Using a blind hiring approach effectively means removing as much PII as possible. While certain data points – like candidate names and addresses – may be obvious choices, overlooking some other pieces of information could allow bias to creep into hiring decisions.
For example, college or university names may prevent equitable hiring decisions. Past employer names and addresses could fall into that category. Additionally, employment or educational dates may reveal a candidate’s age, creating opportunities for agism.
Beyond the application itself, another blind hiring best practice is to forgo social media screening during the initial parts of the hiring process. Social media profiles are brimming with PII, so you want to wait until well into the process to perform that type of screening.
Conducting an initial screening interview via chat software could also help reduce hiring bias. Using a chat-based approach, hiring managers can still have live conversations while reducing their exposure to cues indicating a candidate’s age, gender, or similar characteristics.
With the above approach, fairness will be a bigger part of the equation enabling decisions based on capability, ensuring other factors aren’t as likely to influence hiring.