Over my lunch break, I went to an online lecture by Professor Raina MacIntyre from the Kirby institute. She was talking about the latest international research on COVID-19. I spent most of the day working on recruitment for a program matching disabled students with policy work.

COVID-19 Research

First, in her talk, Professor MacIntyre shows that a lot of the precautions that we’ve established on social distancing are inadequate. They’re based on old science. For example, She says the 1.5 metre social distancing rule doesn’t go far enough. She argues discussions we’re currently having about whether or not COVID-19 is spread through droplets or whether it’s airborne is a false dichotomy, because it is both.

Professor MacIntyre shows evidence that the personal protective equipment (PPE) being used in healthcare around the world is inadequate. She says this is part of the reason why healthcare workers have such a high rate of infection.

She also shows children are just as likely to become infected with COVID-19, and they have higher rate of infecting other people in their household, in comparison to adults.

Professor MacIntyre showed that it is mostly unsafe to open schools early, because nearly every context where there’s been a low rate of infection, or or no infection, is when both kids and teachers wear face masks.

She also shows that COVID-19 is able to spread through plumbing and faecal matter.

Recruitment

I ended the day doing our final interview for our internship program. The panel took a lot of time, especially consolidating our feedback.

I’ll be calling the candidates back, and give them the option to receive feedback on what they did well during their interview, and what they can improve on for next time.

I will be encouraging the unsuccessful candidate to reapply for similar roles in future. I am additionally seeking approval from our Executive to encourage other managers to directly appoint the unsuccessful candidate. Their application and interview were so strong, but their skills were less aligned to our team relative to the other candidate. Regardless, I know they can make a wonderful contribution to another team. I am making it a responsibility of mine to try to get them an internship in our organisation.

Research shows that most recruiters don’t give feedback. This especially disadvantages white women and minorities.

People who take time out of paid work to raise a family, or due to chronic illness or disability, are seen to have a gap in their CV. They are then are denied opportunities, especially disabled people and racial minorities. It’s really important to provide constructive feedback, so that they can know how to improve for next time and that they remain encouraged to continue the job search.

Keeping minorities encouraged with useful feedback they can use is even more vital during the pandemic, when there is high unemployment, and increased likelihood of discrimination in the marketplace.