@anon40779440, already covered here 
Putting in bold is me, not Tara.
2 Likes
Couldn’t it also be that there are specific areas that are dominated by 1 specific gender because of an imbalance with the people available to do those jobs?
Do you have any thoughts on how to stop new people being put off pursuing careers in those areas due to past/ current gender balances?
Importantly:
1 Like
- Can’t hurt, but what can you do to make someone trust what you are saying?
- Would you want to be hired by someone from a daytime TV crime flashback narrator? (that is what comes to mind with that setup
)
1 Like
Isn’t it a shame that in all likelihood this thread will end up being be closed due to people’s tunnel vision, not reading the blog properly, skimming staff responses to read only what they want to see, and generally being offensive.
14 Likes
Well that’s a good question. Wouldn’t this need to be tackled in schools etc? I honestly don’t know though. My computing class in school was 50/50 male/female by time I got to uni that Ratio had changed massively
1 Like
One of past employers used to anonymise the application forms for this very reason. The forms were numbered, with the number reproduced on every sheet, and only the front sheet had any personal information. The assessors were not given the front sheet and so would only be able to make an assessment based on the information they had.
I think interviews could be done anonymously online (in the same building if necessary). There’s no real need to meet the candidate, or to see them; especially for companies which profess to be colour blind, gender blind etc when recruiting to a post.
1 Like
How would you suggest establishing if a candidate:
- can work in the team structure your company runs
- is not very talented, but also a complete dick, and so a net loss overall
I’ve, so far, not seen anything that can interview for these except pairing/ group work.
1 Like
If they’ve successfully worked in teams before, they can work in teams. They might have evidenced it in the application process.
I don’t understand what you’re getting at here - sorry.
Could these not have been in an effort to encourage female participation/entry in to that field?
In my experience that is not so. One of the interview steps, even for juniors, that we do is a 45 minute cultural interview. Enough questions are asked to give a pretty fair indication of what someone is like, and, equally importantly, for them to get an idea of what you are like. It’s equally valid for someone to drop out of the application process as they think they will not enjoy being there, as it is for the company to say they don’t have confidence that a candidate meets our values.
It’s one of several interviews, so is balanced against other things, but means we have a pretty low amount of people I would describe as talented but no good at working in collaboration with others, in the company, compared to other places I have worked.
It definitely takes an experienced interviewer, who has worked in several companies, and done things such as unconscious bias training, to make cultural interviews work well. Also important to be able to recognise different opinions as opposed to fundamentally different values, as the first is a gain, the second not so.
I can fairly well tell I think, from being present as an observer at some group interviews, people with signs of very different aims of what they are looking for in a job, or ‘kissing backside’, but I’m by no means experienced enough to be interviewing people directly on it and making that sort of call. Experienced enough to see the value in it as an interview step however.
1 Like
As I might be offline for a bit, just want to requote this for anyone new joining the thread, as I think it was one of the most important things said today.
1 Like
When helping to recruit developers that I’ll be working closely with, I absolutely need to meet them in person.
For small enterprises, I’d agree. I don’t think it’s always absolutely necessary for businesses with hundreds of staff.
Sure. I’ll preface that i think the problems that do exist are largely much further down the line and external to business that seems to be largely ignored in favour of business changes. Peer pressure, upbringing, education i think play a much larger role in whats left of any reasons to why people decide not to go down different directions.
To add, I think some business changes are good. I think a lot of business do them already, as you mention “offering better benefits, part time roles and job shares.” i think these do improve the attractiveness of a job, they are great and offered in many positions, but could be offered in more, although they usually don’t scale well to positions higher up the chain that just simply require dedicated long hours of work.
When it gets to the point of receiving an application though, someones gender or sex should play zero part in the process, your either fit for the job and company or your not. But the blog post suggests that the company is actively seeking to alter hiring based on gender.
You say
we committed to doing the following:
- Setting internal targets for gender diversity in senior management
The concern is how do you do this without discriminating? You’ve said fairly overtly and explicitly, that you have gender hiring targets to meet by 2020. So when you are hiring people, you already have an active corporate bias to hire more women to meet a target.
You believe that bias exists as stated in the blog, but this is a very clear and overt bias that’s being ignored?
Now the reality is, most people are pretty good at ignoring any bias (unless there’s consequences to going against what they’ve been told), so i imagine people who hire in Monzo simply ignore the corporate push to hire women over men.
All things being equal you cant just hire a woman over a man because they are a woman. That would be against the law. But your corporate policy is to hire more women to meet a percentage target of women in a specific role. How do you get around that?
That’s where my main concern lies, and what comes across in the blog post, which might be different to what you actually do. But if so why not just say that instead?
The reality in my mind is more flexible benefits, job share, part time etc in roles that can handle it, zero bias in gender hiring, and more focus on improving the perception of those positions to young people so that in the long run they grow up knowing those kind of roles are open and accepting to them. Something that cant be achieved in just 2 more years.
That doesn’t even touch on the issues these gender hiring practices have on women in the work place who are worried about how they will be perceived with job offers and promotions and if they are being hired on merit or just because their female. Its a big concern for many women in my work.
(apologies for the long post, i hope it makes sense?)
3 Likes
That’s a really interesting question. There are some studies that suggest that it starts even earlier than that in how people compliment young children and the things they encourage them to do / chastise them for.
Removing the idea of gendered subjects at school would be a start.
6 Likes
Are there gendered subject at school? I don’t remember my school pushing anyone towards a certain subject due to their gender 
2 Likes
Not really. At least not pushed by schools specifically. But different subjects and roles have been for a long time men do this women do that, and there’s still some peer pressure behind that that some people are more susceptible to, especially when you are young.
While some subjects and roles may naturally pull a certain type of person, there still things you can do at a young age to show people that any direction is open and welcoming if that’s the direction they want to go. Something I don’t think we are as good at yet.
3 Likes
Hey! Don’t apologise - I asked for more information and you helpfully provided it.
Due to the way the Women in Finance Charter is set up we have to set a target to take part. As we believe in promoting diversity and inclusivity we wanted to be involved. However, in practise the goal is
-
make Monzo as attractive to as many talented people in the world as possible
-
identify reasons why people might drop out of our process or not apply and iterate
-
survey Monzonauts to see if people feel expected, welcome and included once they are here
If we focus on creating an environment where those three things (and others) are thought of then I believe we will then attract the best talent from a diverse group and be able to choose the best people. I can assure you that in our day to day hiring practises we do not consider ‘numbers to hit’ so much as ‘how do we include different groups of people.’
You raise some really good points - thank you for your contribution and taking the time. I hope my response makes sense?
6 Likes
I think this is the reality in almost all cases despite these types of charters requirements. The worry seems to be that it gives off the wrong perception, at least it does for me, and people in my work (we have something similar in some areas).
You mentioned getting people at a young age in the other post. I just want to reiterate in saying id love to see Monzo push something in this direction. Showing that paths are open for anyone who wants to go down them from a young age i think is really important.
In the science world we have STEM to promote science tech engineering and maths to young people. Id hope there was a finance and business equivalent? Maybe one should be made if not.