We all are recruiters. Every manager, director, or team leader had a chance to build a team and participated in the candidate selection process. Each of these people made employment decisions with unconscious bias. We should basically call them “involuntary sympathy/favor” or “involuntary dislike/negative attitude” towards a particular person.
Someone has beautifullyexplained, “Unconscious biases are like an invisible yet omnipresent force that influences many of the decisions we make in our daily lives.” They are like a little weight that tips the scales. In the business sphere, they can play a significant role, among others, in the process of making decisions regarding employment or promotion.
Due to unconscious bias, talented candidates may be overlooked as early as the interview selection process. This is because the decision can be made by checking the candidate’s picture on the CV, their name, background, education, and even hobbies.
During the interview with the candidate, the initial image developed on the basis of the CV and the prejudices of the recruiter will be important. As a result, the interview process will only be a way to validate her beliefs and prejudices.
Bias in recruitment affects every person who makes hiring decisions, which makes the recruitment process biased and unfair. It is not easy to realize for yourself where the sense of impartial assessment of the candidate’s competencies fails and stereotypical thinking prevails. We are biologically programmed to adapt to people like us and to choose colleagues with similar attitudes and points of view.
Is it good for team building?
Certainly, decisions will be made much more efficiently in a team consisting of homogeneous characters. However, the lack of diversity of opinions and critical thinking will cause unanimity to limit the team to specific solutions and will not be conducive to creativity and innovation.
There are also quite conscious hiring biases, which are characterized by recruiters being overtly biased against a particular type of human personality.
Leeds School of Business professors at the University of Colorado, Stefanie K. Johnson, David R. Hekman and Elsa T. Chan conducted interesting research related to prejudices and problems faced by companies in the process of building diverse teams. The conclusion drawn from the research is as follows:
If there is only one woman / one man / one foreigner / one senior in the pool of candidates, statistically these people have no chance of being employed. Why? Because each of these people is a departure from the norm, and going beyond the pattern is associated with risk.
The conclusions suggest themselves. The “two-of-a-kind candidate pool effect” will be of great importance in overcoming unconscious biases and bringing about the cultural, gender, and age balance that is expected in organizations.
Do we have a chance to conduct a reliable employment process? Yes, we do. However, this requires perseverance, systematic and structured activities in the creation of the recruitment process, and adherence to these rules by all persons involved in the employment process.
Start by accepting that you have unconscious biases. We all have them. Develop and deepen the topic of prejudices so that you can recognize them in yourself. Treatment has a chance of success only with the correct diagnosis. Create a process that will support decision-makers, including you, in making a reliable and impartial assessment:
Finally, to make us feel a bit better about our imperfect grades, let me quote Iris Bohnet, director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. “To see is to believe,” explains Iris Bohnet.
If we don’t see male-teachers in daycare or female-engineers, we naturally don’t associate men and women with these jobs and apply different standards when hiring, promoting, and evaluating performance.
Instead of absolving ourselves with these words, let’s take concrete steps so as not to lose real talent in the hiring process. Biases, as we all know, work only to our disadvantage.
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