Blind Recruitment Software – Make Unbiased Hiring Decisions

We have discussed the new phenomenon in recruiting, Blind Hiring, in one of our previous posts. In this one, we will discuss blind recruitment software. I.e., the tool that allows recruiters to make unbiased hiring decisions and support blind hiring.

In this text, we will go over the; not following topics:

1. What is blind recruitment software?
2. Pros of using the blind recruitment software
3. How to choose the ideal blind recruitment software?
4. Best blind recruitment software on the market.

Let’s dive in!

What is Blind recruitment Software

Blind recruitment software is a recruitment reformatting tool that hides certain information about candidates before the recruiter sees them to prevent biased hiring.

Like it or not, disclosed information can subconsciously affect the decisions of even the most objective recruiters.

For example, women in STEM fields are often overlooked, and there is a strong bias against hiring them. So when a recruiter has to decide between hiring a male engineer and a slightly more skilled and experienced female engineer, he could easily make a biased decision against females and hire the male.

Therefore, blind recruitment software can mask:

• The name of the candidate.
• Place and date of birth.
• Photo.
• The university they attended.
• Etc.

All this information can give away the candidate’s ethnicity, religious background, gender, or age and prompt recruiters to make biased decisions. This is why blind recruitment software is growing more and more in popularity in the modern age of equality and inclusivity.

There have been many types of research proving the undebated pros of diversity and blind hiring.

Want to start with blind hiring? Try the world’s leading Blind recruitment Software iReformat, for free during the 15-day free trial.

Pros of using the blind recruitment software

The pros of using the blind recruitment software are many. Here are the top 3 ones.

Improved hiring

Blind hiring undoubtedly improves hiring. Regular hiring is subjected to unconscious biases that can weigh favorably or unfavorably on candidates and lead to poor hires.

If you, for example, don’t know the race or ethnicity of a candidate you won’t be able to judge them (un)favorably.

An inclusive and diverse workplace

Diversity is more important than ever before in the workspaces. And this is not only because of legal reasons but because it can boost creativity, innovation, and productivity.

Different people think differently, and brainstorming different ideas and opinions can lead to creating truly innovative solutions.

Better employer brand

Having a diverse and welcoming work culture will definitely boost your employer brand.

This holds true especially for hiring Gen Z since they are all for equality and inclusivity. And they are right.

All hiring biases that the blind recruitment software can prevent

Here’s a shortlist of unconscious hiring biases that affect hiring decisions and can be prevented by using the blind recruitment software:

1. Racial bias – Even though the race is not disclosed on the application, the candidate’s name or photo can be enough for the recruiter to make a biased decision. That’s why with good blind recruitment software, you can easily hide names and photos of candidates from all applications with just one click.
2. Age bias – Older candidates, can often be judged unfavorably when it comes to job positions that require the use of computers. In the same way young and experienced individuals might be overlooked for higher managerial positions just because of their age.
3. Gender bias – There’s a stereotype that certain job positions are more suitable for males, and others for females. This biased thinking can lead to horrible hiring decisions.
4. Religious bias – A candidate’s name can easily let recruiters assume their religious background, and some minorities like Arabs and Muslims are highly affected by this.
5. STEM bias – Females, racial and sexual minorities are still unwelcomed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields.
6. AI bias – Relying too heavily on technology solutions for hiring can lead to making biased hiring decisions since the AI is still trained by real people, who are in the end biased.
7. Beauty bias – In some areas, being beautiful will help you get the job, but in others, like STEM, if you are a woman, your chances significantly drop down.

For more info on these biases, make sure to check our blog post on Hiring Bias.

How to choose the ideal blind recruitment software

There are still not many blind recruitment software in the market.

However, there are things you should consider when choosing the one for you and your company:

1. Price – Price is important, hence you need to make sure that the price is reasonable for all the offered features.
2. Following features – It is best if you can get blind recruitment software that also does recruitment reformatting. That way, you will get reformatted recruitments that promote blind hiring. If you get those two separately, you will need to do the same job twice. First, you will need to import recruitments into the recruitment reformatting tool and then into the blind recruitment software, which will drain you more time than you should spend on this.
3. ATS – It is always a good idea to have applicant tracking software that is compatible and can be connected with your blind recruitment software. That way, you can directly import recruitments from the ATS into it and have everything done in just a couple of minutes. Hence you should check with your current ATS provider whether they offer blind recruitment formatting services.
4. Flexibility – You should check what the recruitment can hide. Can it hide a candidate’s name, photo, education, previous work experience, age, etc. Depending on what position you are trying to fill in, different biases can be triggered. And for that reason, it is important to get the software that allows you to customize which information you want hidden.

iReformat – Best Blind recruitment Software on the Market

Since this is still a young and new market, there isn’t much good and adequate blind recruitment software.

iReformat is a recruitment reformatting tool that promotes blind hiring and allows you to choose the information you want to hide from candidates’ recruitments while formatting them simultaneously.

iReformat is also fully compatible with ATS Recruiteze, which is the world’s leading applicant tracking system for staffing agencies and SMBs.

You can try out iReformat for free, during a 15-day free trial, no credit card is needed.

Improve hiring and your employer brand with a simple, cost and time-effective blind recruitment software now.