Protecting Your Resume From unconscious bias

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Protecting Your Resume From unconscious bias

More and more companies continue to implement diversity recruiting as a part of their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. However, unless a company advertises that blind recruiting is a part of the company’ recruiting efforts, career seekers should be mindful of the information added to their resume.

Creating a well written and properly formatted resume may not be considered the most enjoyable activity to do, but it sure is necessary. Moreover, applying for employment takes time, focus, and dedication and yet, you never know where your resume will land, and whom your resume will land in front of after you’ve submitted your resume.

Here are 3 quick tips on protecting your resume from unconscious bias

1. Unless your profession requires you to add a picture to your resume, do not do it. Adding a picture to your resume is distracting and pulls your reader away from focusing on your relevant experience and skills. If your profession requires you add a picture, make sure it is appropriate for the position that you are applying for.

There are a few different studies out there discussing how long recruiters and members of a hiring team will take to actually read a resume, and on average it’s less than 30 seconds. Yes, less than 30 seconds.

Allow your reader to focus on the relevant information that qualifies you for the position, rather than your picture, during the first 30 seconds.

2. Adding a zip code to your resume exposes you to releasing a bit of your personal identifiable information. It is not always necessary to add this information to your resume and doing so, if unnecessary, opens you up to discrimination and privacy concerns. Instead of adding your full address, consider adding just city / state information to your resume.

There are a few reasons adding your zip code may be necessary. If an employer asks for your zip code to determine your commute time, consider adding your zip code. Most employers will share there reasons for asking for this information, but you have to feel comfortable releasing it.

3. Adding dates to your resume could set you up for ageism. For the most part, federal employment gives the opportunity to add professional experience past 10+ years. When it comes to non-federal positions, I recommend adding work history no older than the last recent 10 years for a chronological resume. Occasionally, I may add an additional section to the resume to briefly discuss an employment history between 10 – 15 years. As for as completion of degree dates and/or training dates, I will only add the completion year, if it’s been within the last 3 – 5 years. Whichever method you choose to display this information, you must remain consistent throughout the resume.

Blind recruiting is expected to remove any identifiable information about a candidate during the recruiting phase. Unfortunately, more employers have not yet adopted a blind recruiting approach, and often well qualified candidates are overlooked because they added identifiable information.

It’s important for business leaders and human resources professionals to be trained on how unconscious bias affects all phases of employment as it could diminish the successful recruiting, retention, and advancement rate of candidates from diverse backgrounds. Candidates should also know what information to add and not to add to a resume.

Should employers adopt blind recruiting practices during the recruiting phase? Share your comments / thoughts below.

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