Sifting through CVs is an important part of the recruitment process. The following tips will help you do this in a fair and unbiased way:
•Ensure you know what you are looking for and have agreed this with other interviewees.
•Ensure that two or three people review the CVs independently.
•Try to review all applications in the same format.
•Discuss opinions with your colleagues.
•Ensure you are all able to challenge each other’s views about the candidates.
Catching your bias when looking at applications
In addition to the process of sifting CV as already described, recruitment managers need to be aware that their biases will come into play when looking at job applications.
A candidate’s name may indicate their background and how ‘like’ the person checking the CVs they are.
Other details such as age or photo can also sway opinions one way or the other. Beauty bias can lead to people being considered more capable because they are traditionally attractive, and ageism may exclude a capable person because recruiters consider them too old.
One way around this is a process called ‘blinding’. CVs that have been blinded will have all identifying information removed, leaving details that are relevant to the job under consideration such as recruitment history and training. The details will be re-added once a hiring decision has been made.