Blind recruiting is becoming the new standard for talent procurement

At MeVitae, we believe blind recruiting will become the norm in the hiring process. Over time there has been an increase in the need for diverse talent pools in the workplace, especially with regards to gender, ethnicity and disabilities. Recently, research has even started to identify the relationship between increased diversity and revenue. For instance, McKinsey & Co found that those companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 25% more likely to have above average profitability. By removing sensitive information that does not predict skills or performance on a candidate’s application, blind recruiting aims to tackle this need for diversity in the workplace. Specifically, blind recruiting analyses CV’s, resumes, and any other document’s that candidates provide, redacting information such as names, gender and ethnic identifiers, in addition to names of universities to name a few. As humans, we are limited in our cognitive capacity and, are, therefore, predisposed to making ill-informed prejudices and/or assumptions. With regards to the hiring process, cognitive biases are present at all stages. However, it is during the initial screening/shortlisting that cognitive biases are most prevalent, and for this reason, blind recruitment has been designed for this stage.

Where to implement blind recruiting - The moment candidates apply?

There are two main periods where blind recruitment can be implemented into the hiring process: either as soon as the candidate submits their documents, or between the recruiter screening the applications and the hiring manager receiving these. The former allows for minimal bias as almost the entire process of hiring before the interview is based purely on the candidates’ competencies, and not on any information that could be distorted by cognitive biases. Furthermore, this approach provides a level of standardisation and consistency across all of the stages of the hiring process.

However, this method is not without its downfalls. Redaction before initial screening also entails increased costs as higher volumes of documents require redaction, as opposed to later on once a few resumes have been brought forward for hiring managers. In addition, with personal details redacted, this approach may require some careful consideration regarding contacting candidates, often with a third-party employee required to liaison with the candidate.

The workflow for this generally will look as follows:

Where to implement blind recruiting - The shortlisting phase?

Alternatively, blind recruiting can be introduced purely for the most important period of the recruitment process: the reviewing of applications by hiring managers. Implementing MeVitae’s blinding solution at this later stage lowers the mitigation of bias as sensitive parameters would not have been hidden from recruiters. Furthermore, this approach may pose new challenges for hiring managers as they deal with a culture shift away from traditional hiring procedures – which if everyone is committed to, then can be extremely efficient and successful. However, this method is significantly less disruptive to your current hiring process, enabling a shorter hiring process at a lower cost.

The workflow for this generally will look as follows:

Closing remarks

To weigh up each method you must consider what you want to prioritise, if you want to retrain the way your whole recruitment team thinks and improve the mitigation bias as much as possible then the first method of redaction at the point of contact with the candidate will be the way to go. However, if you’d prefer an easier onboarding process with the possibility of expanding the redaction later then the second method of redaction for hiring managers only may be more suitable. It is important to remember that biases are human nature and while blind recruitment will mitigate these as much as possible, bias is still likely to be present within your hiring process. This solution is intended as an augmentation to a larger commitment to diversity within your company, and will have a greater impact if the entire workforce embraces diversity and becomes aware of the issues present.

Whichever method you decide is best for your company, one thing is clear and that is the importance of a diverse workforce and the benefits blind recruitment has in this sector.

If you want more information on blind recruitment or have a specific way you plan to implement blind recruiting then please contact the team using the button below!

** Author:** Luke Drew (Sales Engineer)