The British civil service is being encouraged to recruit via anonymous resumes to curb discrimination against job candidates with Asian or African names, The Guardian reports.
The call follows a recent UK study that found applicants with 'white looking' names had to send nine applications before receiving an interview while people with 'foreign' names had to send 16 applications before being invited to meet a hiring manager.
In response to this either conscious or subconscious prejudice many claim taking race specific information out of resumes has the potential to make the selection processes fairer.
The French Government has emerged as a trailblazer in this area. It recently embarked on a recruitment programme involving CVs without names, age, sex, birth date, nationality and martial status.
A number of corporates are also said to be following the trend. In the UK, BP has been removing personal information from applications for its graduate programs for the last two years.
The call follows a recent UK study that found applicants with 'white looking' names had to send nine applications before receiving an interview while people with 'foreign' names had to send 16 applications before being invited to meet a hiring manager.
In response to this either conscious or subconscious prejudice many claim taking race specific information out of resumes has the potential to make the selection processes fairer.
The French Government has emerged as a trailblazer in this area. It recently embarked on a recruitment programme involving CVs without names, age, sex, birth date, nationality and martial status.
A number of corporates are also said to be following the trend. In the UK, BP has been removing personal information from applications for its graduate programs for the last two years.
It is my experience that recruitment (and even more so, later advancement/even-handed access to professional development) suffers in the public sector in particular due to so-called "positive discrimination". Government-set quotas that seek to redress previous real or perceived imbalances in gender, race, disability etc have generated as many inequities as they have redressed others. True talent is not always fairly rewarded as politically correct quotas are pursued and personal preferences imposed. Many people with the best talent on offer at the time miss out, as does their parent organisation, because of such recruitment limitations.
Perhaps the French have it right with the first stage of recruiting.
The next step is to give selection panels a tool that reduces bias at that stage of recruitment. Now, there is a challenge!
Posted by: Russell Linwood, ASM, FAIM | 05 January 2010 at 09:25 AM