Almost a half a million female and ethnic minority jobseekers in the finance and IT sectors in the UK will not be considered for roles purely because of the name on their CV, reports headhunting platform Nottx.com
The platform – which launched this year in the UK and US – says that even though employment in finance and IT is on the increase, the proportion of women and minorities working there has fallen.
There are also inherent barriers to progression for those already in-situ: women with supervisory responsibility in the finance sector are more likely to be promoted to supervisory posts, whereas men with supervisory responsibilities are more likely to be promoted to management.
Nottx – which stands for ‘noticeable transactions’ that allow job applicants to be noticed purely on merit – promotes ‘name-blind’ recruitment. Last year, the UK Prime Minister referred to the case of a black woman who had to change her name to ‘Elizabeth’ before she got any calls to interviews as ‘disgraceful’.
Nottx believes name-blind applications should be the norm. Biju Menon, founder of Nottx.com, said: “We are not going to change the view of employers and recruiters with an active bias, but our service will speak to those who wish to overcome their unconscious bias and ethical companies who are keen to find a pool of diverse talent.
“We hope to empower women and minorities who have lost confidence in the recruitment process by giving them the opportunity to be noticed completely on their own merit. With time, I hope Nottx will also appeal to any demographic that wants to work in the more diverse – and therefore more profitable – companies we are seeking to support.”
Menon adds that name-blind job profiles are also useful to those who want to ‘test’ the job market – ‘passive job seekers’ – without jeopardising their existing job.
Nottx plans to launch in Germany later this year.
Statistics and studies:
1 A third of workers in the UK plan to quit their current jobs in 2016 (Institute of Leadership and Management, January 2016). There are approximately 305,000 minorities working in the finance and IT sectors (Department of Work and Pensions, 2014), 150,600 women in IT (e-skills UK, 2014) and 1,050,000 women in finance (TheCityUK, 2014). Therefore, approximately 467,300 women and minorities will seek to leave their job in these sectors in 2016 (discounting cross-over between both demographics, assuming proportion of female minorities reflects gender split of wider sector).
2 A study of the Russell Group of leading UK universities suggested 36% of ethnic minority applicants from 2010 to 2012 had received places, compared with 55% of white applicants (Vikki Boliver, Durham University). In another study, US universities seeking a laboratory manager were handed CVs randomly headed with male or female names. They were seen to rate applicants assigned a ‘male’ name as ‘significantly more competent and hireable’. (PNAs, Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students, 2012). In the US, job applicants with ‘white’ names needed to send about ten resumés to get one call back; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumés to get one call back. (Bertrand and Mullainathan, Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?, NBER Working Paper No. 9873). Despite some best endeavours on the part of employers and recruitment agencies, minority groups are still disadvantaged through many recruitment campaigns (National Centre for Social Research, 2009).
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Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!
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