“道路上迈出的一小步 ” 怎么翻？

Business: Recruitment No names, no bias?

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,” trumpeted David Cameron, the British prime minister, on October 26th, as he unveiled plans to tackle discrimination in the workplace.

10月26日，英国首相大卫·卡梅伦在他发布应对职场计划歧视时自豪地声称：“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。”

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; others may also follow suit.

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；其他公司或许也会效仿。

In such schemes, those drawing up shortlists of applicants 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 advisory 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 compulsory 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 ethnic 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 outfit, found that anonymised job applications boost the chances of ethnic-minority candidates being invited to an interview.

德国的一家团队—劳务研究所（IZA）的多项研究表明，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 anonymous 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 anonymously, suggesting that discrimination had crept in at the interview stage.

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，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 tricky.

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 indicators, 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 fraught with religious tension, such as Northern Ireland, the name of a school can reveal a candidate's faith, while a few years missing on a CV may suggest maternity leave, and thus that the candidate is female.

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，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。