When selecting candidates, being objective is crucial in determining who gets the job. However, as humans, we tend to have biases that can make us feel favorably or unfavorably towards someone without any sound reason. Such feelings can often interfere with making an honest, and objective decision which can put the candidates at risk and negatively affect the company.
According to a survey by BrightTalk, 79% of HR professionals agree that unconscious bias exists in recruitment and succession planning decisions.
That is why many companies often carry out blind recruitment or blind hiring. This approach helps managers make hiring decisions based on qualifications that can truly contribute to the firm’s success.
Therefore, blind hiring or blind recruitment is a popular practice by companies. It assists managers in making hiring decisions based on actual requirements that can contribute to the company’s success.
In this article, we will discuss blind hiring in more detail and highlight how a company can implement it in recruitment.
What is Blind Hiring?
Blind hiring is a technique that involves concealing certain information about job applicants, such as their name, college, address, and any details that may reveal their gender, race, or ethnicity.
This information can sometimes influence the hiring decision or create a bias, even though it should not be a factor when hiring someone.
Vanderbilt University’s definition of bias is “unsupported judgments in favor of or against one thing, person, or group as compared to another, in a way that is usually considered unfair.” Additionally, bias can stem from our unconscious or past experiences and background.
When blind hiring is implemented, hiring managers and recruiters focus only on candidates’ experience and skills, making the process more objective and fair for everyone.
How Does Blind Recruiting Reduce Bias
As previously explained, blind hiring is a process that involves removing certain information from the candidates’ resumes that could cause bias and lead to a wrong hiring decision.
This helps employers to focus solely on the candidates’ skills and relevant experience for the job position, without being influenced by factors such as ethnic background, gender, name, education, age, and hobbies.
Many candidates include various personal details in their resumes that can lead employers to form a particular opinion about them. For instance, a candidate’s hobbies like reading books could give an impression of their personality, which might not be relevant to the job profile.
However, by adopting blind hiring practices, employers can avoid such biases and make a fair assessment of the candidates based on their relevant skills and experience.
How to implement blind hiring
If you are interested in implementing blind hiring in your hiring process, you might be wondering how to go about it.
The truth is, there is no single approach that you must follow. Some companies use specialized software for this purpose, while others rely on neutral employees who are not involved in the hiring process to obscure any information that could cause bias.
Statistics On Blind Hiring
Blind hiring aims to eliminate bias in the recruitment process by assessing candidates based on skills and experience. However, its effectiveness in reality is questionable and needs further examination.
Harvard Business School has shared interesting findings in its article “When Blind Hiring Advances DEI – and When It Doesn’t.” They explain the results of several studies on blind hiring.
- Sweden – Public Sector Study 1:
More women and ethnic minorities were selected for interviews when applications were anonymized compared to when names were maintained.
- Sweden – Public Sector Study 2:
Women who uploaded credential information to a database were more likely to receive interview invites when their gender information was blinded.
- Netherlands Study:
People of non-Western origin, a traditionally disadvantaged Dutch job-seeker group, were more likely to be advanced to interviews for public sector jobs when application materials were evaluated blindly.
- Canada – Public Service Study:
Blinding information, including names, citizenships, addresses, educational institutions, and religions, increased interview selection rates for minority applicants to the public service.
- U.S. Restaurant Chain Study:
In a restaurant chain study, older workers were more likely to be advanced to the interview stage when applications were submitted online, blinding applicants’ ages.
- France Study:
Employers in France were less likely to select applicants from minority social groups for interviews when names were blinded compared to when names were provided.
- Germany Study:
Blind hiring boosted interview rates for job applicants from minority groups only when employers tended to discriminate against those groups under a traditional process. For employers who were more likely to interview applicants from minority groups traditionally, blind hiring led to worse interview selection rates.
To sum up
Every company wants the best team, right? But when they hire new people, sometimes there are biases—like having preferences based on things that don’t really matter for the job. Blind hiring is a way to fix this. It helps by not showing unnecessary details about a person, so the decision is fair and focused on what really matters for the job.