It may seem tempting to assume that the levels of discrimination people face are broadly similar regardless of the seniority of the role they’re applying for. Research from Monash University suggests that is far from the case, however, with ethnic minorities suffering more when applying for leadership roles than they do for non-leadership roles.

Indeed, after analyzing 12,000 applications to over 4,000 vacancies, the researchers found that applicants with English-sounding names were twice as likely to get a positive response to leadership vacancies than peers with non-English-sounding names. This is despite the applicants using practically identical fictional resumes.

Unequal responses

The study found that nearly 27% of applicants with English-sounding names received a positive response, but this fell by over half for those with non-English-sounding names.

This ratio was broadly similar for non-leadership roles, but the figures were slightly lower, with 21.2% of those with English names receiving a positive response versus 11.6% for those with non-English names.

The situation was worst of all when the role required a high degree of customer contact. For these roles, applicants with English names got a positive response nearly a third of the time, versus just over 11% of the time for those with non-English names.

“As well as violating anti-discrimination laws, businesses that are consciously or unconsciously rejecting people based on their name and not their qualifications and experience are reducing their chances of finding the right person for the role. It’s clear that they need to look seriously at ways to reduce bias right from the first sift of applications,” the researchers conclude.