BBC Video Transcript

[Presenter 1] Well we're joined now by Biju Menon who is the founder of Nottx very lovely to meet Biju, thank thanks for coming onto the program.

[Presenter 2] Thank you. It's a really really interesting concept this, why do you think there is a need for this kind of technology in the recruitment process?

[Biju Menon] Many job seekers out there is not getting the opportunity to sit in front of interviewer and express their candidature and on the other hand many candidates

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self exclude themselves because they don't feel confident to be part of the recruitment process so what blind hiring does is,

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it takes away the bias from the screening process which helps candidates be part of the end to end hiring process including interviewing, shortlisting, and so on.

[Presenter 2] How does it do that?

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[Biju Menon] So we use the principle of anonymity in the initial stages and so we take a name, gender, ethnicity, and even a university from the CV

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and we also make sure the covering letter is de-biased. By doing so hiring managers can select the candidates applying purely

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looking into the merits, abilities and achievements. Which is a small step but a giant leap for the job seekers out there.

[Presenter 2] Do you have any evidence that this is working?

[Biju Menon] A lot of,

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I mean there a lot of studies. We ourselves have seen 141 percentage increase in the candidates applying as well as almost 58 percentage of women getting to the interview stages which is a significant change, compared to how the process was a few years ago. And more importantly we saw 30 percent increase in ethnic diverse candidates getting hired and all these factors put together we feel the the theme in the recruiting world is changing.

[Presenter 2] I wondered whether and I mean there's one thing to get more people in into the into the process and another to be able to get them to an interview stage but surely at that point conscious bias or unconscious bias starts to kick back in again because it's a face-to-face interview.

[Biju Menon] Absolutely, so what we do there we use the principle of accountability and the technology that we built-in can detect patterns of decision-making so let's say in a hiring panel over a period of 8 to 12 months ends up hiring only men even after women are getting to the process. The stakeholders or the leadership team get to know or there is a problem so there is clear evidence where they can tackle by creating intervention programs like training and so on. And what that does is, it makes hiring managers very conscious about their biases and and from their own words it'll help them to change the way they think actually. Which is very powerful.

[Presenter] Talking about how conscious you are of your own bias to actually come to your company and ask you for help is it a mission isn't it by whatever the company you're working with that we have a problem. Are people willing to admit that kind of problem?

[Biju Menon] Oh no. So there's a lot of evangelism required I think there's a role government has to play here to make it a bit more and under the legal framework. South Korea has taken a lead there, they're almost legalizing blind hiring as a process so yes.

[Presenter] what making it obligatory are they?

[Biju Menon] Exactly.

[Presenter 2] Okay, that's really interesting. You wouldn't of thought South Korea are pioneering at this kind of thing.

[Presenter] Why is it important to have a diverse workforce? Why does it Matter

[Biju Menon] It's about diversity of perspectives that comes to a decision making rule. Candidate coming through impoverished backgrounds they bring a street smartness they bring a different perspective than someone who has studied in elite universities. Just imagine those perspectives of different kinds coming to their problem solving situation and that can change. And this is why McKenzie have said that the diverse organizations started performing better than known diverse organization. I think they came up with the stats like more gender diverse organizations are 15 percent more likely to be successful and ethnic diverse organisations are thirty five percent more likely to be successful and they are facts.

[Presenter 2] Okay that's really interesting. What next for your company because this seems like something that's a great idea perhaps to be rolled out across a range of companies but it feels like a sort of a one-trick pony what do you do beyond this?

[Biju Menon] So we work with partner organizations we make sure just not only technology that is required to change this, it's also beyond that so we want to make sure organizations are inclusive. We also want to make sure organization broadcast to the wider audience that they are doing fair practices because unless candidates get to know there is a fair recruitment practice they wouldn't be wanting to be a part of it .

[Presenter] Okay, Biju Menon it was lovely to talk to you.

[Presenter 2] A pleasure.