Are you more likely to employ a church member?


Meerkatarmy
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A topic in the advcie board got me thinking. Imagine you have a buisness and need to advertise your wears. Two marketing people come to a meeting with you. Both have degrees in the marketing filed from good schools. However, one has more in field experience than the other. The other one is a member of the church.

 

Would you employ the member on the strength of them being a member or is it purely about experience?

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I would want to see or find out about results from the field experience.  If good results I'd probably go with the one that has proven experience and a track record already established.  Whether LDS or not.

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'wares'  not 'wears'   

 

In general, I want the most qualified, but I can think of some exceptions:

 

1) I would hire a veteran first

 

2) if it were for something like house-sitting, yeah, I want a non-drinking, non-smoking, non-hard partying Mormon in my house while I'm gone.

 

3) We are thinking of buying rental real estate in our college town; I would rent to graduate student Mormons first. See #2.

 

4. If a skill is there, but can be improved upon and my business won't suffer in the process - such as a decent secretary who could be turned into a really fine administrative assistant, I might go for the Mormon first.

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'wares'  not 'wears'   

 

In general, I want the most qualified, but I can think of some exceptions:

 

1) I would hire a veteran first

 

2) if it were for something like house-sitting, yeah, I want a non-drinking, non-smoking, non-hard partying Mormon in my house while I'm gone.

 

3) We are thinking of buying rental real estate in our college town; I would rent to graduate student Mormons first. See #2.

 

4. If a skill is there, but can be improved upon and my business won't suffer in the process - such as a decent secretary who could be turned into a really fine administrative assistant, I might go for the Mormon first.

She's asking about marketing people though.

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A topic in the advcie board got me thinking. Imagine you have a buisness and need to advertise your wears. Two marketing people come to a meeting with you. Both have degrees in the marketing filed from good schools. However, one has more in field experience than the other. The other one is a member of the church.

 

Would you employ the member on the strength of them being a member or is it purely about experience?

 

Experience no doubt.

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I would want to see or find out about results from the field experience.  If good results I'd probably go with the one that has proven experience and a track record already established.  Whether LDS or not.

 

I don't know about US employment law (I guess I'm going to have to learn pretty soon) but here in the UK we can't really do that, otherwise we risk an employment tribunal - especially in the public sector.

 

Using proven personal experience to place the person you know above the person you don't is classed as unfair. When short-listing or interviewing, everything we use to determine a persons appropriateness for the position has to be taken from their CV/Resume, or conduct during the interview. The person you don't know can't provide a personal history with yourself, so you have nothing to compare the personal history you have with the person you do know to - I am interested in a US legal perspective on this though.

 

To answer the question directly in the OP, I'd probably have less desire to employ a member of the church above a non-member based on my past experience working with members. Employer/employee relationships, due to their very nature can destroy all other kinds of relationships with this person if they exist. For instance, if I had to modify the contract with this person to give them a lower pay, or fire them, I wouldn't want to have any additional relationships with this person outside of work otherwise I'd have to face them regularly outside of work, knowing that they probably detest me. I've seen this happen several times and people have left the church entirely because of it. Not a pleasant experience. 

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I know that the government, particularly the NSA is quite fond of LDS. They apparently actively recruit returned missionaries for the fact that they live a higher standard of life, one of better morals, ethics and integrity. The NSA data center being in Utah is very convenient as well for recruiting.

 

Would I hire an LDS to serve papers with me? Possibly. I would not mind hiring someone who has no experience as long as I feel they are qualified and can handle the stress of the job and are willing to carry concealed (obtain a firearm and have a CHL) and take a class or have some alternative form of self defense. Veterans have long been people I support, I actively donate to a foundation for them with my job.

 

My LDS friends are quite a bit more honorable than the majority of my non-LDS friends.

 

It comes down to qualifications, additional status such as LDS or returned missionary would further my reason to hold this individual to the high standards of my job.

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I recall applying for teaching jobs years ago and being specifically advised by many people to not let one principal known in any way shape or form that I was LDS (no CTR ring, take BYU-Idaho off my resume) as she was severely anti-Mormon.

 

As it stands, the law can say all it wants to not hire/fire based on religion, but it happens as proving it is hard.

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A topic in the advcie board got me thinking. Imagine you have a buisness and need to advertise your wears. Two marketing people come to a meeting with you. Both have degrees in the marketing filed from good schools. However, one has more in field experience than the other. The other one is a member of the church.

 

Would you employ the member on the strength of them being a member or is it purely about experience?

if all other variables were equal save for the field experience vs church member ones i'd probably go with field experience.

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Personally, I wouldn't hire someone solely based on he or she being LDS, but in general, my husband and I are careful about doing business with church members, family, or friends. Sometimes branching out away from those ties is better when dealing with business matters.

 

I think having experience is an advantage in comparison to having little or no experience. That said, this doesn't always mean that someone with experience is a harder worker or more ethical worker. I guess I would conclude that one's character and work history (speaking with past employers etc.) can tell you a lot.

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