iHire’s Bias Breaker™: An Easy Way to Prevent Hiring Bias

Despite our best efforts, hiring biases can creep into the hiring process and affect our judgment. Unfortunately, the human brain is wired to prefer specific ages, genders, ethnicities, and more over others, despite those characteristics having nothing to do with someone’s fit for a job. And when these unconscious biases affect a recruiting decision, it can potentially lead to the wrong candidate being hired and a lack of diversity in your workforce. That’s why iHire developed the Bias Breaker™ feature.

What is iHire’s Bias Breaker feature?

Bias Breaker is an optional tool for employers that helps reduce unconscious bias in the candidate screening process through blind hiring techniques. Blind hiring hides or “blinds” resume details like a candidate’s name, college, address, hobbies, and/or graduation and job dates. These details can allude to someone’s gender identity, race, religion, age, or socioeconomic background, potentially influencing a hiring decision. 

iHire’s Bias Breaker feature can help you prevent unconscious bias and break the habit of using unnecessary information to make hiring decisions. This allows you to find highly skilled candidates using fair hiring practices, expand your talent pool, and diversify your workplace. 

How Does iHire’s Bias Breaker Feature Work?

When Bias Breaker is on, candidate names, contact information, and photos are automatically hidden on their resume and application until you’re ready to contact them. Names are displayed as initials, and other personal information is replaced with a generic descriptor like “[Email]” or “[Address].” You also have the option to hide school/organization names, links, and dates if you choose. 

By hiding this information from your view, you can be sure you’re evaluating candidates based solely on their skills.

How to Enable Bias Breaker

Enabling (and disabling) Bias Breaker is easy to do from your account. First, click your name in the top right corner of your iHire dashboard, and select “Account” from the dropdown menu. You can toggle Bias Breaker on or off under “Settings.” Once you toggle Bias Breaker on, you’ll see options to hide additional candidate information. Make your selections, if any, and click “Save Changes.” 

The selected information will now be hidden from your view until the candidate surpasses the screening phase. That means you’ll only be able to see their information when one of the following happens:

• When using Resume Search, a candidate’s information will be unhidden when their resume is unlocked.
• When viewing job applications, an applicant’s information will be unhidden when they’re moved past the “Reviewing” stage in the candidate management tool.
• When a hiring manager is reviewing applicants, a candidate’s information will be unhidden when a candidate is Approved or Declined.

You must have an active Job Slot, Job Wrap, or Resume Search subscription to use Bias Breaker.

The Benefits of Anti-Bias Hiring Practices

Fair hiring and anti-bias hiring practices help eliminate unconscious bias and ensure that all job applicants are treated equally and fairly. This provides your organization with a variety of benefits, including:

• Preventing discrimination. If you make decisions solely based on a person’s qualifications, skills, and experience, you’ll avoid unintentional discrimination.
• Furthering DEI initiatives. Some biases can lead to a homogeneous workforce, which can negatively impact DEI initiatives and hurt an organization in the long run. With blind hiring, you’re more likely to have greater diversity among your employees, which has benefits of its own.
• Attracting and retaining top talent. When job applicants feel that they are being treated fairly, they are more likely to be interested in working for a company. This can help businesses to attract and retain qualified candidates, which is essential for success.
• Creating a positive work environment. A more diverse and inclusive workforce means people can feel comfortable being themselves at work. They are more likely to be happy and productive, which benefits the employees and the business.
• Ensuring compliance with legal requirements. There are a number of laws that prohibit discrimination in hiring. By following fair hiring practices, businesses can help to ensure that they comply with these regulations.

iHire is committed to providing fair hiring options for all employers in order to connect them with the most qualified applicants. Head to the Diversity and Inclusion section of our Employer Resource Center for more DEI tips, or check out our hiring solutions to see how we can make hiring easier for you.