Smriti Khanna

VP HR at WOW Skinsciences

So this is about the time when we were looking to hire an employee for a particular position. The mid-senior level hiring manager told us he’d like to hire a person who could fulfill ABCD responsibilities. The hiring manager also mentioned that they would like a male candidate. We felt like that is a bias right there. So we did ask why a male candidate and why not a female candidate and the hiring manager went on about how there is a lot of traveling and negotiation that needs to be done in this role. We then said for all we know it could also be a female and she would actually excel at this role.

However, the hiring manager was quite adamant and then we went on for a solution through HR tech where we sent in CVs without mentioning the gender and the CVs were only filtered on the basis of their skills and abilities. Eventually to our surprise, the CV turned out to be that of a woman and we ended up hiring her for the role. It has now been three years and she is doing a great job in her role! So yes, HR tech does help reduce hiring bias here.