Research supports name-blind hiring test
Scrubbing resumés of names is the latest strategy the federal government is trying in its efforts to build a more diverse public service. The logic to name-blind hiring is that if you remove the identifying details from job application packages, it will help root out unconscious bias in the hiring process. Treasury Board President Scott Brison and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen have both hailed the six-department pilot project as a way to better reflect Canada’s diversity in the federal bureaucracy.
Overall, the public service is already a relatively diverse workplace: 14.5 per cent of all public servants are visible minorities (compared to 19 per cent of the population); 5.6 per cent have disabilities (nearly 11 per cent of those aged 15 to 64 have a disability); 5.2 per cent are aboriginal (compared to 4.3 per cent of the population); and 54.4 per cent are women (compared to about half the population.)
Research so far supports the premise of this pilot: Those with names that don’t sound English have a harder time getting jobs. A look by University of Toronto economist Philip Oreopoulos into hiring in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto concluded those with English-sounding names were 35 per cent more likely to get calls back from potential employers, compared to people with Chinese, Indian and Greek-sounding names.
There’s another side to this as well, beyond the government’s goals of building a more diverse workforce. Name-blind hiring can also help ensure hiring is based on merit. With only qualifications stacked up against one another, the best candidates should be more likely to carry on to the next stage. Subconscious discrimination based on a name could easily see the best candidate screened out of the job process.
Challenges abound, of course. While the federal plan is to remove names from applications, it doesn’t take sophisticated detective skills to deduce from a resumé certain information about a candidate. Previous workplaces, volunteer experience and education credentials can all offer clues to ethnic background. No hiring system can be foolproof.
So, will the federal pilot project work? There’s only one way to find out, and the results are due in October. The federal government should ensure the results are public, so the program may be weighed by other Canadian employers.
Meanwhile, there are still other major problems with public service hiring, such as onerous applications and long delays (to say nothing about the impacts the Phoenix pay system could have for new hires). There’s plenty more work to be done to recruit Canada’s best and brightest.