28 February 2018

Blind recruitment: what does it bring to the process?

recruitment of personnel

Table of contents

The objective of any recruitment process is to bring as much talent as possible into the company, but recruitment is not without risk that would divert the organisation from this goal. Still, what is the value of choosing the blind recruitment?

In order for the employer's perspective on the candidate to be as objective as possible, and no possible favouritism or biases are incurred on the basis of gender, race, ideology, social class, etc. - whether conscious or unconscious - blind auditions or blind recruitment processes emerge. -whether conscious or unconscious - blind auditions or blind recruitment processes arise.

The starting point

In 2003, the The National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States released the report Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination, a paper that highlighted discrimination in the labour market.

According to the research, white candidates needed to send a dozen CVs to be contacted by a company. While professionals with African-American names had to send 15 CVs to a company to be contacted. to get an answer.  

In Europe, the Institute for the Study of Labour in Germany found that applicants with a Germanic name were 14% more likely to be called for a vacancy than those with a Turkish name..

Similar results are reached by another study carried out in France on people with Arabic names and another in the UK on ethnic minorities.

It is not surprising, therefore, that in recent years, accusations of discrimination during recruitment processes have been published in the media against large companies, as in the case of Google.

As a consequence, many governments have proposed the application of blind recruitment as a system for improving the recruitment process. And ensure that access to the labour market is as fair as possible., The project is being piloted in order to evaluate its benefits.

In Spain, for example, the Ministry of Health, Equality and Social Services has implemented a initiative of this anonymous curriculum in partnership with a number of companies, which has led to an increase in the recruitment of women from 12 to 36% in these organisations.

What is blind recruitment?

Through blind recruitment, the recruiter does not have access to candidates' data (name, photograph, age, sex, origin, university of origin...).

The aim is to eliminate possible discriminatory biases and to ensure that the best people for the job actually get the job.  

Thus, once the job offer has been published, the recruiting company must focus their attention on the applicant's competencies and suitability for the post in particular that needs to be covered.

For this purpose, in addition to the anonymous curriculum vitae data, the recruiter may also carry out tests or examinations The aim of the project is to develop as much as possible the hard and soft skills - such as personality or psychometric questionnaires, writing exercises or problem-solving - in order to go as deeply as possible into the hard and soft skills. And thus, to know which are the key questions to ask a candidate before the personal interview phase.

What are the advantages of blind recruitment?«

As we have already mentioned, this form of blind recruitment is a very common form of recruitment. boosting equality in selection processes. Specifically, blind auditions generate the following benefits for the organisation:

  • They avoid discriminatory treatment of any kind. Since we do not have the personal details of the applicants, the choice of one or another professional will never be based on gender, appearance, origin, sexual orientation, ideology, etc., but will be based on meritocracy.
  • They help to recruit the best profiles. This absence of personal characteristics means that the recruiter focuses on the talent of the candidates, valuing their experience, training and skills.
  • They boost corporate image. This transparency in recruitment processes reinforces employer branding both externally and among employees themselves.
  • They improve work motivation. Knowing that everyone in the company is there because of their skills reinforces the job satisfaction of employees, who will improve their performance.
  • They strengthen the diversity of teams. The workforce will be made up of heterogeneous workers, enriching the corporate culture and company results. In fact, numerous research studies link employee diversity with company success, such as the CEDE Foundation report Diversity in management or the PwC's 2015 Annual Corporate Directors Survey.

Do you already know better what blind recruitment is, what advantages it has and what it brings to a company's candidate selection process?

Edenred Spain

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