Name-blind recruitment ineffective, study says

The federal government says hiding the names of job applicants had no significant effect on whether those who identified as visible minorities were called in for an interview over a six-month period.

A pilot project launched last April by the Public Service Commission of Canada sought to compare the results of traditional screening methods with name-blind recruitment in order to bolster diversity and inclusion in government ranks.

The practice involves removing names and other identifying information such as country of origin from job applications to fight bias against people of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

In a report released this week, the commission says there was no significant difference for candidates from visible minority groups when their personal information was concealed.

It also says applicants from all other groups were less likely to be brought in for an interview under that system compared to a more traditional method.

The commission notes that the results can’t be generalized to the entire public service because the pilot relied on departments that volunteered and used a non-random selection of external hiring processes.

The project included 27 external job postings across 17 departments between April and October of last year, resulting in a sample of 2,226 candidates, of which 685 self-identified as visible minorities.