It has often been heard that the employers during the interview process are asking questions about the age, gender, marital status of the applicants. In my opinion, this kind of information influence the decision making- process of the job and should not be considered as relevant. In this essay, I shall discuss the thoughts having similar point of view and others that disagree.
The personal information obtained by the companies affect and influence their selection decisions. For example, if an applicant is 50 years old and applying for an IT skilled job, it can be easily be judged that his speed of work would not be fast, he would not be aware of the recent technologies or would not show interest in updating them. In a research survey it showed that for women, it becomes difficult to find a job after marriage or having children as it is considered that her attention is distributed and her fatigue would reflect in the work.
Whereas there are few companies that collect such information so that they can provide better environment and facilities to the employees. Also, hobbies and interests in activities help in cultivating a healthy and friendly atmosphere at work place example, conducting company level sports events. These days are counted as worked and employees are encouraged to pursue their hobbies.
To conclude, it depends on the company in utilizing the information but having numerous examples, I would emphasis that this information should not be collected during the interview process. It can be gathered once the employees have fulfilled all the requirements to be a permanent employee of the company. This would set a great example for the other companies and would give a fair chance to all the applicants.