Name-blind recruitment ‘an important step toward ending bias’

Nick Elvin

Measures such as allowing anonymous CVs in the recruitment process in order to help organisations spread opportunity and champion diversity in the workplace, were explored at a roundtable meeting at 10 Downing Street between the Prime Minister and a number of senior business representatives this week.

During the event, government and private-sector representatives committed to introducing name-blind recruitment, in which details such as a candidate’s name, gender and ethnicity are not revealed to avoid potential bias and encourage employers to consider candidates on the strength of their experience and potential only.

The Civil Service has committed to introducing name-blind recruitment for all roles below Senior Civil Service (SCS) level, while recruiters including KPMG, HSBC, Deloitte, Virgin Money, BBC, NHS, learndirect and local government committed to delivering name-blind applications for all graduate and apprenticeship-level roles.

Dianah Worman, diversity adviser for the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, was among those at the meeting.

She said: “Initiatives like name-blind recruitment are an important step in helping to remove areas of potential bias in the selection process, and it was very positive to see how many organisation are ready to embrace this.

“To support this, the CIPD will be actively promoting the benefits of name-blind recruitment to its membership and will be working towards embedding this as standard through its training and development courses. This is an important part of encouraging and building more diverse workforces for the future, and we look forward to broadening the diversity debate with the Government and organisations.”

The benefits of anonymous CVs were highlighted in the CIPD’s recent report – A head for hiring: The behavioural science of recruitment and selection. The report also considers other areas of the recruitment and selection process where bias can creep in and urges organisations to take a more conclusive, evidence-based approach to recruitment.

Worman added: “Tackling unconscious bias makes good business sense to ensure that organisations don’t miss out on talent, and individuals get the opportunity they need to get into and on at work.

“There’s potential for name-blind applications to be used much more widely. Apprenticeships is another area where this can and should be applied, for example. And why stop at names? Organisations can choose to remove ages from CVs as well. They can also review job adverts to ensure the language is inclusive and that they attract diverse talent before they even reach the point or reviewing CVs.

“If people have the skills, the potential and the right attitude to work then they should be given every chance to succeed, regardless of their individual characteristics.”