I have experienced it myself: a candidate rejected because they did not have a professional LinkedIn profile photo, according to the hiring manager. Or unconscious bias triggered by a first or last name. Not just by hiring managers, but by me too. I am only human.
LinkedIn Recruiter already had an admin option to hide profile photos for all recruiters. I tested it once at a large organisation. I expected a lot of resistance. There was none. They did not even notice.
While preparing one of my sourcing training sessions, I suddenly discovered an extra button in the project settings. Communication is a skill, LinkedIn.
Hiding Candidate Photos and Names
The toggle reads: "Enable this option to hide photos and names in the talent pool of this project. Names will still be visible in the messaging function and the pipeline."
Switch it on and what do you see? Initials instead of names, and no profile photos. Blind sourcing just got closer to reality. Especially useful when searching together with a hiring manager. Whether the person has a professional photo or not, whether their name is Marcel, Abdullah, or Vladimir, that information disappears from the search view.
Names Are Still Visible in Messaging and the Pipeline
That names remain visible in the messaging function and the pipeline makes sense. You need the first name at minimum, because starting a message with "Dear S.T.W.B." would look sloppy. And if you want to look someone up further because their LinkedIn profile is a bit sparse, that also makes sense.
Can You Set Blind Sourcing for Your Entire Organisation?
Yes. As an admin you can enforce this setting organisation-wide via product settings > preferences > Hide candidate photos and names. Recruiters and sourcers can still temporarily disable it. In the talent pool they can choose to show names and photos temporarily via the top-right display option.
