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The background to the discussions about anonymization of, among other things, CVs, is the fear of discriminating against people on incorrect grounds. Many of us are striving for a more just world, which is fundamentally positive. The problems arise when we don’t go to the bottom with the whole scenario, ie we start from the wrong starting point. Skill-based recruitment is basically right, but skill is not enough all the way. As long as it’s not about robots, but people with emotions, skill will only suffice for a while. The human is too complex to be judged solely on the basis of their competence.
The idea of removing all personal data from a CV is based on the fact that all people should have the same chance at a job. We should not judge people based on age, gender or background.
When we take away those possibilities, we have removed one step. What happens when we delete that info is that we immediately start looking at the person’s experiences, which companies they have worked at, what educations they have completed, how long they have been at each workplace, and so on. Based on that, we unconsciously start counting backwards and have fairly quickly categorized a lot of information about the person. If they went to university in 2007, for example, we quickly calculate that this person is around 35 – 45 years old, have they been to companies that we have a relationship with, positive or negative, we start to weigh that in, etc., you see where I am going with this. Whether we like it or not, we make judgments based on information and all people on earth have prejudices, whether we like it or not. During the first 6-7 years, our basic values are established and as life goes on, we build our database of experiences that make us assess things subconsciously. This is how we humans are created. If we are to succeed with anonymous CVs, we need to remove all years, all brands, etc., which school / education you have , etc., only then it will be a fair game. The problem then is that we don’t have any relevant information about the candidate which makes it more or less impossible to make a good recruitment.
In my headline I wrote that anonymous CVs are momentary, not the solution. If we really want to solve the challenge of fair recruitment, we must start thinking in a completely new direction. Starting to test people through various psychological tests is a step in the right direction. But just doing tests does not solve the recruitment, in addition, you should interpret tests with a certain skepticism. There are many ifs and buts about tests, in what state of mind you are, are you sitting in a calm environment, are you in a stable point in life, and so on. In addition, you should know that people will try to outsmart tests, there is often a certain discrepancy between “how you are” and “how you want to be”, you should keep this in mind when reading a test result. Within the blue collar and the advertising agency industries cases often work well when it comes to measuring competence. The problem is that they many times requires extensive preparation.
Basically, I buy the idea of recruiting fairly, but today’s approach is outdated. It’s about fundamental changes and in the future there will no longer be a CV – at least not in the future we see ahead of us.
So how does it work with anonymous CVs? Read more here.
Unprejudiced recruitment and personality tests are hot topics in recruitment today. What will recruitment look like going forward? What can we expect to see more of in the future? Read more about this topic here Rekryteringsguide: Framtidens rekrytering
Author: Stefan Lidén
Reviewer: Moa Jacobsson
