Removing Unconscious Bias In Recruitment

Can workplace discrimination ever really end?

With a significant focus on discrimination in the workplace, more and more businesses are not only noticing the imbalances in their teams but looking for ways they can adapt. Research has shown that more diverse organisations are more productive. For example, a McKinsey study shows that there is a 15% increase in performance for gender-diverse businesses compared to non-gender-diverse organisations. Furthermore, ethnically diverse organisations are 35% more likely to outperform their non-diverse counterparts too.

With many studies showing the benefits of diversity in the workplace, it is something that is not only right but makes good business sense too. So, why is there an imbalance when it comes to selecting a diverse team?

The problem with bias

The Equality Act 2010 was designed to protect employees and candidates from discrimination. In recruitment, The Equality Act states that all workers (including those in the pre-employment phase) should have access and entitlement to organisational facilities. As a result, many organisations include an Equal Opportunities questionnaire within their application. However, this could be widening the gap between diverse and non-diverse teams.

While most organisations will not admit having a bias in their recruitment, backing up their claims with the adherence to the Equality Act 2010, bias still takes place through unconscious bias. The fact that individuals all have a bias, even if they don’t realise it.

The ten-second rule

99% of interviews are generally a waste of time as a hiring manager forms an opinion of candidates in the first ten seconds of meeting them. The same could be said outside of the recruitment sector. Most individuals will form an opinion of something very quickly, and it can take a long time for this opinion to change, if ever. Recruiters will not, and cannot, wait that long.

There has been Nobel Prize-winning research that proves that humans have bias, even though they don’t realise it. In the brain, there is much unconscious activity that begins to affect judgements and decisions before we even really know about it.

First impressions count

As humans, we tend to associate with people who have shared and similar experiences as us. Similarly, hiring managers can’t help but be drawn to individuals that they can associate with or relate to in some form or another. In recruitment, many hiring managers will justify their hiring decision based on someone they have a ‘good feeling’ about. However, this isn’t a feeling, but a judgement the unconscious brain has already made.

Whether it is picking one candidate over another for irrelevant data or acting on instinct rather than the skills profile of candidates, unconscious bias is a significant hurdle to productive, successful and diverse recruitment.

How to remove unconscious recruitment bias

Unconscious bias isn’t something that can be removed. After all, it is something we all share and even being aware of bias; the brain will still continue to form judgements. However, there are things that recruiters and hiring managers can do, to reduce the impact of unconscious bias and improve the likelihood of creating a more diverse team.

Make it a business goal

Flip bias on its head by making it a business goal. Consider the diversity the organisation really wants to achieve and focus the bias on achieving that goal, rather than trying to pretend that bias doesn’t exist. If the business is not diverse, commit to improving the diversity with SMART goals.

Adapt the strategy

It is not the candidates that you have to consider. Unconscious bias begins before then with your recruitment strategy. Where your business advertises hiring opportunities already promotes bias. Selecting certain recruitment companies and job boards over others may affect the type of candidates you attract.

By casting the recruitment net a little wider or choosing alternative methods of marketing recruitment opportunities can the best method to attract a more diverse team as you select from a more diverse pool.

If you use career fairs or recruitment days for hiring, then let the focus be on the individuals in the organisation. Candidates will make a beeline for the individuals in senior positions or the decision-makers. However, everyone in an organisation should be considered equal. Avoiding titling employees with their job descriptions can help your team to attract the talent you need for the business.

Craft with care

A job description is typically full of unconscious bias as it will usually appeal to a certain group of people. The words used in job descriptions can be incredibly powerful at resonating with some individuals but turning off others. For example, job descriptions that use the word ‘assert’ are considered more masculine-coded word compared to ‘connect’ which is seen as a feminine-coded word. Several online tools will analyse job descriptions to help you either remove bias or focus your advert on the individuals you want to attract.

Skills testing

A study by Harvard and Princeton found that during a blind audition, 59% of top performers were female and if a blind audition took place, the likelihood that a female would be hired increased by as much as 46%. Focusing on blind recruitment or simply skills testing reduces the level of bias that a hiring manager can have.

With recruitment tests, all hiring managers have a very limited amount of information about the candidate, which can help to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment process.

Accept the bias

Through awareness training, your team can begin to understand more about how unconscious bias is affecting their decisions. This may be enough for people to start labelling their bias and looking to move past it. There may be an acceptance of bias, and the best way to attract a diverse team is to focus on being biased in the ways your organisation is lacking.

While no business can really say that they select their team on their skills alone, by admitting that bias plays a part can help to create a cultural shift for recruitment in the future. Consequently, more diversity = more success.