RAF Recruitment

[mwstewart]

The RAF have been accused of pausing recruitment for British males.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/18/ra...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/16/raf-re...

https://mobile.twitter.com/SkyNews/status/15595254...

In recent press the headline has been changed to 'targets' rather than an out-and-out pause, though given that the head of recruitment resigned and the wooly Twitter response from the RAF, I'm inclined to believe that there's a little bit more at play than merely meeting targets. That's by-the-by for me - what I'm really wondering is if it's legal, and indeed ethical to offer opportunities and refuse opportunities in this way.

What's your view?

[stevemcs]

I couldn’t give a monkeys doofus what sex or colour the recruits are, they just need to be good at their job and not be there because of a box ticking excerise

[steveatesh]

People subject to targets “game “ the system Shock…..

[Previous]

They probably have paused recruitment for white males.

Tbh I'm sort of on the fence. On the one hand, diversity (of thought, experience, expertise etc) is great and the RAF should look to broaden its recruitment pool to ensure it has access to the best talent. Ultimately we want our forces to be 'better' than 'their' forces (whoever 'they' may be) so anything that helps achieve that I'm all for.

On the other, I feel that one good way to stop treating people differently because of race will be to actually stop treating people differently because of race.

From what has been reported, I think any white candidates would give themselves the best chance by playing the game and ticking the prefer not to say box, or tick mixed race (or even sexuality for that matter)

[Wills2]

Just recruit the best people regardless of gender and ethnicity, it's not a hard concept grasp.

[BabySharkDD]

It’s “Positive discrimination”. Some who claim to oppose discrimination love this form of discrimination

[JagLover]

This isn't a normal government department but one where the intake is going to be highly tilted toward both males and people with strong patriotism. Everyone seems to like the defence secretary but where was he when all this was going on?. Seems a bit of a joke that under a supposed Conservative government we have people who want to serve their country being turned down on these grounds.

[rxe]

I can absolutely confirm that this is happening in major UK employers right now, not just the RAF.

[Donbot]

I thought the military were struggling to recruit already. Shooting their own feet in the name of 'diversity'.

[faa77]

rxe said:

I can absolutely confirm that this is happening in major UK employers right now, not just the RAF.

FYI if a worse-qualified candidate is chosen based on protected characteristics it's illegal.

It's only legal if they're equally or better qualified.

[GroundZero]

BabySharkDD said:

It’s “Positive discrimination”. Some who claim to oppose discrimination love this form of discrimination

Its nothing short of RACISM, but re-named as "positive discrimination" so that people are deflected to think its not racism. This is the clown-world we live in today.

Other nations around the world, those that pose a threat to the UK and its interests, relish the way that the UK and other western nations are playing around in clown-world. The self destructive nature of it all does a lot of the hard work for our adversaries.

Edited by GroundZero on Saturday 20th August 15:35

[Electro1980]

What’s destroying us, if anything, is this stupid phoney culture was.

[Don Roque]

It sounds as though the RAF have been well and truly caught out here.

[Earthdweller]

Judge somebody not by the colour of their skin but the quality of their character

Says it all really and once said by a wise man

[Donbot]

Earthdweller said:

Judge somebody not by the colour of their skin but the quality of their character

Says it all really and once said by a wise man

Sounds like racist talk to me.

[J4CKO]

Maybe they should be asking people from minorities why they aren’t joining up rather than precluding other folk because they happed to be white ?

I suspect in a lot of cases they don’t want to, not that they need help and encouragement to do so.

[Countdown]

J4CKO said:

Maybe they should be asking people from minorities why they aren’t joining up rather than precluding other folk because they happed to be white ?

I suspect in a lot of cases they don’t want to, not that they need help and encouragement to do so.

Another metric might be to look at percentages of applicants getting through to interview stage and percentage of interview stage getting offers.

Whilst it might be PH Heresy to say this recruiters have conscious and unconscious biases.

It may well be that the reason why some demographics are underrepresented is that they don't have the necessary skills/attributes. Alternatively it may be that they're being discriminated against. So I'd suggest the RAF need to know what the problem is.

[Murph7355]

Countdown said:

....
It may well be that the reason why some demographics are underrepresented is that they don't have the necessary skills/attributes. Alternatively it may be that they're being discriminated against. So I'd suggest the RAF need to know what the problem is.

It may also be that ethnic minorities/women simply don't apply.

This story was on Newsnight earlier in the week.

Apparently 9.6% of RAF employees are from ethnic minorities. This compares to 13% of the UK (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/#:~:text=Government%20data%20about%20the%20UK's,a%20variety%20of%20ethnic%20backgrounds.).

But the diversity of the UK has changed a lot. It was 8% in the 2001 census. The 13% figures comes from the 2011 one - so a 5% uptick in just a decade. I imagine it accelerated a lot in the 90s too.

When you consider that the employee counts in the RAF will span from those recently started to those who are close to retirement, we'll likely have people being counted from the last 40yrs or so. So I wonder if a 9.6% figure is really that disproportionate.

There were also comments being made about women in the RAF...I think something like 15% are women. But when you consider what the career involves, and how many are likely to apply as a result I wonder again how disproportionate that is.

Positive discrimination is wrong, and illegal. But proving it is never going to be straightforward.

[XCP]

Police have been doing it for years.

[oyster]

J4CKO said:

Maybe they should be asking people from minorities why they aren’t joining up rather than precluding other folk because they happed to be white ?

I suspect in a lot of cases they don’t want to, not that they need help and encouragement to do so.

And does it not occur to you that there’s something odd if those from minorities don’t want to join up?