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Tribunal finds ‘unconscious bias’ in how London landlord handled recruitment process
An employment tribunal judge has ruled that staff at a London association had exercised “unconscious bias” in their handling of an internal recruitment process.
L&Q was taken to a tribunal at the East London Tribunal Hearing Centre by two claimants who alleged there were breaches of the Equality Act 2010 in the way they were overlooked for a promotion.
The process began at the housing association in March 2022 and involved the appointment of three new roles within its strategic sales department.
Six candidates applied for the roles, including three white people and three people of colour.
After the interviews, the judge found the “scoring process was inconsistent” when assessing each candidate.
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Two white candidates were subsequently appointed and the third position was left vacant while an external appointment process would take place.
This is despite two of the non-white candidates scoring just 1.5 points and one point respectively below one of the people offered a job.
Following this, the claimants raised a grievance that contained an allegation of racial discrimination. The grievance was not upheld and the claimants appealed the decision in April 2022 before beginning tribunal proceedings.
The tribunal found there was “a subjective layer of decision-making” by the person responsible for recruiting about who they thought would “fit in” and who they were “100% sure of”.
The tribunal document said: “Basing recruitment decisions on such subjective views, or gut feelings, increases the risk of stereotypes and unconscious bias coming into play.”
It added: “We were left with an inexplicable inconsistency in [the] approach to the claimants.
“Given this uncertainty, we concluded that the respondent had not proven that this was in no sense whatsoever to do with race.
“We concluded that [the recruiting manager] acted unconsciously. They did not consciously treat the claimants less favourably because of race.”
Tom Nicholls, executive group director for human resources at L&Q, said: “We acknowledge the tribunal’s finding of unconscious discrimination and take this judgment very seriously, so are reflecting carefully on the outcomes.
“We are already reviewing our policies and procedures around recruitment and are also organising further training on discrimination including unconscious bias, in addition to the existing training and guidance provided to all our colleagues.”
Inside Housing understands that a date has yet to be set for a remedy hearing to decide on any compensation for the claimants.
In the middle of last month, the boss of L&Q told attendees at a finance conference that housing associations could stop buying Section 106 homes as they face a new homes “cliff edge”.
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