With the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep) guidelines requiring fields on age, gender, race, religion, marital status, NRIC number and national service liability to be removed from job application forms, why not remove the field of name too (Mental health declaration for job applicants discriminatory, Jan 20)?

After all, a name can be used to infer an applicant's gender, race or even religion, can't it?

But seriously, how many job applicants honestly believe that age, gender and national service liability should not be disclosed in job forms?

I asked a friend working in a large corporation whether job application forms there indeed omit such fields.

He said yes, adding that as a result, more rounds of job interviews had to be added to each recruitment exercise.

Big corporations, with human resources departments larger than the entirety of some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have no problem holding more rounds of interviews to conform to Tafep guidelines, but this is a luxury SMEs cannot afford.

Ultimately, no amount of guidelines or mandated rounds of interviews can force an employer to hire someone he does not wish to.

Employers' hiring mindset can be changed only over time with engagement and social education.

For example, more employers are now open to hiring former convicts, not to mention those who used to be passed over on account of age, gender or race.

More guidelines or quotas are clearly not the answer.

Cheng Shoong Tat