Anonymous Recruitment Will Dominate in 2021, Here’s Why
The anonymous recruitment agency is on the rise. Coupled with that, companies are taking note of how these candidate-finding practices work in everyone’s favor. Anonymous recruitment lowers barriers tied to gender, ethnicity, age, marital status, and family life. Why do hiring managers need to know these details? They don’t. Candidates shouldn’t have to worry that bullet points on their resume will take attention away from their talent and skills.
Anonymous recruitment streamlines the process of skill and experience-based hiring. In an ideal world, we’re all under the assumption that hiring managers are only looking at qualifications–that they ignore names, addresses, interests, or personal details included on the application. Unfortunately, not every company is like this. According to a study by Crawford, ANU, Chinese applicants must submit 68% more applications, people with Middle Eastern names must submit 64% more, and indigenous names 35%.
Anonymous Recruitment: The Difference
Companies that practice anonymous recruiting noted that their approach has generated a more diverse applicant pool. More minorities and women are getting an interview. Their entire process up until the in-person interview is anonymous, even the skills assessment. Discrimination can still occur in the final stage. Who gets hired is still up to the team.
What does an anonymous recruitment process look like? No two are alike but here is what you can expect:
The application will ask you to identify your top skills and why you feel you’re a fit for the job. It won’t ask for any other personal details that could identify you.
The initial interview process might take place over chat using handles. The interviewee won’t have to identify themselves if they don’t want to.
Next, a skills assessment will make sure the candidate can tackle exactly the problems they said they could. This will also be anonymous.
In the final stage, companies will use a live video or in-person interview. Of course, who gets hired is up to the team. The final candidate pool is much more diverse when this angle is deployed.
What’s important for the hiring team?
What do hiring managers and employment agencies really need to know? When forming their elevator pitches for each candidate, the lead should always be skills and qualifications. Where a person is from, whether or not they have children, and most importantly, their name should not factor into the selection process.
The question comes to mind, “Is hiring a safe space for applicants?” If the applicant can’t trust that they’ll be seen for what’s important, it’s quite possible they’ll hold back on other sections of the application. The short introductory video or audio clip is common. While these are already awkward for some, the worry over biases worsens it. Applying for a job should feel safe and accessible.
Retaining and recruiting
Beyond fair and accessible hiring practices, companies also need to build better internal processes for the people that are already there. This is especially important if they promote from within. It boosts morale and sets a precedent for working towards goals. Employees at all levels of the organization crave feedback. Having a solid understanding of their own progress and learning zones enables them to work towards these benchmarks and grow the overall organization.
SideSearch is applying modern recruitment trends to help job seekers and recruiters save time and create meaningful connections that speed up the search process. It was started by battle-tested recruiters and HR professionals. They saw an opportunity to fix the headaches associated with online job hunting. SideSearch is for professionals in accounting, finance, business development, human resources, and IT. Showcasing what you love to do the most. No resumes, just skill-based matching.