Recruitment Application Anonymisation
This system anonymises job applications so that shortlisting panels assess what a candidate has written, not who they appear to be.
Keywords
- Tags: Anonymisation
- Tags: Recruitment
- Tags: Equity
- Stage: Production
- Type: Named entity recognition
- Sector: Public administration
- Language: English
How does our product work?
The system identifies and redacts names, addresses, dates of birth, schools, universities, nationality and photographs from the application before it reaches the panel.
It redacts. It does not score, rank or filter candidates, and it plays no part in any shortlisting decision.
Overview
Anonymous shortlisting is long-standing policy, but doing it by hand was slow enough that it was applied inconsistently, and inconsistent anonymisation is arguably worse than none.
Automating the redaction made it universal. Applying it to every vacancy is the point.
Owner and responsibility
More detailed information on the system
Here you can get acquainted with the information used by the system, the operating logic, and its governance in the areas that interest you.
System description
The system is tuned to over-redact. A redacted word that did not need redacting costs the panel a little context; a missed name defeats the entire purpose.
A sample of anonymised applications is audited each quarter for missed identifiers, and the miss rate is reported to the equality committee.
References
Anonymous shortlisting policy and quarterly audit results.