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Blind Recruitment: What’s The Best Approach?

man covering his eyes

Blind recruitment is not a new concept within the recruiting and HR world, it relates to the removable of any identifiable candidate information from a CV, job application or interview process, with the intention to eliminate any possible bias affecting a hiring professional’s decision.

Nowadays, most organisations are aware of the importance of diversity within recruitment. As employers become increasingly proactive to ensure their hiring approach helps tackle bias.

Follow these five tips for the best approach to blind recruitment:
 

Focus on what’s important

Put the focus on what really matters, the candidate’s skills and experience. Other factors irrelevant to the job role, should not be considered. A person’s, age, gender, nationality or even name, can put a candidate at risk of bias and discrimination.

Removing all personal information can be a step forward in tackling the issue. During the initial screening process, have candidates only include information that is relevant to the job role. This will allow recruiting teams to only assess the important factors that affect job seekers chances of progressing further.

Recruiters blind hiring

Will unconscious bias still affect hiring?

Whilst it’s easy to tell candidates not to include their name, address, etc on their CV, it still doesn’t eliminate completely the fact that other elements within a job application could still be open to bias.

For example; the length of experience a candidate states can be an indication of their perceived age (i.e. the more experience they have the older they are?!). Or at times, a hiring manager may be inclined to favour an applicant who has previously studied at the same university as they have.

This demonstrates human input will always be slightly prone to an unconscious bias. Unless of course, all complete personal information (including educational history and employment timelines) are removed. But the time it takes to complete this manually is ineffective for any employer or recruitment agency.
 

What about in an interview?

It’s much more difficult to implement blind recruitment for a job interview. Most hiring managers favour face-to-face interviews that enable them to communicate fully and understand the potential candidate more in-depth.

Even if the interview was conducted anonymously in some way, the tone of voice or accent could still have an impact on the employer’s final hiring decision.
 

Identify an area for improvement

Issues arise for employers attempting to completely overhaul their recruitment process and incorporate an element of blind recruiting into every single recruitment stage. Whereas it can be far more effective to start small and identify an area where improvements can be made.

Distinguish a priority area in a recruitment strategy that needs work. The first stage is usually the best place to start. There’s not much point diving straight into the interview process if the candidate picked for an interview was chosen with biased influence!

The initial candidate screening process can find some employers receiving hundreds upon hundreds of job applications a week. Managing this heavy workload can not only feel overwhelming but may also cause rushed decisions based on a gut feeling that a certain candidate will be successful.
 

A step in the right direction for blind recruitment

Without technology, it is difficult to ensure a consistent long-term approach to blind recruitment. Opinions can vary and differ from one hiring professional to another. Reviewing a job application can be interpreted differently and be subject to an unconscious bias if the technology is not used to tackle this issue.

Hiring technology can provide a fast and efficient solution for the ranking of candidate CVs. Whilst also determining a ‘best fit’ based on the job application, ensuring no other external influences hinder a candidates chance to progress.

Do you agree? We want to hear your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @CiiVSOFT

One Comment

  1. How To Screen Candidates: 5 Tips of Best Practice | CiiVSOFT

    […] avoid the risk of unconscious bias, adopt a blind screening approach. This will ensure personal and identifiable elements to a CV are removed and recruiters can focus […]

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