How to Anonymize CVs for Fairer Hiring

A case for anonymized CVs and name-blind recruitment - backed by data

If we look at a 2019 study from the University of Oxford, we can see why anonymised CVs are necessary...

Identical applications were sent out to employers, with only the candidate's name being changed to reflect ethnicity.

Candidates with white-sounding names were far more likely to progress to the interview stage, whereas minority applicants had to send 80% more applications to get the same results as a White-British person.

The worst part? Researchers found that this rate of discrimination had barely changed since similar experiments back in 1969.

This isn't an issue exclusive to the UK...

We tend to see similar outcomes all across the western world. For us, this makes an even stronger case for rolling out name-blind applications and anonymized resumes as the new standard.

Needless to say, bias during the job application process applies to more than just race.

Job seekers can be also be discriminated against based on their:

• Gender
• Religion
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Disability status

For more research, check out our Recruitment Bias Report.

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The types of information you should remove

A typical CV or resume is riddled with unnecessary information that, at best, has nothing at all to do with their ability to do the job, and, at worst, sends misleading and erroneous signals to a hiring manager that the person is not suited for the role.

We’ve broken down the types of information that you'd typically find on candidate CVs and listed the biases that might come into play, along with an urgency that this type of information should be removed.

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Sacre Bleu! Get these off of CVs right now

• Photos - what you look like very rarely has anything to do with how well you can do a job (except maybe modelling - but even then beauty is subjective). A photo can subject you to affinity bias causing you to prefer people who look like you.
  
  
• Name - someone’s name sends a lot of signals about their background. If someone’s name is like yours you are more likely to assess them positively. If someone’s name is “unusual” to you, you’re more likely to make misleading assumptions. As mentioned previously, this is a massive obstacle for ethnic minorities seeking success in the job market.
  
  
• Age - age is just a weak indicator of how much someone has practiced their skills. Instead of looking at that, how about assessing skills more directly and getting a better signal?
  
  
• Gender/religion (and other PPC) - personal protected characteristics (PPC) are called this because they are protected by law. You cannot discriminate based on these characteristics and they’re not really anyone’s business in the first place.
  

You might want to ditch these too

• Hobbies - you may argue that this gives an insight into the character of the applicant or whether you would like to work with them. These considerations may be important, but care has to be taken that they are not catch-all terms for ‘they weren’t like me’ or ‘I couldn’t go to the pub with him’. Also if you share a common hobby (polo or yachting for example), this might make you view their application more positively than those that are different to you and therefore could bring something different to the team.
  
  
• Professional affiliations - professional certifications are reasonable enough, but otherwise, these types of information are ambiguous in their value at best. Do they seek to confirm that a job candidate comes from the same club as everyone else? If it’s not 100% valuable - it doesn't belong on a resume.
  

And if you want to take it up to 11

• Educational institute names - Number of years of education is one of the least predictive forms of assessing if someone will perform well in a role (check out the seminal Schmidt study). Additionally, the name of an institute may be a proxy for intelligence, but it also signals a whole host of other socioeconomic stuff mushed in together. At the end of the day, it is a proxy for a skill or ability you are trying to assess. Don’t rely on proxies, assess based on the skill itself.
  
  
• Previous company names - you see so many job ads that say ‘must have worked in top 4 <insert industry> firm’. Again this is a proxy and if you rely on it you will always recruit the same type of person.

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3 Practical Anonymous Resume Screening Methods

Here are 3 ways of anonymising and blinding CVs, resumes and cover letters in ascending order of ease and effectiveness:

1. Manually

This is the way that many pioneering Talent Acquisition professionals have been blinding their hiring processes for years. The approach is simple; print out the CVs and take a sharpie to the sensitive bits - you've got yourself an anonymized resume! We’ve done this before and with high numbers of applicants, it isn’t fun and can get very confusing very quickly.

This is much better than an unblinded CV sift but still involves a lot of work (that being said, it’s definitely worth it!).

2. Using an Applicant Tracking System

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are a great way to track which candidate is which by helping to streamline your recruitment process. The problem is, as the name suggests, they are very one-way, kind of like attaching an ankle tracking device to someone and then forgetting they are human as they filter through your process.

Blinding is often done on these systems as an afterthought. The way it works is to first require your poor candidate to re-enter their entire professional history into a series of clunky pull-down menus and radio buttons. Once the candidate is thoroughly annoyed, the ATS then simply does not show the name of the person to the review. The problem is that the rest of the sensitive information is usually shown - why? because it’s an afterthought.

3. Using a People Decision Platform

A People Decision Platform is built around the core concepts of diversity, inclusion and quality of hiring decisions. These platforms have the benefit of being both highly efficient and people-centric.

Firstly, these systems are positioned to care about the skills and ability of a candidate, not the misleading proxies that you typically find in a CV. Secondly, they will carry out the blinding and much more to remove even more bias from a recruitment process as second nature. What’s more, they will prove that the anonymisation has made a difference by using real hiring data as a feedback loop to show the improvement. Surprise, surprise, Applied happens to be a People Decision Platform.

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Beyond anonymized CV and blinding

Anonymising CVs is just the first step in structuring your applicant data to de-clutter your hiring and quickly get to the substance and skills of an applicant. There are dozens of other behavioural science methodologies that can be woven throughout a process to improve its effectiveness. Have a read of our article on How do I remove bias from my recruitment process? for more information.‍

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Beyond CVs and Resumes - Work Sample Questions

The days are numbered for CVs and resumes, after all, they have been in use for hundreds of years (far too long). They’re riddled with bias, full of misleading proxies and are actually one of the least effective predictors of job performance. There are lots of alternative methods to CVs out there, the one we recommend is simply using the most predictive forms of assessment upfront.

For most roles, this involves using ‘work sample questions’ which challenge the applicant to think through a realistic challenge that they could meet on the job.

Work samples test for skills directly instead of relying on proxies like education and experience. This is a fantastic way to ascertain a candidate's skills. Our recruitment platform allows hiring managers to create their own work sample questions, so they can be laser-focused in finding their ideal candidate.

Work samples are created by identifying which skills are needed for the job and then building questions that will test these skills.

Here’s a work sample we used for a recent Community Lead role:

You’ve been invited to be on a panel on hiring & recruitment. You’re the only D&I expert (possibly the only one that thinks it’s important there) in the room. What are your opening lines to the audience to convince and engage them on the subject?

Skills tested: D&I Knowledge, Communication

The best work samples are those which mirror real-life tasks/scenarios most closely.

At Applied, candidates submit 3-5 of these work samples anonymously instead of a CV.

Embrace the future of hiring with the Applied recruitment software

Applied uses anonymized - or 'blind hiring' technology so managers can ditch the CVs and focus on what really matters, how well a candidate can actually get the job done. By making hiring decisions based purely on skills and abilities, companies can increase their recruitment ROI by reducing staff turnover, as well as focusing on channels that are consistently producing the best candidates.

With our software, you will get a centralised platform so you can refine and manage every stage of the hiring process. From creating job applications that will appeal to the widest possible audience, to creating work sample questions and scheduling interviews, you’ll have everything you need to build your ideal team.

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Applied is the essential platform for fairer hiring. Purpose-built to make hiring ethical and predictive, our platform uses anonymised applications and skills-based assessments to improve diversity and identify the best talent.

Start transforming your hiring now: book in a demo or browse our ready-to-use, science-backed talent assessments.