Any search and selection campaign aims to identify and hire the most qualified candidate for a vacant position. The talent search, however, risks being hindered by the appearance of so-called cognitive biases, unconscious biases that may arise in the recruiter during the selection phase, conditioning the choice of candidate. To minimise the appearance of these biases and enable the HR Manager to choose, in an impartial manner, the most suitable candidate for his or her or other companies, Inda offers the possibility of selecting candidates incognito by generating an anonymous CV in real time to be shared with colleagues and clients.

How to do blind recruitment with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the leading 2021 recruiting trends. One of the merits of applying AI to the HR world is that it helps reduce cognitive bias like blind recruitment. Although it is often explicitly talked about gender, ethnicity, age and religion, bias can relate to any prejudice against the candidate during the search and selection process, potentially compromising their evaluation. For this reason, automatic screening systems, semantic search, blind hiring and anonymisation of CVs are now preferred methods.

What is an anonymous CV?

The anonymous CV is a resume examined ‘blindly’ by the recruiter. An anonymised CV hides or disguises some of the candidate’s personal information, information that could give rise to bias and compromise the selection process. By obscuring some of the CV data, HR Managers and recruiters can focus on the skills and professional experience of the candidate and effectively evaluate based on experience and potential.

How to anonymise a CV with Inda

To make the recruitment process more transparent for candidates and companies and to select the most qualified candidates without being influenced by other factors, Inda has developed an Anonymous Resume / CV system.

This new feature allows you to anonymise a digital document (e.g. pdf, doc, docx), whether a CV or a cover letter. Starting from the CV file the candidate uploads in response to an advertisement, Inda allows you to generate an anonymised copy of the same CV in real-time (thus maintaining the original layout/template). The new anonymised copy obscures some personal information, including:

• First name
• Surname
• Telephone number
• Email
• Gender
• Nationality
• Date of birth
• Photo
• Links

Example CV anonymisation

CV uploaded by the candidate

CV anonymised by Inda

As a tool suitable for blind recruitment, optimisation work is already underway to disguise some of the specific language in the CV or cover letter. It will soon be possible to anonymise and hide even textual expressions that could reveal details of the candidate (for example, the expression “I’m a female graduate” indicates the gender of the person).

Advantages of the anonymous CV in the recruitment process

The anonymous CV is a blind recruitment helpful tool for companies and HR teams who want to carry out disguised selections and for Employment Agencies, Search and selection Companies and hiring outsourcing companies who want to share anonymous CVs externally with customers and clients. In addition to this, CV anonymisation has other positive effects, for example:

• Select candidates with a view to Talent Acquisition. By changing the quantity and quality of the information available to the candidate, recruiters can let themselves be explicitly guided by the skills during the selection and choose the profile most in line with the Job Description requirements. This system ensures HR Managers select the most qualified candidates for the subsequent interview phase, and it allows candidates who are at risk of being misjudged in the initial stages to have a fair shot at being evaluated.
• Have transparent selection processes. The selection process will be more transparent and fairer if cognitive biases are eliminated. There will be less discrimination, and companies will start achieving diversity in their workforce, reducing generation and gender gaps. Disguised selection allows for the focus to be entirely on competence: there is no older or younger candidate; it is simply the skills that count.
• Diversify the team. A company that chooses to select anonymous candidates is enhancing skills and also welcoming diversity. This has a positive effect on the team and employee engagement.
• Focus on productivity. Giving the right weight to candidates’ skills means paying attention to a person’s value to the company. This can also affect internal productivity.

Are you curious to carry out a disguised selection? Consult one of our experts and find out how you can do just that with Inda ‘s anonymous CVs.