The Western Australian public service has been trialling blind CVs in an effort to remove gender, race and age bias in its hiring practices.

Minister for Woman's Interests Liza Harvey told 720 ABC Perth the trial had been operating across a range of positions, from graduate to executive level.

Applicants in the initial job application stage submitted their curriculum vitae (CVs) with their name, gender, age and postcode removed.

"Research tells us that depending on the employment sector that you are in, men are likely to be employed at twice the rate of women, just based on CVs," Ms Harvey said.

"Everybody has unconscious bias and that unconscious bias is active in the selection process, no matter what we do.

"If we de-identify gender, ethnicity or age, we remove any opportunity for unconscious bias and then we can only select based on the criteria presented in the CV."

Diverse teams 'more innovative'

Minister for Women's Interests Liza Harvey says removing unconscious bias in hiring made financial sense for companies. ( ABC News: Andrew O'Connor )

As well as reducing discrimination, Ms Harvey said a fairer recruitment process would lead to a better, more productive workforce.

"Studies of work teams [show] if there's a diverse team working together ... they solve complex problems more quickly and they come up with more innovative solutions," she said.

"Government can lead the way with these initiatives.

"The smarter companies are starting to take on this agenda because they know they are starting to miss out on really good talent in the community because of this unconscious bias."

What's in a name?

Usman Chohan, from the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales, said bias against job applicants with east Asian and Middle-Eastern-sounding names was a real issue in Australia.

"We have had a series of studies in Australia, Canada and the United States that point to the same frightening result," Mr Chohan said.

"If you have a name that is non-local, non-Anglo-Saxon, you have to work almost twice as hard to get a job.

"It is statistically significant and it is very worrying."

Discrimination 'real and sad fact of life'

Listeners to 720 ABC Perth said they believed discrimination based on age, gender and ethnicity was prevalent.

"Nine years ago I was looking to change jobs and had done on and off for three years to no avail. Then I decided to leave off my date of birth, 1963, and, behold I was called for an interview and got the job I am still in."

"A lot of my work colleagues who are of ethnic backgrounds always use western names — this is a very real and sad fact of life."

"When I was actively seeking work I always found it difficult to decide whether to put on the resume that I had a disability confining me to a wheelchair. I could get to an interview and find myself not even able to get in the building."

Others were concerned that de-identified CVs would only get an applicant through to a job interview, and bias would apply after that.

"It sounds to me like it will just mean that applicants waste their time by preparing for and fronting up to a job interview, only to be ruled out in the first two seconds of the interview."

The WA trial is expected to present initial findings to the Minister soon.