经济学人:招聘歧视 匿名求职就能规避偏见?

 　　Business: Recruitment No names, no bias¹? 商业：招聘，匿名求职，就能规避偏见？

　　Anonymising job applications to eliminate discrimination is not easy. 通过匿名求职来消除歧视，并非易事。

　　“If you've got the grades, the skills and the determination, this government will ensure you can succeed,”  “如果你成绩优异，拥有技能和决心，那么就可以在英国收获成功。”

　　trumpeted² David Cameron, the British prime minister, on October 26th, as he unveiled plans to tackle discrimination in the workplace. 以上是英国首相大卫·卡梅伦在10月26日发布应对职场计划歧视时宣誓的内容。

　　Ten big employers in the public and private sectors—including the civil service, HSBC and Deloitte—have agreed to start recruiting on a "name-blind" basis in Britain;  来自公共行业和私营行业，包括国家行政部门，汇丰银行和德勤会计事务所在内的十个大雇主已经同意在英国开展以匿名方式招聘人才；

　　others may also follow suit. 其他公司或许也会效仿。

　　In such schemes, those drawing up shortlists of applicants³ cannot see their names, with the aim of reducing racial and sexual bias. 在这些方案中，为了减少对应聘者的种族和性别歧视，求职者的名字是不会出现在拟定的候选人名单上的。

　　But do they work? 但真的有用吗？

　　Several countries have experimented with name-blind applications. 其实，已经有一些国家试行过匿名申请工作的方案了。

　　In 2010 Germany's Anti-Discrimination Agency, an advisory⁴ body, sponsored a voluntary scheme to get businesses to try it. 早在2010年，德国的一家咨询机构—反歧视机构，发起了一项自愿计划，让企业们有机会去尝试。

　　In France a law passed in 2006 made the anonymising of applicants' CVs compulsory⁵ for firms of over 50 employees. 2006年，法国通过了一项法案，强制公司接受超过50份的匿名简历。

　　But the government was slow in laying down the conditions for how the law would operate, and only started enforcing it last year. 但是，在制定条件如何实施方面，法国政府放慢了脚步，到去年才强制执行此法规。

　　In Sweden and the Netherlands there have been some trials. 瑞典和荷兰也进行过一些尝试。

　　Discrimination against job applicants based on their names is well documented, particularly among ethnic⁶ minorities. 求职者，特别是少数民族人因为名字而受到歧视的现象有记载可依。

　　An experiment in Germany found that candidates with German-sounding names were 14% more likely to be called for an interview than candidates with Turkish ones. 在德国，人们做过一个实验发现，拥有类似德国人名字的候选人比拥有土耳其类似名字的候选人得到面试的机率高出14%。

　　A review of various studies, by the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) , a German outfit⁷,  德国的一家团队—劳务研究所（IZA）的多项研究表明，

　　found that anonymised job applications boost the chances of ethnic-minority candidates being invited to an interview. 匿名求职可以增加少数名族候选人得到面试的机率。

　　A Swedish study found that it led to more ethnic-minority people being hired. 瑞典的研究也发现，匿名求职的确能提高少数民族人的就业。

　　However, the results from other trials are less clear. 然而，其他实验的结果并没有那么清晰。

　　A second Swedish experiment found that only women, not immigrants, were boosted by anonymous⁸ recruitment. 瑞典的第二项实验发现，实行匿名招聘仅对女士有利，而非移民。

　　According to the IZA, experiments in the Netherlands showed no increase in the likelihood of ethnic-minority candidates being offered a job if their CVs were seen anonymously⁹,  根据IZA 在荷兰的实验，来自少数民族的候选人并没有因为匿名简历而更易得到工作，

　　suggesting that discrimination had crept in at the interview stage. 这说明歧视已经悄悄蔓延到了面试阶段。

　　Ensuring that a candidate is completely anonymous is also tricky¹⁰. 要确保候选人完全匿名也是很难做到的。

　　A 2012 French study found that foreign-born candidates and those from poor districts were less likely to be called for interview when applications were anonymised. 2012年，法国的一项研究发现，即使匿名申请工作，国外出生的和来自贫困地区的候选人不太可能得到面试的机会。

　　Its authors suggested that recruiters may have used other indicators¹¹, such as knowledge of Arabic, to identify race. 这项研究的作者认为，招聘人员或许利用了其他暗示标记，如是否会阿拉伯语来判断申请人的种族。

　　In places fraught¹² with religious tension, such as Northern Ireland, the name of a school can reveal a candidate's faith,  在充满宗教矛盾的地区，如北爱尔兰，候选人的学校名称就能透露出其信仰，

　　while a few years missing on a CV may suggest maternity¹³ leave, and thus that the candidate is female. 简历上几年的空白时间可能是因为休产假的缘故，这就可以断定候选人是位女士。

　　Going name-blind when shortlisting candidates may be a sensible start, but it is likely to be just a small step towards ending hiring bias. 将入围候选人的名字隐藏起来，这或许是一个明智的开端，但它可能只是在终结雇佣偏见道路上迈出的一小步而已。

1 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

2 trumpeted   

大声说出或宣告（trumpet的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Soldiers trumpeted and bugled. 士兵们吹喇叭鸣号角。
• The radio trumpeted the presidential campaign across the country. 电台在全国范围大力宣传总统竞选运动。

3 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

4 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

5 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

8 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

9 anonymously   

ad.用匿名的方式

参考例句：

• The manuscripts were submitted anonymously. 原稿是匿名送交的。
• Methods A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 536 teachers anonymously. 方法采用自编“中小学教师职业压力问卷”对536名中小学教师进行无记名调查。

10 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

11 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

12 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

13 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。