We view these recommendations as an aid to other recruitment companies and to anyone else wanting to become better and more systematic at selecting and presenting candidates from a gender perspective.

Contents:
Go the extra mile
Analysis of the client company
Job requirement profile – you get what you ask for
Methods – search or advertise?
The interview
Assessment and selection
Presentation
Follow-up
Behind these recommendations

Go the extra mile
Our task as advisers is to guide clients, companies and organisations towards better and more efficient leadership.

Leadership is absolutely crucial to the success of a company or organisation, as has been shown in numerous studies. As consultants, we can help our clients discover the skills that women possess. We can always nudge the process in the right direction, even if it is the employer who has the final say on who is employed.

As consultants, we can choose to simply carry out the assignment as defined by the client, but a consultant who wants to beat the competition will do more – will "go the extra mile". This can also be done from a gender perspective. Look for women with the right skills – even if it takes a little more time and brainwork.

Two reasons for going the extra mile:
Without women in the selection pool, we are rejecting 50 per cent of the potential talent and creative skills, since these qualities are evenly distributed between men and women.

Groups containing people from different backgrounds and with different profiles are more dynamic and make better decisions, and better decisions improve efficiency and long-term profitability.

Analysis of the client company

Learn from the past to improve the future!
Along with the client, we analyse the whole organisation: its history, current situation and – most important of all – aims and ambitions for the future. The more information we have, the easier it is to present the client to the candidate.

Keep in mind:
- that the people we meet often can influence the recruitment process. Most clients are still   men, as are most consultants. How does that affect us?
- how much do we know about the company’s overall objectives for its management   planning and gender distribution, in the short and long term?

Job requirement profile – you get what you ask for

Promote diversity!
We produce a company presentation along with the job requirement profile for the post in question. After getting the approval of the client, we communicate the profile to possible candidates.

This is where we can promote diversity. Early versions of job requirement profiles may contain prejudices and preconceptions. Many jobs or positions are consciously or subconsciously viewed as male or female. Job descriptions are sometimes just routinely copied, instead of being based on what current and future leadership requires.

Keep in mind:
- how to get the client to abandon age and gender requirements and focus instead on   desirable qualifications and qualities.
- training and experience requirements. Is the usual educational background really what is   needed for this particular management post, or might other skills be useful? New demands   from customers and the world around us are continually placing new demands on   managers.
- what qualities are usually ascribed to one or other gender? Avoid them! Also, avoid   unnecessary or unjustified demands that directly or indirectly exclude one of the sexes. A   low upper age limit, for example, may exclude skilled women who took time off to have   children.
- the importance of keeping to the original job requirement profile. It is all too easy to   create new demands during the selection process!

Methods – search or advertise?
The most important thing is not where we look – it is finding the most suitable candidate.

Executive search: Searching is done by surveying industries and companies both via the company’s own databases and via public ones. The advantage is that this allows you to look for candidates at the right level and with the right skills who would not otherwise have thought of applying for the job. One pitfall however is that men are currently over-represented in the databases and in higher positions, and the consultant must work a little harder to find the women.

Advertising is another common route. The advantage is that everyone who sees the advertisement can apply. Think, however, about who is going to be looking at the advertisement, and about the language and the pictures used: what is their message?

Keep in mind:
- is the outcome of the search influenced by the sex of the consultant?
- which channel is best for each individual advertisement? Different media reach different   groups: who reads the newspaper or website?
- are we willing to go the extra mile – or are we just doing what we always do?

The interview
The selection process begins when we speak to potential candidates on the telephone. How we deal with them can determine whether or not they will be interested. Only ask important follow-up questions, and think about what words you are using to describe the post.

You get to know candidates by interviewing them in person on one or more occasions. Their ambitions tend to reflect their attitudes and values in the work field.

It is difficult to admit your own prejudices, and to do something about them, but they do become apparent when you are dealing with other people. It is a good idea to use an interview sheet that has only neutral questions. Consultants might like to try taping their own interviews and analysing them, preferably together with another interviewer. Are the questions neutral? Does the interviewer express his/her own views or prejudices?

