New virtual tool could tackle “unconscious bias” in creative recruitment

A paper recently published by specialist professional recruitment consultancy Robert Walters reveals that, despite the fact that 77% of managers in a position to hire staff believe that removing personal information from applicant CVs can aid with the reduction of what’s known as “unconscious bias”, only 17% actually go on to deploy such methods.

UK creative recruitment site The Dots yesterday launched a “bias blocking” tool which seeks to tackle the problem within the industry. The digital tool has the capability to hide the sort of personal data — which includes names, photos, and details of educational background — which can, consciously or unconsciously, impact on potential employability.

It arrives in the same week that The Guardian has launched a wide-ranging investigation into how prevalent the problem of unconscious bias is across the United Kingdom.

It was an encounter with a client’s computer which led Pip Jamieson, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Dots, to conceive of the scheme. Said client’s laptop screen was littered with Post-it notes; Post-it notes which were, it turns out, concealing the photographs of applicants for a role the recruiter in question was trying to fill.

This forms part of a contemporary employment practice known as “blind recruitment” and is a possible tool in rectifying the situation in which we see a lack of representation of, in The Dot’s words, “women, ethnic minorities, talent from underprivileged backgrounds and other minority groups.”

The Dots has worked with Creative Equals on the project. It’s Nice That profiled the work that they are doing last month, and you can read that right here.