Comment

Anonymous interviews not enough for unbiased selection of civil servants

By Xiong Bingqi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-22 10:55

The city's bureau of human resources and social security recently announced that some related departments will discuss the feasibility of canceling self-introductions in civil servant application interviews. Some experts in the field also suggest replacing a candidate's name with a code.

However, there are still loopholes in the proposed anonymous interviews that can be exploited by cheaters.

Interviews are face-to-face forms of communication. They can rarely be considered completely "anonymous" because personal information is often revealed in the process. Even if interviewees don't state their names, interviewers can easily determine who they are by their appearance, behavior and manner of speech.

Additionally, under the protection of anonymity, favoritism could actually worsen because interviewers have to be more restrained if candidates declare their names, but may feel freer when evaluating a "code".

Of course, anonymous interviews are not altogether bad. While this method has been used in corporate interviews to ensure fairness, it needs supportive systems to make it work.

First, we need to set up appeal and accountability systems. The current disclosure system reveals only limited information about successful candidates. More importantly, if a candidate disputes the exam result, they might find it difficult to appeal. The accountability mechanism is also not quite ready to handle appeal investigations.

It is believed that some people have found jobs because they received help from powerful fathers. This has become worse because many job seekers lack a sense of self-protection for their own rights.

Second, we need to increase the transparency of the employment status of civil servants' children. Undoubtedly, parents' political power and connections can benefit their children. Therefore, stronger supervision of their children's employment is important. In the selection of civil servants, the problem of public recruitment, with private decisions, can only be solved through the disclosure of job information about the children of officials.

As a result, it may be necessary to take methods to ensure fairness and justice in the selection of public servants, but the essential solution is a fundamental reform of the system.

(Excerpts of a commentary that appeared in Beijing News on Feb 20.)