FAQ: Collecting equal opportunities information

Which diversity categories do you ask for and what are the answer options?

Below you can see what we ask for UK-based roles. If you’re hiring outside the UK, the questions and answer options can be a bit different. This is because different countries have different legal requirements for collecting this information.

If you want to preview the equal opportunities form for a particular role, go to the ‘Build’ section in the left-hand menu and click the blue ‘Preview’ button in the right hand corner of your screen.

Gender

• Man
• Woman
• Non-binary
• Prefer not to say

Age

• 16-24
• 25-29
• 30-34
• 35-39
• 40-44
• 45-49
• 50-54
• 54-59
• 60-64
• 65+
• Prefer not to say

Ethnicity

• Black
• White
• Asian
• Latin
• Middle Eastern
• Mixed
• Other
• Prefer not to say

Sexuality

• Gay/Lesbian
• Heterosexual/Straight
• Bisexual
• Don’t know
• Other
• Prefer not to say

Disability

• Yes
• No
• Prefer not to say

Socioeconomic status

We ask about two markers of socioeconomic status. While not perfect, these have been identified as the best practice proxies, offering the best balance between being easy enough to answer and carrying useful information to infer socioeconomic status.

The parents’ education

• My parents didn’t go to university
• One or both went to university
• Don’t know
• Prefer not to say

Free school meals

• I was eligible for free school meals
• I wasn’t eligible for free school meals
• Don’t know
• Prefer not to say

Isn’t it illegal to ask for this data? What data will you share with us?

We carefully monitor the legal requirements around collecting this data. To meet the requirements and protect sensitive candidate data, we only show this data in aggregation and won’t share any data if there are less than 5 data points, to ensure each individual remains anonymous. Please ensure you only use the form for approved countries.

How did you choose the questions and answer options?

As a first step, we check the legal requirements around collecting this information in each country. From there, we try to balance the desire for detailed data with the candidates’ preferences around disclosing such data. 

Our principles are:

• Keep it short and accessible to maximise responses: This means keeping the number of questions and answer options low enough for candidates to skim the form at a quick glance and find ‘their’ answer without having to put effort in. While more granular answer options may seem useful for analysing the data, it comes with the risk that more candidates choose ‘Prefer not to say’ instead of investing time to find the option that best describes them.
• Avoid being intrusive or unsettling candidates: The more we ask, or the more granular answer options we provide, the greater the risk that candidates from a minority background find the process intrusive. When adding new questions to the form, e.g. the question on sexual orientation, we conduct research looking at disclosure rates and carefully select among multiple options of phrasing the question and/or answer options.
• Follow best practices from research: Where possible, we built on existing research to draft our form. This means that, where relevant, we rely on national census data for grouping (e.g. in the case of ethnicity or age groupings). We also aim to strike the best possible balance between sufficient granularity and the usefulness of the data- e.g. not asking for any possible age but grouping certain bands together.

Can you change the questions and/or answer options for me?

Unfortunately, we are currently unable to offer any quick changes to the existing form. Any future changes need to be cleared from a legal perspective. We also test changes from a usability/practical perspective, monitoring if they yield better data (e.g. higher disclosure rates). Therefore, making changes to the form can take a while and we cannot guarantee your desired changes will be possible. However, if you have thoughts on changes you’d like to see tested, please get in touch. We prioritise what to test in future based on the number of customers that make the same (or a similar) request. We do acknowledge that things change over time, and want to ensure we're as up to date as possible, so please reach out to us if you have any questions. 

Why do you ask about this information at the start? I’m worried it will deter applicants

Asking the equal opportunity questions right at the start gives us the chance to monitor for differential drop-offs at the first stage of applying: are candidates with a certain background less likely to finish and submit their application?

We acknowledge that some candidates may hesitate to provide this information. Therefore, we

• Provide a clear explanation about what the information is used for, before showing the form, to build trust and help candidates understand how this data helps achieve equal opportunities for all
• Give candidates the opportunity to opt out of filling in the form altogether
• Allow candidates to choose ‘prefer not to say’ for every individual question
• Ask for explicit consent at the end of the form

Will you collect equal opportunities information no matter which country the role is advertised in?

We have a list of countries with approved forms. If you wish to collect equal opportunities information in another country, you’d have to do your own due diligence and confirm the legal ability to ask these questions for each country. Please bear in mind that different countries treat the collection of this data differently, and so it may not be acceptable to ask for certain details in particular countries. 

Countries with existing forms, constructed based on our research:

• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• United Kingdom
• Northern Ireland
• Hong Kong
• India
• The Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• Switzerland
• United States of America

Other countries

For other countries, we offer a ‘minimal’ form which will only ask candidates about their gender and age, which are more 'universal' categories than, for example, racial makeup of a certain country. Before using this form, please note, as an employer in any market, it's up to you to research and validate the legality of asking these equal opportunities questions in your chosen locations.

How do I change the form to a different country?

Go to the ‘Build’ section on the left hand side navigation bar. Under ‘Basic info’ you’ll find a field for ‘Country’. Changing this will adapt the equal opportunities form to the respective country.

We have candidates from all over the world. Which form should we use? Shouldn’t we adapt the form to each candidate’s location?

An international candidate pool makes collecting equal opportunities data more challenging. It varies by country how society can be split into different groups. For example, to track social mobility, you may want to know a candidate’s caste if they are in India, or their eligibility for free school meals if they are in the UK. But asking about this will not be informative for candidates from other countries. 

So should we personalise the form for each candidate? Remember we use the equal opportunities data to look at your candidate pool as a whole and in an anonymised way, not to track individuals. Personalising the form is at odds with our strict anonymisation of the candidate’s sensitive data. Beyond that, it’s not useful: If you’d use different questions and answer options for each candidate location, you’d lose your ability to look at groups as a whole. And it’s looking at the groups, not the individuals, that will tell you if your hiring process systematically puts certain groups at a disadvantage.

Some considerations for choosing the right form: 

• In general, it would be best use the form for the country you’re hiring in (e.g. if you are based in the UK but the role you’re hiring is based in the US, set the ‘Country’ in the ‘Build’ section of the platform to US and it will use the US-specific form). 
• If you’re hiring for a remote job that could be done from anywhere in the world, you could set the ‘job locale’ to where your headquarters is located.
• Always make sure you’re complying with the law in the country where you hire and collect this information (see above "Approved Countries with existing forms").