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It’s hard to know exactly the impact of this change without knowing more about what their process was like. I work for a company that has the most rigorous hiring process I have come across in my career and we do not at any point reference vague terms such as ‘merit’ that are open to interpretation. We have a bunch of well definined things we look for with four different possible ratings for each including examples of what each rating means. Even then it’s somewhat subjective.
I guess what I’m getting at is if what exactly is meant by ‘merit’ was not explicitly defined and laid out in an objective way I really don’t think anything of value has been lost here because it means different things to different people and can lead to more feels based hiring decisions.
How I imagine it’s done:
At present, they go through all the candidates and decide who they think (based on both the objective measures and their own personal subjective biases—which are impossible to avoid in any hiring situation) is the very best candidate for the position. They pick that person.
Going forward, instead, they go through all the candidates based on the objective and subjective criteria, and set a certain (probably quite high) threshold. Above that, all candidates are deemed suitable. They choose who from that list to hire with an explicit eye to making the faculty match the student body or broader population in race and gender.
The ABC attempted to reach the QUT Liberal National Club and Young LNP for comment.
Lol
Honestly I don’t think they should have. They didn’t reach out to the QUT Greens or Labor (or if they did, they didn’t say they did). Why do they think one specific party is relevant?
(I mean, I know the answer. It’s because they’re trying to appease the right-wing people who live under the delusion that the ABC is left-biased. I just don’t think they should bother with that.)
Lets see how this works out for them. Why even have a job selection process? Just wait for the first person to walk through the door with the ‘look’ that feels right
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Queensland University of Technology’s vice-chancellor has defended the decision to remove all references to “merit” from its hiring policy.
Vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil told ABC Radio Brisbane the suitability assessment would consider factors such as gender and ethnic backgrounds.
She said staff undertook unconscious bias training, and that the selection committees were chosen with diversity in mind.
She said they would aim to hire a diversity of personalities, such as recruiting more outgoing scientists who were good at industry engagement.
Professor Sheil denied the policy was a “political” decision, insisting it was a practical move to improve the university’s talent pool.
QUT claims the suitability assessment is based on the Queensland Public Service Commission’s hiring strategy.
The original article contains 321 words, the summary contains 115 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
