The Conference was presented by the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology in the College of Economic and Management Sciences at Unisa and Top Talent Solutions (TTS).
 

As officially stated by TTS, the purpose of the Conference was to facilitate an exchange of viewpoints on how to best align sound organisational staffing decisions. The second objective was to learn from scientists and practitioners about global trends in the use of assessment technology in order to increase the fairness and objectivity in personnel decision making.
 

The Conference opened with a panel discussion by Mr Ian Ollis, Shadow Labour Minister of the Democratic Alliance, Mr Patrick Craven, National Spokesperson of Cosatu, Dr Dirk Hermann, Deputy General Secretary of Solidariteit and Prof Dirk Kotzé, Head of the Department of Political Sciences at Unisa and political analyst.

Equal Opportunity Employment (EOE) was the focus of the panel discussion. Dr Jim Outtz shared with the attendees his views on 45 years of US equal opportunity legislation. He also concluded the afternoon session with a discussion on how to design decision-making and selection procedures that are effective without respect to race, colour or other protected bases.

Prof Wayne Cascio of the School of Business Administration at the University of Colorado, Denver, USA, discussed if economic and social objectives are incompatible in personnel and employment decision making.
 

The Conference sensitised the staff and students once again to the importance of fairness during the selection process at companies. The industrial psychologists and human resource professionals are the advocates of equal opportunity employment at companies and have the responsibility to ensure that selection panels adhere to a scientific, transparent and fair process when selecting candidates for available positions as advertised.