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Three questions to… Maryline Borri, Manager in the HR Division of Karistem
« The anonymous CV is ultimately a pragmatic response to a very real problem of employment discrimination in French companies »
Paris, August 26, 2014 Following a decision of the French Conseil d’Etat in July, the French government must implement decrees passed in 2006, making it mandatory to use anonymous CV for companies with over 50 employees. The purpose of the law: fight against discrimination in the hiring process. Interview with Maryline Borri, Manager in the HR division of consulting firm Karistem.
What do you think about this law making it mandatory for companies over 50 employees to use anonymous CVs to fight against discrimination in hiring?
Contrary to the uproar sparked by the decision of the French Conseil d’Etat, I think that the ultimately the anonymous CV is a pragmatic response to a very real problem of employment discrimination in French companies. Certainly, the anonymous CV is based on a questionable bias, that of losing diversity rather than valuing it. But if we leave aside the denial of discrimination in France, diversity is not yet considered, wrongly, as a vector of performance. We are condemned to deal with the problem defensively (fight against discrimination rather than promote diversity). So the generalization of anonymous CVs could represent a major social achievement in a country where we still struggle to move the lines to ensure equal access to employment for all.
Does the generalization of the anonymous CV pose some technical or practical difficulties?
Technical or practical difficulties often cited are nothing insurmountable, either manually implemented in small companies or through electronic means in big companies. That said, the practice of anonymous CVs often requires a more general diagnosis of recruitment policies of companies, as well as additional actions: internal and external communication, awareness recruiters, adapting the methods of recruitment…
Has this already been tried in some companies? What were the results?
Indeed, several large companies have already tested this and the results were positive. For example, along with a campaign of traditional recruitment, a hotel group tested the anonymous CV a few years. While this group was previously in denial, this test proved that there was indeed, unintentionally or not, discrimination in hiring, even as the CV of a candidate for foreign-sounding name was more viewed in its anonymized version.
The same results of these experiments are sometimes surprising. For example, an insurance company had decided to set up the anonymous CV to recruit its commercial population, hoping to be a better representation of visible minorities. After a few months, if the proportion of minorities had not changed, the percentage of women recruited had evolved significantly. HR have realized that the hours of insurance representatives, rather late in the day, were regarded by recruiters as incompatible with family responsibilities, a prejudice that brought many of them to favor male CVs. But the generalization of the anonymous CV has enabled many candidates to land a job interview and position themselves in relation to their personal constraints. Besides better diversity among its trading, the insurance company was able to measure a few months later the beneficial effects of the HR policy in terms of performance, beginning with an increase in its turnover.
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Maryline Borri has ten years of experience in human resources consulting, after beginning his career as HR operational of Unilever. Experience gained in a first CHSCT expertise firm, then in the network IMS-“Entreprendre pour la Cité” for the management of diversity, and finally at BearingPoint in strategy consulting, organization and HR management. Recognized specialist in improving HR organizations, approaches to skills, managerial development and diversity management performance, Maryline Borri joined Karistem in 2013, for the development of the HR Division.
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Karistem Corporate Consulting briefly.
Karistem Corporate Consulting (KCC) is a consulting firm specializing in strategy, transformation and operational excellence. Since 2004, KCC develops and implements major transformation projects supported by the Exectutive Managament to improve the competitiveness of the heart of business and / or support functions to align the business strategy. KCC’s approach is results-oriented and puts people at the heart of each transformation. KCC is committed (1) the involvement and ownership of the change by the largest number of people and (2) on fast, major and lasting results.
www.karistem-consulting.com
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