In a push for diversity and equality, South Kesteven District Council looks set to start using 'name blind recruitment.'

The system aims to remove 'unconscious bias' and ensure job applicants are "judged on merit and not on their background, race or gender."

It involves removing personal data which can identify background characteristics from candidate information that is available to recruiting managers when carrying out shortlisting.

A report prepared for Employment Committee, meeting next Wednesday (Sep 22), says at present, in accordance with best practice, equal opportunities data is collected as part of the recruitment process and is kept by HR and not provided to managers at any stage.

"This includes racial/ethnic origin, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and belief and disability information. However, it may be possible to identify some of these characteristics from someone's age and educational background. This could lead to unconscious bias during the shortlisting process."

The report continued: "When the issue was raised by Committee a number of years ago, the HR IT system did not have the functionality to automate name blind recruitment. To do this manually would have been time intensive and there were insufficient resources within the team to take on this additional task.

"A commitment was given to implementing name blind recruitment once the IT functionality was available, however no formal decision was made by Members to this effect."

Now, the council's HR information system is able to remove personal data such as name and educational background that is available to recruiting managers until after the shortlisting process has been completed.

The report said this is best practice and is used by the Civil Service and research shows other councils have implemented or are about to implement name blind shortlisting as part of their recruitment process.

By removing the possibility of 'unconscious bias', the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says this "makes good business sense to ensure that organisations don't miss out on talent, and individuals get the opportunity they need to get into and on at work."

Therefore, the report concluded, rather the current practice of providing recruiting managers with personal details of applicants, including name and educational achievements, SKDC would "implement a policy on name blind recruitment where personal details are not accessible to recruiting managers until the shortlisting process has been carried out."