Supported by the state government, the pilot ensures names, schools, emails, cultural references, age and interests are redacted from job applications.

Westpac, which is the only participant bank, says it will use the de-identified CVs to fill a "live role" in a business unit that has been written to ensure maximum potential for female applicants.

About 12 months ago, the bank revised how live roles were described, to make flexibility offerings more prominent, and to move towards outcome oriented, rather than skills focused job descriptions.

"Anonymous CVs is one lever we have not yet pulled in addressing diversity. We're looking forward to finding out if what gets masked does matter," Westpac director of women's markets, inclusion and diversity, Ainslie van Onselen said.

Westpac data about its male/female applicant ratio to shortlisting, and subsequently for hiring, shows the percentage of women hired from a shortlist is much higher than the percentage of women shortlisted in the first instance.

"That's where we've identified an issue for us, and that's what makes this pilot so attractive.

"The idea is that less women will self-select out of a role," Ms van Onselen said, noting that self-selection and concerns about available flexibility can preclude women and other potential applicants with care responsibilities from putting their hand up.

Care Australia chief executive Ara Creswell said implementing flexibility as well as communicating to employees that it is available, is "absolutely crucial" for employers, and impacts just as many men as it does women, given men make up 44 per cent of carers.

"Two generations of retirees are alive at any one time now," Ms Creswell said. "We are getting to that tipping point where there are more people needing care than there are informal carers to provide it."

One-in-eight employees currently have a carer role outside the workplace. That will increase exponentially as the population ages and Deloitte Access Economics estimates the replacement cost of Australia's unpaid care would be $60.3 billion annually.

"Carer-friendly workplaces reduces the cost of staff turnover, increases staff morale, increases productivity and [lowers] stress and absenteeism," she said.

"If we all require the amount of care an aged person requires, we're in trouble if we expect everyone to leave the workforce to provide that informal care."

Ms van Onselen said when Westpac rolled out its All-in- Flex program, a conscious effort was made to ensure men felt comfortable working flexibly.

"Fifty per cent of our case studies were men, and not just men as parents. But it's not solely about men working flexibly; it's about transition to an agile workforce focused on outcomes not presenteeism, across all levels. "

Ms Creswell said employers increasingly understood how important it was to keep more carers in the workforce, because it meant they were in better shape financially, retained referees and had a higher level of wellbeing than those compelled to leave work to fulfil their informal care obligations.

"Two-thirds of all working age carers are employed. We would like to keep it that way," she said.