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October 2023 - Engineering

Recruitment bias preventing career break STEM professionals from returning to employment: A survey of STEM professionals who are seeking a return to work suggests that recruitment bias is preventing them from re-entering the workplace. 

It also found that women who are trying to return to a STEM role following a hiatus are more likely to experience this kind of bias.

The STEM Returners Index 2023, revealed that a quarter of women have experienced bias during the recruitment process, compared to just 9% of men.   

STEM professionals from minority ethnic minority backgrounds (39% of the professionals seeking to get back to work) were twice as likely than other ethnic groups to have experienced bias due to race and ethnicity (34%), found the research.

Age was also highlighted as an issue during the recruitment process with more men than women feeling like they have experienced bias (29% versus 25%), and three in 10 STEM returners overall saying that it has resulted in a loss of personal confidence for them (30%). 

The survey did reveal some improvement, however, with the overall number of people who experienced bias during the recruitment process falling from 38% in 2022 to 33% in the latest survey. It also found that the proportion of women feeling they experienced bias due to their gender is lower than in 2022. 

When asked about the process of going back to work, in the 2022 survey, almost two-thirds said the process was 'difficult' (65%) while in the latest survey this had fallen to 51%.

Looking at why people take career breaks from their STEM roles, the research found that the primary reason was caring for children and family members (44%), with just 12% saying it was out of personal choice. 

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