Male recruiters tend to pay more attention to the appearance, personal style and enthusiasm of job candidates than do their female counterparts, recent research finds.
Men are more visual while women more often judge on credentials, according to the nationwide survey conducted by Zogby Analytics for Jobvite, a recruiting services company.
“Males are significantly more likely to look at candidates’ photos before meeting them, and they are also more likely to admit that seeing the photo influenced their decision to move on with a candidate or not,” the researchers note.
Male recruiters also were more likely to disqualify a candidate because they judged that person’s manner of dress as being too casual for a job interview.
Given recent revelations about misbehaving males in the workplace, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that 32% of recruiters reported seeing “sexual harassment/sexist attitudes” from job candidates, and 19% experienced applicants hitting on the recruiter or hiring manager.
But 27% also cited witnessing their own colleagues express “sexual harassment/sexist attitudes” towards job candidates.
Racist attitudes expressed by candidates were observed by 25%, and 22% of the recruiters witnessed colleagues expressing the same attitudes.
There also are major differences between Millennial recruiters and their counterparts over 50 years old. Millennial recruiters emphasize conversation skills and enthusiasm, while older ones put more weight on personal style and grooming
Recruiters over 50 tend to emphasize knowledge of the industry and appearance, and are more likely to disqualify a candidate for bringing a beverage or food to the interview or because of bad hygiene.
