New survey of recruitment and tech experts offers latest perspective on this age-old question
In an ever-shifting working world, standard practices around job applications continue to change and evolve. The idea of walking into a business and distributing copies of your resumé has more or less fallen completely out of favor, but certain questions have found a kind of staying power.
Like the question of whether or not you should write a cover letter, discussion around whether or not a photo or headshot is appropriate to include on your resumé is something that shifts with context but rarely yields consensus. In an era marked by more deliberate approaches to inclusive hiring, photos on resumés remains a hot topic.
Making use of a network of recruitment and tech professionals, Frank Recruitment Group, a Tenth Revolution Group company, has collected new data to assess attitudes on this time-honored job application conundrum in 2023.
Survey Results
Should you include a photo on your resumé?
Yes- 19%
No – 81%
Responding to this new survey data, Frank Recruitment Group Chairman and CEO James Lloyd-Townshend commented: “It’s really interesting that the results come down so clearly on the side of not including a photo on your resumé. We might have expected a more even split, but the results definitely make sense in the context of the conversation we’re seeing around more equitable hiring practice.”
“Of the comments we received from respondents,” said Lloyd-Townshend, “some highlighted exactly this – that including a photo can lead to candidates being judged on their appearance, whether favorably or unfavorably. That said, one respondent made the excellent point that recruiters will almost undoubtedly be checking out your LinkedIn page – and a lack of a headshot here can make your profile feel unprofessional or even slightly spammy.”
“Including a photograph can exert undue influence on the recruitment process, but it’s also true that not including one doesn’t automatically make for a fairer, more inclusive process either. Knowing a candidate’s name or gender, for example, can also bring unconscious bias into play. Fair hiring practice is definitely an important, wide-ranging conversation with more work still to do.”
Methodology
The survey was conducted on the Mason Frank International LinkedIn page in June 2023. Mason Frank International is a Tenth Revolution Group company. The poll was open to Mason Frank International’s network of recruitment and tech professionals, and the number of respondents totalled 743.