MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Technical hiring platform HackerRank today announced the launch of the Diversity and Inclusion Center, a collection of features allowing customers to easily integrate diversity and inclusion best practices into their technical hiring.

The features enable hiring managers to (a) hide candidate names and identities, thereby rooting out an important source of unconscious bias in the screening process; and (b) modify the amount of time available to complete skill assessments, making the process more inclusive for candidates who may require such accommodations due to disabilities.

Despite exploding in popularity, engineering and computer science fields still struggle with diversity — the number of computer engineering degrees earned by students who are of Hispanic, Black, or Asian descent as well as students who hold multi-racial identities grew 94% from 2011 to 2016; yet, the number of racial minorities in technical roles has increased at a fraction of that rate. Moreover, there are many individuals from non-traditional backgrounds who have the technical skills companies are looking for: an estimated 20,316 people graduated from coding bootcamps in the United States in 2018. This data reiterates that while the “pipeline problem” is a myth, only candidates of select, dominant backgrounds are making it through the door — confirming that current hiring practices are excluding large swathes of talent. With the Diversity and Inclusion Center, HackerRank is removing layers of unconscious bias in technical hiring and leveling the playing field for candidates of all backgrounds.

“HackerRank’s mission is to match every developer to the right job based on skill, not pedigree. These features empower businesses to hire on skills, and skills alone,” said HackerRank’s VP of People, Maria Chung. “Making the technical workforce more diverse and inclusive is hard and ongoing work, but we are excited to be launching these features to address a crucial need in the industry.”

The Diversity and Inclusion Center currently supports the following:

• Root out unconscious bias – programmatically: Employers will now be able to anonymize much of the recruiting process to prevent unconscious bias from seeping in. Specifically, hiring managers can now:
  • Hide candidate identity in assessment reports from interviewers in CodeScreen and CodePair to ensure unbiased evaluation
  • Make CodePair programming sessions anonymous to further remove unconscious bias from the hiring process
• Provide an inclusive interview experience: The Diversity and Inclusion Center empowers employers to modify specific testing parameters so candidates of all ability levels can showcase their skills. Recruiters and hiring managers can provide custom time accommodations on assessments and projects for those with special test-taking needs.

You can learn more about the Diversity and Inclusion Center here.