When it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, it is important to consider how unconscious bias can affect our hiring practices.
Unconscious bias in recruitment refers to the initial opinions that are formed about candidates that cause us to make decisions in favour of one person or group, placing others at a disadvantage. In other words, unconscious bias influences our decisions, whether positive or negative, using information that is irrelevant to the job.
Here are some strategies to consider that can help your team tackle unconscious bias in the hiring process:
1. Seek to Understand What Hiring Biases Are and How They Operate
The first step should be to start the conversation about what some of the the unconscious biases might be within your organization. Setting the right foundation allows for better development of the appropriate steps that can be taken to minimize your organizational biases. One option may be to consider offering an internal training program on bias awareness as a way for your employees to unravel some of their unconscious biases.
2. Mask the Hiring Process
Masking is the process of removing names on CVs, education, or location-based information from the process. This method is a great strategy to remove unconscious decision making based on gender, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity, and will turn the focus strictly to the candidate's skillset.
3. Strictly Focus On the Skills and Abilities Necessary to Perform the Job
Evaluate the current methods your organization is using to determine top candidates. Are you conducting face-to-face interviews first? Consider conducting phone interviews as a way to help to remove the initial face-to-face interaction where unconscious bias might influence decision making. This allows us to ensure we focus on the skills needed to perform the role before any other aspect of the candidates profile.
4. Use a Structured Interview Approach
A structured interview or standardized interview is when an interviewer asks the same set of questions to all interviewees. When all candidates are asked the same set of questions, we are able to better focus on the factors that will directly impact performance, creating an equal opportunity for all candidates.
5. Involve Diverse Members of Your Organization in the Recruiting Process
Establishing a diverse interview panel can not only assist in identifying your own organizational diversity needs, but also can create a more welcoming environment for candidates throughout the process. Utilizing a diverse interview panel allows for those of different cultures and ethnicities to collaborate more effectively, ensuring total equality throughout the hiring processes.
In summary, reality is, that unconscious bias will exist even when we are genuinely pursuing more diverse hiring practices. Attempting to understand WHERE these biases originate from and HOW they can affect our hiring decisions can ultimately help us to be more aware of unconscious bias when it occurs.
How does your organization tackle unconscious bias within the hiring process?
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