Outsourcing recruitment as a solution to prevent discrimination : A correspondence study

Overview & Synopsis

In this work, we assess how organization of recruitment in large companies affects ethnic discrimination. We consider large multi-establishment companies and distinguish two types of organization of recruitment: hiring made through a human resources (HR) department at a centralized level of the company and hiring made only at the level of the establishment concerned by the position, generally by managers in charge of recruitment. Our results indicate that access to a centralized HR department in the selection of applications has an important effect on the level of discrimination: this type of organization of recruitment results in a significant decrease in the probability that the applicant of presumed "French" origin is selected alone.