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Unfortunately, the vast majority of HR departments (even the 'best') aren't doing this at all. My company, Mighty Spring (https://www.mightyspring.com https://

by lumens 13y ago

Unfortunately, the vast majority of HR departments (even the 'best') aren't doing this at all. My company, Mighty Spring (https://www.mightyspring.com https://www.mightyspring.com), is doing exactly this on a larger scale: we're a marketplace that connects people and employers, but the employers see anonymized versions of each candidate's data/career history. They request to interview candidates on the platform based on these anonymous profiles. Should the candidate accept, we reveal contact information to both parties and help schedule the interview. While we're still fairly early stage, we're aiming to expose bias at different points in the hiring process using this approach, and at the very least help employers understand their own biases. Acceptance is the first step to a solution, no?

jack-r-abbit 13y ago
It would be great to see this more. It could provide some interesting data. I would be interested to hear if anonymized resumes closed the gender gap for getting an interview or not. It could also expose a possible bias if the gender gap closed for getting a first interview but then the gap simply shifted up one level when it came to the second step of the process (ie, disproportionately more men move on to a second interview). Although, it might actually be harder to show a bias at that level since a lot of the interview process has to do with how well the person sells themselves, articulates their answers, presents themselves physically (ie, dressed appropriately), etc. These things also happen to be very subjective so it is kind of difficult to prove there was a bias. Which is also why it is equally difficult to prove there was not a bias. (Did you not get hired because of your gender? Or just because you didn't interview well?) I have no doubt that people get turned down based on unimportant "qualifications" like gender, race, age, etc. And that is wrong. But I also have no doubt that some people who felt they were turned down for one of those reason actually just wasn't qualified or blew the interview and don't think to look internally before they look around them.

by lumens 13y ago

jack-r-abbit 13y ago

It would be great to see this more. It could provide some interesting data. I would be interested to hear if anonymized resumes closed the gender gap for getting an interview or not. It could also expose a possible bias if the gender gap closed for getting a first interview but then the gap simply shifted up one level when it came to the second step of the process (ie, disproportionately more men move on to a second interview). Although, it might actually be harder to show a bias at that level since a lot of the interview process has to do with how well the person sells themselves, articulates their answers, presents themselves physically (ie, dressed appropriately), etc. These things also happen to be very subjective so it is kind of difficult to prove there was a bias. Which is also why it is equally difficult to prove there was not a bias. (Did you not get hired because of your gender? Or just because you didn't interview well?) I have no doubt that people get turned down based on unimportant "qualifications" like gender, race, age, etc. And that is wrong. But I also have no doubt that some people who felt they were turned down for one of those reason actually just wasn't qualified or blew the interview and don't think to look internally before they look around them.