Looking for work? It might be time to rip up your CV. A platform based on behavioural science attempts to strip bias out of hiring so candidates are judged only on their abilities, avoiding any possible influence from aspects such as gender and ethnicity.
The platform, called Applied, has been developed by the Behavioural Insights Team, a company originally set up by the UK government to apply behavioural psychology to government services and policy. It is already being used by the UK Civil Service, Cancer Research UK and publishing company Penguin, and is available to any company worldwide from today.
Multiple studies have suggested that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to be interviewed or offered jobs than equally qualified applicants from non-minority backgrounds. Yet there is evidence that companies with a staff diverse in ethnicity and gender are likely to outperform those with more homogeneous work forces.