What is blind recruitment?

blind-recruitment

australia jobs, civil engineering jobs, consultanz,

3243 views

What is blind recruitment?

“Blind recruitment” technique is a good way to focus more on the skills rather than the candidate’s age, gender, name, college degrees and work experiences. Hiring based on skills is a new “thing” among employers.

Removing such information makes it easier for hiring managers, recruiters and HR professionals to make objective decisions about a candidate’s skills, experience and suitability for a role, and to lessen the risk of bias (whether conscious or unconscious) affecting the decision-making process.

Do we need blind recruitment to hire better Candidates?

The truth is that whether we want it or not, employers, as humans, engage in unconscious bias when reviewing resumes. The reasons behind it may vary, but here are the most common:

a) Humans tend to choose people that have similar background and culture;

b) Pre-judgements and false assumptions are easily made based on what is written on the resumes;

c) If a person uses a language that we would use in a resume, he/she will have more chances of getting the job;

d) 74% of the time, white employers contact white-sounding names rather that names with different ethnic-sounding;

There is a way to eliminate these human biases and employers can look for the correct keywords on a resume.

Are Resumes not enough? 

As we all know, resumes are meant to give the employers an idea of the background of the candidate and his or her previous experience.

The resume is the first step in securing a job vacancy. Therefore, candidates paint positive images of themselves and the resumes end up looking the same as others, and having the same exact words. Resumes are filled with whatever is expected for a certain position.

As a result, it is difficult to determine or to confirm if the candidate truly has all the qualities and abilities listed on the resume or in the cover letter. Moreover, cultural factors can play a role in the decision of hiring someone.

First the Skills Test, then the Resume

Most of the companies run skill tests in the latter part of the recruitment process and this is a huge mistake. Why? Because the few candidates that will take the skill test have been selected based on biased resumes.

Replacing the resumes collection with a short skills test will bring many benefits. The main objective will be to hire a person who has the skills that the job requires, but this time it will not depend on how well a resume is written.

It also makes it fair for all the candidates as employers will not regard candidate’s age, gender, ethnicity, etc. Also, the skills test gives the recruiter a strong idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the candidate.

Definitely, skills test helps employers to hire strong, skilful candidates and create a better understanding between the candidate and the employer.

Tools and resources to reduce hiring bias:

Blendoor

Blendoor uses augmented intelligence and people analytics to mitigate unconscious bias in hiring and beyond.

Gapjumpers

With GapJumpers you create blind auditions to test candidate work readiness. Completely anonymously and bias free.

Textio

Textio Hire uses data science to reveal the hidden gender bias in your writing and suggest alternatives so you can recruit from the widest possible pool of qualified candidates.

Gender Decoder for Job Ads

This site is a quick way to check whether a job advert has the kind of subtle linguistic gender-coding that has a discouraging effect.

Project Implicit

Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition – thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the Internet.

Project Include

Project Include’s mission is to give everyone a fair chance to succeed in tech. This is a non-profit that uses data and advocacy to accelerate diversity and inclusion solutions in the tech industry.

^ Back to top