Anonymous recruitment helps you find the most suitable employee

Anonymous recruitment reduces the impact of unconscious and conscious bias in recruitment. An anonymous job application does not reveal the applicant’s personal data, such as their name, age, address or the name of the educational institution they attended. It only shows the applicant’s skills.

In the first phase, the recruiter only sees an anonymous CV or text written by the applicant about their work experience and skills, but they do not know anything else about the person behind the application.

“The recruiter can focus on matters that are relevant for the job, without letting their own perceptions influence who is invited to an interview,” says Päivi Palosaari-Aubry,  the manager responsible for the recruitment and onboarding process at Metsä Group.

Since the introduction of anonymous recruitment, the share of female employees has increased by 16 per cent – so anonymous recruitment has increased diversity in the work community.

Metsä Group implemented anonymous recruitment as part of its broader equality programme in 2021. Today, it is the company’s main recruitment method.

“We are determined to ensure equality in recruitment, and anonymous recruitment is one of the tools for achieving this,” says Palosaari-Aubry.

Traditionally, the forestry industry has been male-dominated, and more than 70 per cent of the employees of Metsä Group are male. Since the introduction of anonymous recruitment, the share of female employees has increased by 16 per cent – so anonymous recruitment has increased diversity in the work community.

Hanna Saura, Development Manager for Change Management, was recruited to Metsä Group through anonymous recruitment. She sees it as a fair and meaningful job search method that also increases the company’s credibility and attractiveness in the eyes of job applicants.

“Anonymity can even lower the threshold for people to apply for a job, as their own name will not be revealed if they are not invited to an interview. Anonymity can also provide protection in small professional circles or in a place where everyone knows each other,” says Saura.

Should you choose a candidate who feels familiar or the best candidate?

Recruitment to the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum is also mainly made through anonymous job applications, as the museum wants to promote equal treatment of applicants and diversity among staff.

“Our museum is open to all people, and everyone is warmly welcome here, regardless of their age, gender or ethnic background. Our staff should also be diverse so that we can serve our customers better,” explains Tuija Janakka, Head of People and Learning & Development.

The museum recruits customer service staff, exhibition and event production professionals, project workers, management and development experts, and specialists in conservation and audiovisual production. The goal is, of course, to find the best candidate for the job.

However, the recruiter’s impressions and attitudes influence their perception of the candidate even before meeting them.

However, the recruiter’s impressions and attitudes influence their perception of the candidate even before meeting them. It is natural to consider a person who is like you as the norm and want to choose for a position someone who feels familiar, even if a completely different type of person would be much better suited to the task in question.

“Most people think that applicants who feel familiar are the best. The recruiter may unconsciously favour a job applicant who shares some characteristics with the recruiter, even though these are not related to their ability to perform in the job,” Janakka explains.

At the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum, people selected on the basis of anonymous applications are invited to an interview via Teams, and the recruiter can then see the applicant’s personal data. The candidates selected to move forward on the basis of the short online interviews are invited to an actual job interview.

It is also important for recruiters to remind themselves of the things they should not ask.

How can equality be ensured in interviews when the recruitment process is no longer anonymous?

“Bias caused by your own attitudes can be avoided by training and raising awareness and, in general, by actively referring to the organisation’s equality goals. In interviews, the candidate’s suitability is always assessed by more than one person in order to be as fair as possible,” Janakka explains.

The museum’s recruiters have a clear set of questions to use in the interviews. It is also important for recruiters to remind themselves of the things they should not ask.

“Finnish law prohibits asking questions about the candidate’s family background or family situation. Questions that are not related to work should not be asked at all. Of course, the applicant can freely choose what they want to tell us,” says Janakka.

Palosaari-Aubry from Metsä Group also emphasises that anonymous recruitment alone is not the solution, but that equality must be part of the company’s operating culture and that the interviewers must also remember to respect its principles. It is also crucial that the company’s top management is committed to equality work.

“We have recorded the essential job requirements In the recruitment plan that we should discuss during the interview. It is important to be aware of the equality targets throughout the entire process,” says Palosaari-Aubry.