Keep in mind:
- does everyone get asked the same questions in the same way, regardless of gender?.
- whether the answers can be assessed equally, and whether this is done. How much are   we influenced by our own values and frames of reference?
- are consultants trained in self-awareness and how to be gender neutral, and in that case   how?.
- is the consultant familiar with anti-discrimination legislation?
- gender-neutral ways of asking questions about people’s lives outside work, e.g. What do   you do when you are not working?
- if you want to ask about parenthood, child daycare or other care responsibilities, ask   those questions of both men and women. Remember that questions about religion, family   life, sexual orientation, age and illness can be used as evidence if a discrimination dispute   should arise!
- methods to get women talking! The importance of allowing applicants to speak for half the   time has been proven. A Danish study shows that women only talk for 1/3 of the time and   men for half the time or more. Men are therefore considered to have made more of an   impression and to be more successful than women.

Assessment and selection
Personal information colours your judgement more than you think! Increasingly, identification is being removed from application documents during the first screening.

Keep in mind:
- how to make demands for leadership qualities even more specific. A battery of gender
  neutral interpretations increases the chance that candidates really will be equally   assessed on their merits.
- whether you really are self-critical about your own ability to judge others and aware of   your own preconcepions.
- whether tests and other selection instruments really measure what they are supposed to,   and whether they are gender-neutral. Find out how they were produced, what group they   were constructed for and whether they reflect the experiences and skills of both women   and men. Find documented results that are gender-specific. Otherwise, use several test   methods to assess the suitability of candidates, or different methods altogether.
- why have female candidates been eliminated? Double-check all cases in which women   have been eliminated during the process!

The art of taking references
At interviews, references act as a kind of receipt – they are a way of getting your image of the person confirmed or contradicted. Some personal characteristics tend to be seen as typical of one gender or the other and thus might influence the way the reference is interpreted.

Think about how you interpret and evaluate different characteristics from a gender perspective, for example:
- strengths and weaknesses, energy and motivation
- the ability to form relationships and to work with others, flexibility and adaptability,   creativity, the ability to solve problems, the ability to handle several tasks at the same   time, the ability to take decisions and handle stressful situations....
- assessments of managerial qualities and leadership style. These can be based on the job   requirement profile or be an expression of something completely different – for example,   gender-based prejudices….
- ….and the same applies to delegation, staff care, decision-making, and leadership abilities

Keep in mind:
- are women and men assessed and presented in the same way when you check   references? Is there a difference if a male or female consultant or male or female referee   is involved?
- does the referee really have no preconceived ideas and does (s)he have sufficient   experience of the candidate – i.e. has worked so near the candidate that (s)he can   properly assess that person’s work capacity and other qualities.

Presentation
Proceed from the conviction that the customer is entitled to the best candidates when making a final choice.

The three or four most likely candidates are often presented to the client in writing. In the written presentation, we prefer to remove age and civil status.
The next step is to decide, together with the client, which candidates are to be presented in person. These are then invited to personal meetings.

As a rule, the client is given a standard presentation of the candidates, emphasising their knowledge and experience.

Follow-up
Salary and other benefits are negotiated directly between the client and the final candidate, but we can of course offer advice and assistance. Sometimes, candidates may also need coaching before a meeting with the client, e.g. so that they can market themselves in the best possible way.

The assignment does not end until the follow-up has been completed. Follow up and analyse how things have gone, together with the client and the candidate recruited – but allow some time to elapse first.

Keep in mind:
- how aware are we – recruitment consultants and clients – of whether the same initial   expectations are applied to women and men?
- how much knowledge is there today about invisible norms and other factors that may   affect women’s and men’s chances of succeeding in their new job – both during the   ‘honeymoon period’ and after?

The recommendations are produced by

Göran Rotzius and Therese Reinfeldt, Heidrick & Struggles, www.heidrick.com
Carina Åkermark, InterSearch, www.intersearch.se
Lotta Belfrage Palmqvist och Hans Lindholm, Manpower, www.manpower.se
Susanne Jannesson och Peter Salomonsson, Mercuri Urval, www.mercuriurval.se
Tord Steffenson and Lisbeth Holm, TRANSEARCH, www.transearch.se