Pros and cons of removing applicant’s personal information prior to the screening and short
listing of applicants for employment
Identify the pros and cons of removing personal information, such as age, gender, ethnic origin, and
family or marital circumstances, prior to the screening and short listing of applicants for employment. Take
a position for either removing or retaining such information.
The following conditions must meet in the essay:
1) I want a typical and a quality answer which should have about 1400 words.
2) The answer must raise appropriate critical questions.
3) The answer must include examples from experience or the web with references from relevant
examples from real companies.
4) Do include all your references, as per the Harvard Referencing System,
5) Please don�t use Wikipedia web site.
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 2
Introduction
Theories on human capital have documented individuals with their skills collection,
abilities, experience and competence in a underlining such for objectiveness of the company that
is employing as being significant in the organization’s success as well as being a contributing
factor to the gaining a competitive edge by the company (Armstrong, 2010; 55). A pre-
employment employee background check has become an issue of necessity. A large number of
employees are making claims that are not true in their resumes and job applications in attempts
to secure jobs or cover up prior poor conduct. Statistics shows that more than 40 per cent of all
back ground checks that are processed routinely have been exhibiting certain form of
discrepancy. Everybody has a coverup story that would comprise their phony and falsified
credentials if given a chance. There are also the negative side of conducting employee
background checks to both the company and employee especially in terms of money and costs.
However, the process of recruitment is plagued by a manifold of complications that the
recruitment team will have to tackle in regard to who will be recruited as well as the general
manner to carry out the recruitment process (Armstrong, 2010; p. 60). This paper addresses the
issue in an approach that seeks to increase the understanding in terms of the pros and cons of
removing personal information prior to the screening and short listing of applicants for
employment.
Pros and cons of removing applicant’s personal information prior to the screening and
short listing of applicants for employment. The underlying concern is, why conduct background
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 3
checks? There are numerous benefits of comprehensively conducting employee background
screening before short listing them for employment including: the increase in the new applicants
hire quality; reduced violence at the workplace, reduction in hiring liability negligence, reduced
amounts of losses as a result of dishonesty of employees, conducting the right hire in just the first
exercise, an avoiding negative public image for the organization. In the general analysis,
conducting employee checks before employment enables the organization to realize more
success; this implies higher profits for profit-motivated organizations, and a higher impact for the
organizations that are not in operation for financial gain (Corell, Benard and Paik, 2007; 1335).
The cons of removing employment background checks are however entwined in
decreasing the primary expenditures on money as well as time. The poorly or cheaply conducted
background checks are seen as a waste of both money and time because essentially they may be
worse than not having conducted such background checks in the first place. Such checks offer
the organizations with false security sense because it may not necessarily follow state legal and
federal requirements. Because these checks finance themselves, they are objective on the part of
the employers and the employees (Firth, 2011; p. 270).
Pros
Even apart from citing research as the reference source of for suggesting the inclusion of
prior employment background check, the possibly or the completely eliminated rings of
discrimination as the major reason for removing of personal and background information in very
crucial before the shortlisting and hence the recruitment exercise. There have been results that
have been documented from many field research experiments in diverse countries in order to
investigate discrimination on the basis of interest to equality in regards to authority, ethnicity or
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 4
national, the applicant’s gender, the status of their families, age, and disability (Petit, 2007; p.
380). All these researches and findings underline the same point that removal of personal
information before conducting recruitment and shortlisting in employment exercises will ensure
that the process of recruitment practices equality, which implies that the wide range of
employees will be treated with the same considerations on grounds that are fair. The result is that
the best employee will be recruited for the job regardless of their ethnicity, social status, and
other factors that originally would have resulted to cases of stereotyping in the process of
recruitment. Therefore besides saving the organization from spending in terms of time and
money, it ensures equality in the process of recruitment for all the applicants in the recruitment
process (Petit, 2007; p. 380).
For instance in the advent of globalization, The Coca-Cola Company has realized that it
is easier to ignore the identities and lives of their employers because they can still carry on
freshly with the job responsibilities in their present places of residence or even different living
states or countries. Although they rely on the available data to always link up the employees to
their backgrounds, Coca-Cola mostly ignore, the futile, petty information that they should dig up
and rely mostly on the information given by the employee in the application exercise (Corell,
Benard and Paik, 2007; p. 1330).
