Vancouver tech startup battles hiring biases with ‘blind applications’
HRx scrubs job applications information that tips off employers to race, gender or religion
When Google released its workforce demographics to the public for the first time in 2014, the results revealed the tech giant was in fact more of pint-sized player when it came to diversity.
Google revealed its 40,000-person workforce in the US was 61 per cent white and 30 per cent Asian, while just 2 per cent were black and 3 per cent Hispanic. Women, meanwhile, made up only 30 per cent of the company.
“They were like, ‘Wow, we’re not doing so well,’” said Jen Schaeffers, CEO of the Minerva Foundation for BC Women, whose Vancouver-based non-profit promotes workplace leadership by women.
Since then, Google has embarked on sending all 60,000 of its global employees through training in a bid to identify unconscious bias – thinking based on stereotypes – and boost diversity.
In Vancouver, tech entrepreneur Wyle Baoween wants to use technology to cut out unconscious bias before anyone even steps into a job interview.
His startup, HRx, scrubs all personal information from job applications. Family names, as well as names of schools and past companies, can tip a recruiter to an applicant’s gender, race or religion, according to Baoween.