How blind recruiting can contribute towards closing the UK’s growing digital skills gap

With AI and machine learning gaining an ever-increasing presence across all industries, it is no surprise that the UK and many parts of the global economy need specialist skills. Leveraging technology brings many benefits to organisations but there is also one, rather large negative impact that needs to be addressed before it becomes a national employment crisis.

The digital skills gap is not entirely new but it is at a point that could in fact cost the UK economy £141.5 billion in GDP growth if we don’t act now. Job vacancies in the technology sector are at an all-time high, and with the UK unemployment rate still not at pre-pandemic levels, it leads us to believe that there is a gap in the number people qualified to take on these highly technical roles.

Firms offering more internships and apprenticeships to upskill young people to gain relevant digital tech skills can make a difference, but it may also be worth investing in better, unbiased hiring processes, providing more opportunities to people of diverse backgrounds.

Unconscious bias has been known to have a part to play when it comes to hiring. It can be described as an automatic, mental shortcut that is used to process information and make rapid decisions based on past experiences, including social stereotypes. This type of bias has shown to have significant impact on hiring processes, where often the hiring manager for example, makes preconceived decisions on a candidate’s suitability for a role i.e., using personal identifiers such as name, age or even university attended rather than skills and experience to hire the most qualified person for a role.

As well as firms losing out on talented candidates, this could be one of the factors contributing to the digital skills gap. However, there is a solution that can help to reduce unconscious bias during hiring – blind recruiting. MeVitae, the UK-based tech company, is known in the tech industry primarily for its Blind Recruitment Solution, which has been a game-changer in increasing diversity and inclusion in the workforce by using deep-tech to remove bias during an organisation’s recruitment process.

Along with companies providing more job opportunities and technical skills training, blind recruiting can widen the talent pool. MeVitae’s clients have confirmed that they receive twice as many applicants when using its Blind Recruiting Solution.

David Robison, Director of Finance and Administration at Environmental and Energy Study Institute said: “Blind recruiting helps us hone in on the key components of the applications we receive—the candidates’ achievements; how their knowledge, experience, and skillsets can be applied to our positions; and their level of interest and passion for the issues they will be working on. By partnering with MeVitae over the past six months, we have been able to evaluate approximately 1,600 candidates, a substantial increase, while ensuring a fair review process.”

Ultimately, we can harness technology’s power to overcome human bias in decision-making to deliver more equitable outcomes.