following the splendid lead of United States
law and practice as it evolved in response to the equal rights concerns
and legal rulings etc. of up to 40 years ago! Is it just private sector
museums and other small non-profit organisations that feel they are not
bound by such principles, and can therefore recruit by "word-of-mouth" or
in response to approaches, or has equity and transparency in human
resources management practice collapsed generally in the USA?
Patrick J. Boylan
(Professor of Heritage Policy and Management)
City University, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB, UK;
phone: +44-171-477.8750, fax:+44-171-477.8887;
Home: "The Deepings", Gun Lane, Knebworth, Herts. SG3 6BJ, UK;
phone & fax: +44-1438-812.658;
E-mail: [log in to unmask]; Web site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/
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