Anonymous CVs
Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP and party spokeswoman for equality suggested that the Equality Bill should include an amendment to ban names and other personal data such as gender, race or age from inclusion on CVs and written applications for employment.
The suggestion has been criticised by HR professionals, and a poll on personnel today, a leading HR publication stated that 73% of respondents said names should not be banned.
Although we appreciate most companies are not recruiting at the moment, this is an area of expertise we can assist with, ensuring you select the best candidates but also comply with employment legislation.
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You make an interesting point Lynne and raise a great question…………….why would removing names, gender, race, etc from CVs / application forms reduce the quality of candidates on the short-list in any way?
Would you suggest that this policy should be applied to ALL job applications (internal and external) or should be strictly limited to external applications?
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Yet some of the big employment organsations do support the idea. I am not sure on what basis employment agencies feel this to be an idea they don’t support. It takes nothing away except names – and if names for reasons of gender, ethnicity or age are triggering subliminal discard of an applicant before even interview – then why not remove the barrier. All the qualifications and experience will still be exactly the same and if that is the basis on which selection for short-listing or interview is based – why not remove them? It has long been recognised in terms of things like children’s exam papers that names should be removed to ensure absolute absence of any bias and exam numbers issued. I can’t see why this idea has caused such a hoo ha when it would simply ensure absolute fairness.
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