Cons
Various researchers (like Duggan and Croy 2004, p. 26; Armstrong, 2006; p. 57) have
documented that it is not really about how the recruitment process of the applicants but more on
who the recruitment process selects in terms comprehensive employee qualities. The basic idea
that is being underlined by these researchers is that it is crucial to make sure that the applicants
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 5
satisfy the correct mental, physical, and psychological requirements. For example, various jobs
suite one gender more than the other – like women will be better midwives because they
comprehend more on the issues concerning labor in this position, when men are more in a better
position to perform physical duties that require physical strength like drilling, driving trucks, and
the military among others. Additionally, the influence of the job is influenced by culture as well
as how such jobs are performed. For example, in Australia, men are not allowed to deal in female
lingerie business (Carlsson and Rooth, 2007; 724). Therefore, the removal of personal
information for applicants prior to shortlisting and recruitment can potentially lead to hiring the
wrong employees. It is crucial to understand where the applicant comes from; physical
environment, gender of the kind of application, as well as other factors that are crucial towards
understanding whether or not the applicant can perform the job requirements, whereby removing
their personal information will make it impossible for the employer to determine all the qualities,
which constitutes a con.
There are instances of companies that have faced litigation for their failure to conduct
pre-employment background checks. At one time, Wall-Mart was once surrounded by a lawsuit
due to negligence. Consequently, Wall-Mart have had to revise the policy of the company and
now are performing background checks stringently on all their employees before short listing
and recruitment (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004; p. 18).
Taking a position for either removing or retaining such information
On the basis of the discussion I have conducted, my opinion is the personal information
of the applicants should be retained prior to short listing and recruitment. Bertrand and
Mullainathan (2004; p. 20) established that there should be care to be taken in job nature to make
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 6
sure that the right employees are recruited. This should the main focus for the recruiters since the
recruitment of the right employee is central to the company functions. This is a basic focus for
any employer because the recruitment of the wrong employee can have such incompetence
issues as duty incompetence, poor delivery or lack of potential to meet the targeted production,
and the potential of making losses due to expenses incurred in the delivery course (Bendick,
Brown and Wall, 2009; p. 15).
As highlighted by my personal experience, the National Youth Service Corporation
(NYSC) in Kenya mentions that applicants should have undertaken this exercise to completion
for them to legally qualify for work positions in top positions in private companies and in
government ministries, whereby an age limit is attached as 18 years for employment and the
retirement age as 55 years. Thus if a company like Coca-Cola Kenya removes the personal
information requirement for applicants, it might ultimately recruit the wrong employers, which is
a violation of corporate laws (Arrijn, Feld an Nayer, 2008; p. 110).
Conclusion
Based on my discussion, it is conclusive that while the removal of personal information
for applicants does have negative effects in terms of money, time, and discrimination, it is
noteworthy that such action will result to elimination of the chances that the employer will
recruit the right employee and abide by corporate regulations (Arrijn, Feld an Nayer, 2008).
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 7
References
Armstrong, M., 2010. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. Great
Britain: Cambridge University.
Arrijn, P., S. Feld and A. Nayer, 2008. “Discrimination in Access to Employment on Grounds of
Foreign Origin: the Case of Belgium”, ILO International Migration Papers 23E, Geneva:
International Labour Organisation.
Bendick, Jnr. M., L. Brown and K. Wall, 2009. “No Foot in the Door: an Experimental Study of
Employment Discrimination against Older Workers”, Journal of Aging and Social Policy,
Vol. 10, pp. 5-23.
Bertrand, M. and S. Mullainathan, 2004. “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha
and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination”, The American
Economic Review, Vol. 94, No. 4, pp. 991-1013.
Carlsson, M. and D.-O. Rooth, 2007. “Evidence of Ethnic Discrimination in the Swedish Labor
Market Using Experimental Data” in Labour Economics, Vol. 14, pp. 716-729.
Corell, S.J., S. Benard and I. Paik, 2007. “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?”,
American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 112, No. 5, pp.1297-1338.
Duggan, B. & Croy G., (2004). “Should you outsource recruitment?” Emerald Management
Review, Supply Management (UK) Vol. 09, No.20. Pg 26-27.
Firth, M., 2011. “Racial Discrimination in the British Labor Market”, Industrial and Labor
Relations Review, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 265-272.
PROS AND CONS OF REMOVING APPLICANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION PRIOR
TO THE SCREENING AND SHORT LISTING OF APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT 8
Petit, P., 2007. “The Effects of Age and Family Constraints on Gender Hiring Discrimination: A
Field Experiment in the French Financial Sector”, Labour Economics, Vol.14, Issue 3,
pp. 371-391.
