Masking Resumes – A new standard
The year 2020 has been packed full of change. Arguably more than ever before, humanity has had to prove its resilience in the face of global adversity. Yet, that wasn’t enough. In the middle of the turmoil of the world wide COVID-19 pandemic, social justice came into the public eye in an entirely new light. These events didn’t just pull social justice into the public eye, they forced society to take a long and hard look at the truth of racial-relationships as they truly exist today.
While there has, of course, been progress over the past century in terms of social justice and equality, some would say we have some ways to go.. Whether the presence is systemic or not – the path to equality still stretches out long before us.
However, acknowledging that bias may be unconscious and not by choice allows us to address it more pointedly. This shows us the importance of taking action – wherever and whenever we can to eliminate this bias to the best of our ability.
Eliminating Professional Bias
Bias and judgement are innate human actions. Judgement is an ancient survival technique. As a species, we learned to observe and judge the amount of risk that another person or entity presents to our survival. Therefore, conducting judgement is a natural human activity we have very little control over.
Bias is the same. Bias exists in both the conscious and subconscious of our brains. However, that makes it our responsibility as societal members to consciously be aware of our unconscious bias, and do our best to neutralize this bias.
This is especially true when it comes to the workplace, HR, and making hiring decisions.
Workday Offers Masked Resume screening to HR Departments
It’s said that a hiring professional makes a decision on a resume in about 10 seconds of looking at the resume. That’s a tiny window of time in order for any person to make a strong enough impression that they win the opportunity at the next level: the interview.
However, in that 10-second window, what information does a hiring professional actually consider and weigh into the decision making process?
Well, in the event that the resume includes the applicant’s name, hiring professionals will immediately make an assumption about the background, race, and ethnicity of a person. Whether they mean to do it consciously, or it happens in the back of their mind as a subconscious moment. Either way – it happens. This is not the only information considered in that short 10 seconds, however it is important to acknowledge how this has adversely affected so many qualified applicants.
While nearly every company will boast a diversity priority, and claim to be an equal opportunity employer, the fact of the matter is that’s just not the case.
No one person, entity, or organization will be able to level the playing field, or fix the system overnight – however, we all have a role to play in creating a better, more equal, and more just society that prioritizes merit based on merit alone.
Workday® has taken it upon themselves to start the conversation in the HR industry by offering hiring departments the ability to screen resumes that are completely masked.
A Masked Resume
The implication of a masked resume is grander than it may sound. A masked resume is one that doesn’t include the name of the applicant, or any other information that would allow the company to identify their racial, ethnic, or sexual identity. These are all aspects of a person that should have no impact on their ability to find or secure work.
Rather, Workday hiring solutions offer companies the ability to screen resumes based solely on merit, accomplishment, and the candidates professional capabilities and achievements through resume masking.
Sifting through candidate resumes based on merit, professional achievement, and overall capability means that hiring departments advance the most qualified candidates with the most merit, rather than making hiring decisions based on arbitrary factors that no-one has control over.
This means that the best talent and strongest professionals make it to the final interview stages, and therefore elevates the overall talent and quality of teams within the organization.
Join the Revolution – Use Workday to Mask Resumes
A person is a person. It should be as simple as that, and there shouldn’t be any other influence on the way we view one another. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world. Yet, with more awareness we can all be more conscious and take more action.
Change starts with all of us. Bring that change into your HR department, and start making informed hiring decisions based solely on merit with the help of Workday.
If your team is apprehensive about masking your resumes, ask yourself why. If diversity is a strength – why not supercharge that strength? This is a solid, concrete action your team can take to reduce bias within your firm.
What’s stopping you? If you don’t have Workday, is there another way for you to make this happen? Will you reach out to your ATS provider and request this function? You can be the catalyst.