Meritocracy In Hiring?

President Trump is moving the federal government towards meritocracy in hiring.  I agree with hiring and promoting based solely on merit.  If the federal government wants to truly hire based on merit then they must use blind resumes.  Blind resumes involve removing the names, colleges, and any other identifying information from resumes.  This is the perfect way to truly hire the best qualified candidates.

By removing the names, colleges, and any other identifying information and leaving the degree(s) and work experience of the candidates this ensures that the hiring is solely merit based.

Most people in the majority culture do not know about Minority Serving Institutions (MISs) https://www.doi.gov/pmb/eeo/doi-minority-serving-institutions-program of which Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) https://www.thehundred-seven.org/hbculist.html are a part of.  Since most recruiters and/or hiring managers from the majority culture don’t know that MISs and HBCUs exist they won’t attend job fairs at or recruit from any of these institutions.  Students that attend MISs and HBCUs will have difficulty obtaining internships while in college and obtaining a job after they graduate.  This leaves a large portion of qualified talent untapped.  If a large portion of talent is untapped, the federal government can’t honestly claim that their hiring is merit based.  Using blind resumes is a way to eliminate this disparity in hiring.

Regardless of someone’s race or ethnicity human beings are naturally biased.  Meritorious hiring does not eliminate human bias.  However, using blind resumes removes as many biases out of the hiring process as possible.  Nothing is full proof.