These resumes have been stripped of personal data such as date of birth, first day of work, gender, name and date of graduation, and focus on a candidate’s talents, motivations, qualifications and what makes them special. The Week of the Anonymous CV is part of Unique's 26-week action plan against discrimination in staffing.
Selecting without prejudice
The Week of the Anonymous CV was a success. For example, our clients’ response to Unique's initiative was overwhelmingly positive, as shown by this news item from NOS, the biggest news network in The Netherlands.
Website visitors positive
During the week we asked visitors to Unique’s website for feedback. "This week we only propose anonymous candidates to our clients. What do you think of this idea?” More than 3,000 visitors responded. 49% of them responded with “very good, this should be standard practice". Another 33% thought it was "fine" and 18% didn’t think the initiative was necessary.
Emphasis on work experience and knowledge
We also asked visitors to motivate their answers. For example, many who didn’t feel it was necessary to apply anonymously felt it didn’t tackle the underlying problem. Other candidates feared that after submitting an anonymous CV, discrimination could still be an issue during a job interview. But the overall response was that anonymous CVs are a good way of placing more emphasis on work experience and knowledge - the aspects that really matter in an application.
No one-off initiative
The week is not a one-off initiative: Unique will continue to propose anonymous candidates, as part of Unique’s 26-week plan.
CEO Marion van Happen: "The world seems to be getting more short-sighted and increasingly impersonal. At Unique we want to take a stand against distrust, prejudice, stereotyping and exclusion. Unfortunately, discrimination is a persistent social problem that we cannot solve alone. But when organisations are determined to reflect society’s diversity, we can make a valuable contribution."
'Equal opportunities as our cornerstone'
"Equal opportunities for everyone, which is the idea behind the 26-week plan against discrimination and for inclusiveness, has been a cornerstone of our way of working for years. Now is the time to share that with the world. To show exactly how we are fighting discrimination, and which of our clients are working with us. Such ‘Naming & faming’, we hope, will inspire others to do the same. This is how we are reinventing the labour market.”