A blind-recruitment mobile app called Blendoor has launched in a bid to tackle gender and minority imbalances across the tech sector.
Unveiled by CEO and founder Stephanie Lampkin, during Salesforce’s Dreamforce show in San Francisco this week, the app aims to address unconscious biasness within the tech sector’s recruitment process.
The app hides the applicant’s name and photo, to ensure any biasness is removed from the early stage of the recruitment process, and that candidates are selected on skills. The aim is to conceal the applicant’s school, orientation or gender in the early stages of the application process.
Through a series of swipes recruiters can screen potential candidates and job seekers can search through job opportunities. When there is a match between skills required and the candidate’s interest the app enables the recruitment process to move forward. The app is integrated with LinkedIN and Facebook.
The app will also recommend career development opportunities, such as courses and events of interest, to candidates based on their behaviours.
According to Lampkin the app was developed as a response to her own challenges faced working in IT. During her Dreamforce presentation she highlighted that 91% of tech sector workers are white or Asian and 75% of them are male. She noted that Google has 55,000 engineers but only 12 are African American women.
Lampkin has a technical background herself having learnt to code from the age of 13. She went on to study an engineering degree at Stanford University followed by an MBA from MIT. She has worked at several technology companies including Microsoft.
For the first time the Dreamforce conference has dedicated an entire day to women in technology, where CEO Marc Benioff and founder Parker Harris will discuss Salesforce’s efforts around diversity. Talks will also take place from YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and actress and business owner Jessica Alba.
