A different way to diversify your business’s recruitment and hiring program is blind hiring.
In 2021, many businesses choose to implement some version of this process. The goal being to remove bias from hiring and diversifying their employee pools. Read on to learn about what this practice is and whether it is the best choice for your company.
How Does Blind Hiring Work?
Certain pieces of demographic and personal information about individual job candidates can be hidden using software or third-party entities. This process most often occurs during the initial screening.
The process operates on the belief that by hiding details such as a candidate’s name, age, gender, address, and educational background, businesses can eliminate the subtle forms of discrimination that commonly occur.
Pros to Blind Hiring
A huge benefit of working without demographic information is that it can filter out clear sources of bias among recruiters and hiring managers. Whether aware of it or not, hiring teams often have an idea of a “good candidate” in mind. This bias can lead to a homogenized workplace.
The problem is widely reported in tech, a field historically dominated by men. Studies show that 48% of women in STEM professions encounter discrimination in the hiring and recruitment process.
A blind hiring process gives companies an opportunity to takes a skills-based approach to hiring talent. This allows employers to narrow their field of candidates based on aptitude alone, rather than degrees or previous work experience.
Cons to Blind Hiring
While blind hiring can present certain advantages to a company, it also has its drawbacks.
Even hiding major demographic information won’t necessarily stop hiring teams from consciously or subconsciously making biased presumptions. These presumptions are based on the content of an applicant’s resume or cover letter.
The process can be implemented easily during resume review. Once a candidate has reached the interview stage it can be difficult to maintain an unbiased viewpoint. Most companies are forced to revert to their usual method.
Is it Right for Your Business?
Every business’s hiring process is different. Blind hiring helps one business achieve its goals; while being much less effective for another.
At the end of the day, weighing the pros and cons of this process is critical to determining if it’s going to be a good fit for your company.
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Recruitment, hiring, and onboarding are all key to the success of your business. ABBTECH will help you bring in talent that strengthens your workforce. This you the time of vetting candidates on your own.
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