Does Linkedin facilitate discriminatory hiring?

When I started working in the mid-1990s, we sometimes received resumes from young people in Europe (mostly women from France) who were attending an international school, and wanted to work for us as part of their int’l work experience requirement. I remember being surprised that each resume included a colour photo of the applicant, and thinking that this would never fly in Canada, as the photo could be used to discriminate on colour or simple physical attractiveness.

Move ahead to 2013, and today we mirror the French applicants of the 1990s. In my role in business I often receive requests for networking and job info via Linkedin. And on Linkedin, the first thing you see is the colour photo of the sender. Isn’t this opening up opportunities for unfair hiring practices based on the appearance of the applicant?

Of course, appearance bias can still be acted upon once the interview happens. This hasn’t changed.

I don't know about that. Aside from obvious skin colour, names can have just as large an influence. I have a friend who's family is from Lebanon. Him and his family have white skin and they all look and speak like much of the caucasian, 2nd generation Canadians I know. For my friend, his outward appearance has never been a problem for finding employment - it is his name that gets discriminated against.

I feel like Linkedin has a lot of good and a lot of bad points worth discussing, but in a society like ours I would hope that racism and employment discrimination is on the decline.

someMidTowner said:

For my friend, his outward appearance has never been a problem for finding employment - it is his name that gets discriminated against.

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Reminds me of http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/weekinreview/06Luo.html?_r=0

I don't know if LinkedIn facilitates discriminatory hiring practices per se. This is something that needs to be looked at from a higher level as discrimination based on appearances, accents, names, race, gender, etc. have always been an issue.

Check out this 2009 paper on a study done in Toronto:
http://www.nber.org/papers/w15036

To quote the abstract:

The study produced four main findings:
1) Interview request rates for English-named applicants with Canadian education and experience were more than three times higher compared to resumes with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names with foreign education and experience (5 percent versus 16 percent), but were no different compared to foreign applicants from Britain.

2) Employers valued experience acquired in Canada much more than if acquired in a foreign country. Changing foreign resumes to include only experience from Canada raised callback rates to 11 percent.

3) Among resumes listing 4 to 6 years of Canadian experience, whether an applicant’s degree was from Canada or not, or whether the applicant obtained additional Canadian education or not had no impact on the chances for an interview request.

4) Canadian applicants that differed only by name had substantially different callback rates: Those with English-sounding names received interview requests 40 percent more often than applicants with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names (16 percent versus 11 percent). Overall, the results suggest considerable employer discrimination against applicants with ethnic names or with experience from foreign firms.