Inclusive hiring is a process question rather than a values statement. Either a selection decision can be explained afterwards or it cannot. In Belgium that matters more than it used to: social inspectors can test a recruitment process using situation tests and mystery calls, anyone can run such a test, and a court of appeal has accepted the results as evidence.
The article of the social criminal code giving inspectors the power to run situation tests and mystery calls on a recruitment process.
When a Belgian court of appeal accepted discrimination tests as evidence.
Citizen or association, can run a discrimination test. It is not only the inspectorate.
Criteria set before sourcing
Written down, and used by everyone.
Comparable assessment
Same exercises, same scoring, same day.
Job advert and language review
Wording that narrows the field, removed.
Pay range readiness
Ranges prepared, pay history not asked.
Decision records
Why each rejection happened, at the time.
Pipeline measurement
Where the funnel narrows, and for whom.
An audit-ready file
For an inspection, or for a challenge.
Explainable calls
Every rejection has a recorded reason tied to a criterion agreed before sourcing started. That is useful when someone challenges a decision, and it is more useful when nobody does, because it is what makes the process consistent in the first place.
A genuinely wider field
Most narrowing happens before anyone applies, in an advert asking for things the role does not need. A language requirement, a degree, an unbroken career. Removing those changes the pool far more than anything done at interview.
Ready for pay transparency
Pay ranges prepared and pay history questions removed from the process, before the obligation lands rather than after. Whatever the timing of the Belgian text, the direction is not in doubt.
Real evidence
Funnel data by stage, so you can see where the field narrows rather than assert that it does not. This cuts both ways deliberately: it is where a pattern would show, and it is the only way to show there is not one.
With us | In-house | Unmeasured agency | Policy only | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Criteria | Agreed and written before sourcing | Per hiring manager, mostly implicit | Whatever the brief implied | A statement on the website |
| Comparison | Same exercises, same scoring | Interviews, differently each time | You see the shortlist only | Unchanged from before |
| Decision records | Reason logged per decision | In notes, if at all | Held by the supplier, if held | None, beyond the statement |
| If it is tested | The file already exists | Reconstructed from memory | You carry it, they explain it | The policy is not the evidence |
| Fits when | Volume, or scrutiny, or both | Small volume, one interviewer | Occasional hiring, low exposure | Never, though it is common |
That is the whole question. If the answer is no, the process is the place to start.
Criteria and advert
What the role genuinely requires, separated from what the last job description happened to say.
Sourcing width
Channels chosen so the pool is not narrowed before assessment, and measured to check that it is not.
Structured assessment
The same exercises, scored on the same criteria, with the reason for each decision recorded as it happens.
Measurement and file
Funnel data by stage handed to you rather than summarised, alongside the decision record. If the data shows the field narrowing at a particular stage, we say so, including when the cause is something in your process rather than in ours.
The article of the social criminal code giving inspectors the power to run situation tests and mystery calls on a recruitment process.
When a Belgian court of appeal accepted discrimination tests as evidence.
Citizen or association, can run a discrimination test. It is not only the inspectorate.
Software and application
Degree requirements that the work does not actually need, filtering before anyone applies.
Cybersecurity and risk
Certification requirements used as a filter, which removes capable people rather than weak ones.
Customer operations
Language requirements applied by default rather than by need, halving the pool.
Finance and controlling
Unbroken career histories treated as a criterion, which reads as one thing and measures another.
Manufacturing and industrial
Physical requirements written into adverts without being tied to the actual task.
Business operations
Seniority expressed in years rather than in what the person has to be able to do.
Financial services
Pay gap reporting already applies here, so the recruitment data gets read alongside it.
Public sector and EU institutions
Selection has to be documented as a matter of course, which raises the standard for suppliers too.
Customer operations
High volume in one location, which is where a pattern becomes statistically visible.
Send us a job advert, the criteria behind it and last year’s funnel for that role. You get a written view of where the field narrows and what in the process is doing the narrowing.
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