Increasing equality of opportunity for applicants by structuring and objectifying the selection process

Structuring the selection methods for job applications promotes equality of opportunity. This is stated by work and organizational psychologists Janice Odijk, Annemarie Hiemstra and Marise Born, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in the study into equality of opportunity in selection and assessment that was carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. (in Dutch). Popular selection methods such as the traditional resume and unstructured interviews are susceptible to the influence of personal biases in evaluating applicants. This promotes inequality of opportunity. It was investigated whether a more objective letter selection and structured interviewing can lead to greater equality of opportunity for ethnic-culturally diverse applicants. More objective and structured selection methods include job requirements and questions that are relevant to the position, determined in advance based on a job analysis.