Once again UKIP steals the headlines by stepping where angels fear to tread. Taking the matter down to a lower level than the board room I remember the early years of my business where around 3/4 of the staff were female. Several years later the trend had reversed itself . There was no particular reason for this swing, it was a matter of the most suited people coming forward for vacancies . Everything has run very smoothly and the only issue was WC designation based on numbers – I kid you not !

But back to the point – is it better or worse for a business to have to hire on basis of quotas , whatever the nature of the quota ? My feeling is that it is a very bad idea as it distorts the labour market and could lead to poor decision making. Perhaps the key is to ensure the “minorities” are given better access to education to improve their chances or perhaps the answer lies elsewhere.

Where do you stand ?