(flickr.com)
Dondre Stewart
Removing names from job applications looks to be a solution to remove racial bias from job recruiting for Canada’s federal government.
This process is called blind recruitment. Toronto Liberal MP Ahmed Hussen is suggesting the federal government follow Britain’s model in implementing blind recruitment for its public sector.
“Unfortunately there are biases through the process and the names certainly are one of the biases.” – Alfonsina Chang, program coordinator of Human Resources Management at Seneca College
Hussen spoke in Parliament on Wednesday to propose the idea of eliminating any bias in the recruitment process.
“We must ensure our public service adopts name-blind recruitment,” said Hussen. “I rise today to bring attention to an idea that will assist in our fight to end discrimination and attain real equality in our country.”
Alfonsina Chang, program coordinator of Human Resources Management at Seneca College, told Humber News that blind recruitment can open up a less biased application process.
“The practice of human resources, specifically recruitment and selection is to be conducted in a professional, undiscriminatory, unbiased fashion,“ said Chang.
“Unfortunately there are biases through the process and the names certainly are one of the biases but names can also be very misleading. My name for example, my last name is Chang but I’m not Chinese. So there are some limitations to even having information.”
Christine Colosimo, career advisor at Humber College, believes the best candidate should get the job regardless of name or background.
“It’s your qualifications and experiences that are going to get you the job and how well you sell yourself on the resume. Let’s not talk about the interview, it’s all about how you sell yourself on paper,” said Colosimo.