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A recent report by the University of Sydney has suggested that Sydney's fashion retailers value good looks and charm over qualifications and experience when hiring.
The research, conducted by Professor Richard Hall and Dr Diane van den Broek, has been published in the journal Economic and Industrial Democracy, and is the result of responses taken from 197 fashion retailers in Sydney’s CBD, as well as Bondi Junction and Oxford Street in Paddington.
According to the study, managers in fashion retail reported looks and personality to be the two most important attributes they took into account when hiring new staff, with 97 percent of managers citing the right personality and 85 percent the right appearance as important or very important when selecting customer service staff.
In contrast, just 44 percent recognised the right qualifications, while 78 percent saw previous experience as important or very important.
High-end boutique fashion retailers also had the highest preference for looks, with 90 percent of managers in this category reporting that the right appearance was either important or very important in their selection of staff.
“While we might suspect that looks and presentation matter, what surprised us was the extent to which those qualities were seen to be more important than qualifications or experience,” Hall said.
“We were also surprised by the level of policy detail in fashion retail related to physical appearance, for example for clothing, personal grooming and make-up, and the rules and requirements around these. Employers in this sector are focussing on training, developing and assessing these attributes and skills in their customer-facing staff.”
Hall added that the survey results also raise some serious questions regarding the potential of discrimination on the basis of looks in retail, which is one of the largest parts of the labour market in terms of employment.
“More than one in ten Australian workers are employed in retail trade. And it is a key point of entry into work for many young Australians,” he said.
“In every state except Victoria, appearance is not accepted as grounds for unlawful discrimination. We have unlawful discrimination on the basis of age, gender, race, ethnicity and sexual preference, but not physical appearance. Victoria is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that outlaws discrimination on the basis of physical features.”