What is masked hiring?

When you use a masked hiring process, you hide any identifying candidate information from applications and resumes that may create bias. Hiding information aims to prevent assumptions about the applicant’s race, religion, gender, age and other factors that aren’t relevant to their qualifications but could cause a bias. This includes things like names, addresses, personal interests, colleges, graduation dates and work dates for job experiences. Many biases are things you don’t realize you’re doing, so masked resumes make it easier to avoid those internalized influences. It helps you evaluate each candidate’s qualifications to choose the people who match your skill needs without irrelevant factors playing a role.

How bias occurs

Even when you try to avoid biases in the hiring process, you might show preference for people who are similar to you without realizing it. These unconscious biases are formed by all your previous experiences. You’re often drawn to people who’ve experienced similar things. You might show a preference for someone who went to the same college as you, for example.

Biases can also happen if you discover something positive, known as the halo effect, or negative, known as the horn effect, about a person. Something impressive about the candidate could cause you to ignore any drawbacks about them, while one negative discovery could cause you to look for more negatives.

When you’re screening hundreds of applications, you make decisions quickly out of necessity. You might have a gut feeling about a candidate and let that influence whether you interview them. That gut feeling may be your unconscious biases making the decision.

Pros of masked recruiting

When you implement masked hiring processes, you may gain benefits such as:

• A focus on skills: With unconscious biases out of the way, your selection process focuses more on skills and qualifications. This can help you find the best matches for your positions.
• Standardized evaluation process: When you can see the same information about all applicants, the evaluation process becomes more standardized.
• Reduced preferential treatment: Many people think you have to know someone high up in the company to even get an interview. Your company might show preferential treatment to candidates who have an “in” with the organization. Masked recruiting can help you avoid preferential treatment since you won’t know who each candidate is and if they have a relationship with an employee.
• Potential cost savings: If masked hiring helps you find a candidate who’s a good fit for the job, you could reduce your recruitment costs. The candidate should already have the skills necessary to succeed in the role, which can reduce the amount of training you need to do and can help you retain that employee.

Ways to implement masked hiring

The easiest way to implement masked recruiting is to use available software that automates the process. Several programs help make various parts of your hiring process anonymous and may integrate with your applicant tracking system. Some applicant tracking software has masked hiring features built into it to hide certain details. Here are a few examples of software options that can help:

• Textio can help you make your job descriptions, recruiting blog posts, emails and other hiring text more inclusive.
• GapJumpers lets you send questions and tests to candidates to get anonymous responses, which allows you to evaluate their skills without revealing identifying information about the candidates.
• Toggl Hire uses short skills-based quizzes instead of resumes for candidates to apply.

Another option is using a spreadsheet format to cover certain details. After importing the application information into the software, hide the columns that provide identifying information, such as names and college information. This takes a little longer than software since you have to hide the info manually, but you can complete the process relatively easily.

You can also have someone who’s not involved in the process manually hide the identifying information. For example, they might use image-editing software to block certain details or manually enter the information you want to use into a template. However, this can be a very time-consuming process, especially if you have numerous applicants.

How to start with masked hiring

There’s some flexibility in how you incorporate masked hiring. These steps give you a general idea of how to do it:

1. Set a budget for the masked hiring process, which might include staff salary for their time working on the project and software for implementing the process.
2. Choose a method for hiding the information, such as software, spreadsheets or manual removal, based on your budget.
3. Determine what information you’ll hide from applications.
4. Identify the key skills and requirements you need for the position.
5. Choose additional screening processes, such as skills assessments, to use as part of the application process.

Other ways to prevent bias in your hiring process

In addition to blocking certain applicant information, there are other ways to eliminate biases and increase diversity throughout the recruitment process. Here are some suggestions:

• Create a hiring team: Instead of having one hiring manager , create a team of at least three people. Choosing diverse team members can help you get a balanced evaluation of the candidates.
• Improve your job descriptions: You can encourage a more diverse candidate pool by creating inclusive job descriptions without subtle biases. Removing gender-focused language, such as he, she, salesman and chairman, is a good start. Think about things that might have a racial or ethnic bias, such as requiring candidates to be an English speaker. You can avoid age biases by skipping the years of experience required. Instead, applicants might rank themselves by level of experience, from basic to expert.
• Start with masked interviews: Masked interviewing for the first round can help eliminate bias beyond candidate screening. Ways to do this include conducting the interview through online chats or online forms. You want something that doesn’t reveal what the person looks or sounds like as those things could influence your decision.
• Skip social media checks: Some companies look up candidates on social media, but this may reveal the identifying details you’re trying to avoid. Stick to the filtered resume and application information when selecting candidates for interviews.
• Use a structured interview process: Every candidate should go through a structured interview with a standard set of questions asked in the same order and ranked on a numerical scale. All candidates should also go through the same evaluations. This helps you compare the applicants as closely as possible without giving some candidates unfair advantages.
• Train your staff: Diversity and unconscious bias training for all employees involved in the process can reduce additional biases during interviews and hiring decisions. Incorporate regular training on these topics for the best results.
• Review the results: Look at your hiring, diversity and employee retention metrics periodically to see if the masked hiring process has helped. Use this information to make changes to the process if necessary.