The most qualified candidates are invited for an interview

The interview is also an interesting step in the recruitment process for the employer, as it reveals who the applicants with the best applications are. It may be that the employer’s representative has incorrectly guessed the gender or age of the applicant.

“It’s always exciting to see the person behind the code and find out if my own preconceptions have deceived me,” says Maija Nivala, Administrative and Human Resources Director at the municipality of Janakkala, where anonymity has been used in recruitment since last autumn.

According to Nivala, anonymity brings great benefits to the employer, even if the applicant’s personality isn’t revealed until the interview phase.

“We can be sure that we invited candidates with the most potential for the interview,” Nivala says.

However, applicants have expressed their thanks for equal treatment in the application phase.

Anonymous recruitment is still such a new practice in Janakkala that there is no information about its impact on the diversity of the work community. However, applicants have expressed their thanks for equal treatment in the application phase.

“Many elderly women, for example, have said that our job interview is the first one they have been invited to in a long time,” Nivala says.

The municipality of Janakkala recruits employees for youth work, library services, expert roles, administration and finance, property management, and supervisory and managerial positions, for example. Janakkala has over one hundred recruitment processes each year, but because the municipality uses the Kuntarekry system, recruitment causes very little extra work.

“When employees learn about the practice and commit to this recruitment method, the only question remaining will be why wouldn’t we recruit anonymously,” says Maija Nivala.

She believes that anonymous recruitment subconsciously affects the recruiter’s thoughts so that even if they can guess the applicant’s age or background from, say, their work history, they do not let it become important. In the municipal workplace, anonymous recruitment also improves the security of the recruiter.

“In the public sector, in particular, the law obligates us to choose the most qualified person and the selection must not be based on discriminatory attitudes. By using anonymous recruitment, we can ensure consistency and show that we are doing the right thing,” says Nivala.

Automated system streamlines anonymous recruitment

Anonymous recruitment is not yet commonplace in the private sector, and practices vary from organisation to organisation.

The Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum do not use any automation: The applicant sends the job application and CV to the recruitment contact person, who hides all information relating to the person. The contact person numbers the applicants and records their contact information in an Excel spreadsheet for their own use.

Persons participating in the recruitment process will have access to the applications only after the anonymisation has taken place.

“The person who received the applications does not participate in the selection at any stage. At the end of the application period, the recruiter decides who to invite to an interview, after which they see all the information about the interviewees, i.e. anonymity ends at this point,” Janakka explains.

The questions in the application form should be designed to guide the applicant to emphasise their skills in such a way that anonymity is maintained.

There are about ten recruitment processes each year at the museum. Janakka admits that it is really laborious to handle 150 applications with attachments using this method. This is why the museum is currently looking for a suitable automated recruitment system that supports anonymity.

Last year, Metsä Group recruited 750 new people, and the anonymity rate of its recruitment was around 80 per cent. This would not be possible without an automated system.

Palosaari-Aubry emphasises that the questions in the application form should be designed to guide the applicant to emphasise their skills in such a way that anonymity is maintained. After that, she says anonymous recruitment is no more complicated than any other recruitment method.

“We use the Workday HR system, which makes it possible to hide certain information and automatically hide attachments so that they only become visible during the interview phase,” explains Palosaari-Aubry.

When you complete the application, it is important to understand that your own characteristics are no longer an advantage or a disadvantage, but it is your competence that will determine your chances for an interview.

She encourages employers to at least try anonymous recruitment and review and correct the process as they gain more experience.

“We have learned from experience, for example, that we should not name the recruiting manager as the person providing additional information, because they will remember the phone calls and they will hinder the anonymity of the process,” advises Palosaari-Aubry.

What is the anonymous recruitment process like from an applicant’s perspective?

“It does not differ from other recruitment methods, except that the application form contained slightly different questions that focused on personal experience and competence,” says Hanna Saura, adding:

“When you complete the application, it is important to understand that your own characteristics are no longer an advantage or a disadvantage, but it is your competence that will determine your chances for an interview.”