Nationality and gender or skill and qualification?

By Ghadeer Ghloum KUWAIT: Despite the continuous calls and awareness for eliminating discrimination based on race, nationality, gender and other personal characteristics, some business owners still publish job advertisements that specify a certain nationality or gender rather than qualifications and skills. Due to certain stereotypes that might be spread in society about certain nationalities excelling …

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By Ghadeer Ghloum

KUWAIT: Despite the continuous calls and awareness for eliminating discrimination based on race, nationality, gender and other personal characteristics, some business owners still publish job advertisements that specify a certain nationality or gender rather than qualifications and skills. Due to certain stereotypes that might be spread in society about certain nationalities excelling at work more than others, business owners adhere to society’s favoritism for a certain category over the other, believing this will attract customers and boost their success.

However, nationality, gender and other characteristics do not necessitate professionalism at work. Unlike business owners’ supposed expectations to succeed from hiring a person from a certain country of origin or gender, favoring certain nationalities at work can harm its success in many ways. Yara, an HR manager who works for a company in the private sector in Kuwait, said to Kuwait Times: “Most companies and business owners are eager to find the right talent that will be a perfect fit for the role and the right candidate to fill the vacancy. But sometimes, even with good intentions, while trying to attract the right candidate, we may be discriminative by specifying a certain gender, age, and/or nationality, which frustrates other employees.”

Being preoccupied about providing the best for their business, business owners may forget about their employees’ respect and security. When new employees come across job ads that show favoritism for a certain category, this will discourage them from applying to the job and offer their skills and qualifications. Hence, the business loses potential employees who can play an essential role in improving the business’ success.

“Posting discriminative job ads will not only prevent potential qualified candidates from being part of the process, but also affect the employer’s image, values and brand. As a general guideline, job ads should avoid discrimination against a potential candidate based on personal characteristics such as race, gender, marital status, age, religion, etc,” said Yara.

According to her, ads that explicitly show favoritism for a certain category reflect a bad reputation of the business, because it shows it does not respect human diversity. The disadvantages do not stop at this point – favoring certain nationalities affects other employees’ productivity, which can result in reducing the business’ benefits, because it creates a feeling of frustration, unfairness and disappointment, which affects their mental health and physical activeness.

Employees who recognize unfairness at work will lose motivation towards their responsibility at the workplace. Thus, the business will not be built on a solid structure, as its employees are hired based on nationality and gender, which do not necessitate the means of success. “Avoiding discrimination in job ads will not only help you to get a better pool of candidates, but also will be of great help to promote your value and image,” Yara pointed out. Thus, avoiding discrimination will provide better chances for both parties, she added.

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