Anonymous CVs: A New Headache?
5 March 2008
Read by 3683 persons
Since March 2006, Article 24 of the law on equal opportunities requires companies with more than 50 employees to use "anonymous CVs" in their recruitment process.
From now on, all information requested from candidates must have the sole purpose of assessing their ability to fill the position offered, under selection conditions that preserve their anonymity.
HRIS Assistance
HRIS solutions can undeniably help companies meet this new legal requirement. Indeed, some publishers already offering recruitment management features can easily integrate the ability to "erase" certain fields from managed applications (examples: name, marital status, photo, address, gender...).
Let's anonymize then
But whatever options are offered by the HRIS, let's not forget a few common sense reflexes: since the candidate's CV writing remains the same (they won't forget their name and address to be contacted...), it will ultimately be up to the recruiter to make the said CV... anonymous. For the recruiter, this "anonymization" task (phew!) must therefore be carried out manually or automatically without any influence - in view of the legislation - on the overall pre-selection process.
If this task is automated, it means that the HRIS first integrates all the data relating to the candidate, then masks some of it to only show those exclusively relating to the applicant's professional skills. Candidate pre-selection can then be carried out without risk of discrimination, in accordance with the legislator's intentions. Once the principle of the interview has been retained, the information initially hidden can become accessible again to the people participating in the rest of the selection process.
If this task is carried out manually, a strict management process must be implemented, based for example on the principle of "double envelope" (one containing a complete CV and the other containing a filtered CV).
Risks of manual processing
In the case of manual processing, don't forget that the person carrying out the preliminary filtering of potentially discriminatory data must be independent (or even external) to the internal candidate selection process. This last point may pose some problems in ensuring that the company complies with its legal obligations, or even its own ethical practices regarding discrimination in recruitment.
Indeed, since the pre-filtering of CVs is manual, nothing will prevent the person in charge of selection based on anonymous CVs from asking the person in charge of this pre-filtering to "complete" them orally in that high place of informality that is... the cafeteria. Nothing will prevent the person in charge of pre-filtering from arbitrarily rejecting certain CVs that will not even be presented to recruiters... In short, we quickly see that the HRIS can help put in place some simple and effective safeguards to manage these situations. Adapting to the degree of anonymity.
What degree of anonymity?
Once the principle of the anonymous CV and the associated processes and tools have been defined, it remains to consider the desired degree of anonymity (how far should we hide the so-called sensitive fields?). Should certain data indeed be made inaccessible until the end of the recruitment process, or should they be displayed at an intermediate stage of the process? Indeed, remaining anonymous for too long can lead to rather basic recruitment errors: hiring someone who lives in the same geographical area, but at the opposite end of the envisaged workplace, offering a position incompatible with the candidate's religious beliefs...
We can see that the HRIS can help to deal with this type of complexity by varying the degree of anonymity according to the nature of the positions to be filled, not only according to the data requiring anonymity, but also according to the different stages of the overall process.
Return to anonymity
Finally, according to the terms of the new law on equal opportunities, the company must interview all pre-selected candidates. However, if the candidate is ultimately not selected, their CV must become anonymous again, thus allowing them to potentially apply for a new job within the same group.
Here too, the HRIS simplifies this management task and guarantees its completeness by reintegrating the CV indifferently into its internal pool.
As with other HR areas or legislative issues, it is unrealistic to consider the HRIS as an end in itself, or as an infallible remedy to the problem of discrimination that companies are currently facing, but reasonable to consider it as one of the key tools enabling them to minimize the most constraining aspects.
March 5, 2008
guideinformatique.com
From now on, all information requested from candidates must have the sole purpose of assessing their ability to fill the position offered, under selection conditions that preserve their anonymity.
HRIS Assistance
HRIS solutions can undeniably help companies meet this new legal requirement. Indeed, some publishers already offering recruitment management features can easily integrate the ability to "erase" certain fields from managed applications (examples: name, marital status, photo, address, gender...).
Let's anonymize then
But whatever options are offered by the HRIS, let's not forget a few common sense reflexes: since the candidate's CV writing remains the same (they won't forget their name and address to be contacted...), it will ultimately be up to the recruiter to make the said CV... anonymous. For the recruiter, this "anonymization" task (phew!) must therefore be carried out manually or automatically without any influence - in view of the legislation - on the overall pre-selection process.
If this task is automated, it means that the HRIS first integrates all the data relating to the candidate, then masks some of it to only show those exclusively relating to the applicant's professional skills. Candidate pre-selection can then be carried out without risk of discrimination, in accordance with the legislator's intentions. Once the principle of the interview has been retained, the information initially hidden can become accessible again to the people participating in the rest of the selection process.
If this task is carried out manually, a strict management process must be implemented, based for example on the principle of "double envelope" (one containing a complete CV and the other containing a filtered CV).
Risks of manual processing
In the case of manual processing, don't forget that the person carrying out the preliminary filtering of potentially discriminatory data must be independent (or even external) to the internal candidate selection process. This last point may pose some problems in ensuring that the company complies with its legal obligations, or even its own ethical practices regarding discrimination in recruitment.
Indeed, since the pre-filtering of CVs is manual, nothing will prevent the person in charge of selection based on anonymous CVs from asking the person in charge of this pre-filtering to "complete" them orally in that high place of informality that is... the cafeteria. Nothing will prevent the person in charge of pre-filtering from arbitrarily rejecting certain CVs that will not even be presented to recruiters... In short, we quickly see that the HRIS can help put in place some simple and effective safeguards to manage these situations. Adapting to the degree of anonymity.
What degree of anonymity?
Once the principle of the anonymous CV and the associated processes and tools have been defined, it remains to consider the desired degree of anonymity (how far should we hide the so-called sensitive fields?). Should certain data indeed be made inaccessible until the end of the recruitment process, or should they be displayed at an intermediate stage of the process? Indeed, remaining anonymous for too long can lead to rather basic recruitment errors: hiring someone who lives in the same geographical area, but at the opposite end of the envisaged workplace, offering a position incompatible with the candidate's religious beliefs...
We can see that the HRIS can help to deal with this type of complexity by varying the degree of anonymity according to the nature of the positions to be filled, not only according to the data requiring anonymity, but also according to the different stages of the overall process.
Return to anonymity
Finally, according to the terms of the new law on equal opportunities, the company must interview all pre-selected candidates. However, if the candidate is ultimately not selected, their CV must become anonymous again, thus allowing them to potentially apply for a new job within the same group.
Here too, the HRIS simplifies this management task and guarantees its completeness by reintegrating the CV indifferently into its internal pool.
As with other HR areas or legislative issues, it is unrealistic to consider the HRIS as an end in itself, or as an infallible remedy to the problem of discrimination that companies are currently facing, but reasonable to consider it as one of the key tools enabling them to minimize the most constraining aspects.
March 5, 2008
guideinformatique.com
