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De-Bias Hiring Processes

Despite considerable effort to have objective recruitment, companies struggle with unconscious bias.

Brief Summary

The focus on recruiting and hiring underrepresented talent (URT) has increased over the past two years. However, many organizations still face obstacles despite these well-intentioned efforts. It is still challenging for them to build inclusive cultures despite training and workshops for unconscious bias, sponsorship and mentoring programs, employee resource groups, etc.

Recruiting for diversity is a long-term game. It is also everyone’s responsibility within the organization — not just talent acquisition, HR or the DEI team. A company's diversity hiring initiatives can't succeed if everyone on that team is not true to the company's core values, genuine intentions, and diversity goals.

Challenge

Bad hiring decisions account for up to 80% of employee turnover and the cost of turnover is 2.5X the annual salary of the position. Implicit bias begins from the moment we define the role, but especially rears its head in face-to-face interviewing.

Even if you work on your conscious mindset, unconscious mental shortcuts and split-second decisions prevail - especially in the recruiting process that is so dependent upon first impressions.

Recommendation

Ensure that your recruitment processes have equitable outcomes by addressing these questions:

  • Do your HR Team and DEI Team work together to build hiring processes and set hiring goals?
  • Do you attract a wide pool of applicants from diverse backgrounds? Are your applicants representative of the available talent pool?
  • Do you hire for “culture fit” or “culture add”? Do you hire candidates who stretch the demographic diversity, diversity of perspective, cognitive diversity, communicative diversity of your organization?
  • Do you have an objective, data data-driven recruitment process? How much of the decision is based on recruiters’ “gut feeling”?
  • Are your Business Leaders, HR Team and DEI Team aware of how unconsious bias impacts hiring and how to mitigate it? Are they held responsible for patterns of hiring outcomes?
dei progress

Proposed Actions

Foundational Actions:

  • Provide unconscious bias training with a focus on awareness raising as a way of opening eyes and minds to the impact of affinity bias.
  • Pre-Align On Clear Needs For Job Roles to set out the hiring criteria based on what is actually needed for a successful hire.
  • Write Neutral and Approachable Job Descriptions - by making the language of job descriptions conscious, gender neutral and inclusive, your organization will become more able to attract diverse individuals.
  • Recruit a Diverse Slate of Candidates - if there is 1 woman or underrepresented individual in a final candidate pool, he or she has 0 chance of being hired. If there are 2 women, the odds are 79 times greater, and if 2 from an underrepresented group, 194 times greater.
  • Use Blind Resumes - stripping out socioeconomic factors that trigger conscious and unconscious assumptions keeps the focus on ability, qualifications and talents while choosing from resumes.

Growing Actions:

  • Give Work Sample Tests - mimic the tasks, problem-solving dilemmas or skills that will be required on the job.
  • Conduct Structured, Standardized Interviews or Digital Structured Interviews where the decision has been 99% made before the final formality of a face-to-face meet.
  • Get Data-Rich and Data-Wise About Recruitment - action without evaluation can too often lead to wheel-spinning. Data analytics also help you track the progress.
  • Build Your “Diversity Brand Equity” which reflects how people - including prospective talent - view your organization when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
  • Form Diverse Hiring Teams composed of individuals from different groups and different functions. Candidates are evaluated through diverse perspectives. It isn’t the same as group interviews.

Leading Actions:

  • Hire for “Cultural Add”, not for “Culture Fit” - replace the question of likeability and cultural fit with assessing whether a candidate is truly an addition to the current organizational culture: do they stretch the demographic diversity, diversity of perspective, cognitive diversity, communicative diversity for your organization?
  • Create Dedicated Recruitment Initiatives for Specific Groups - especially when it comes to including underemployed talent such as women,  black candidates, neurodiverse individuals or people with disabilities.
  • Be a Culture that Embodies Counter-Stereotypical Examples - the most evolved leaders in DEI will be the companies who challenge themselves and the organization to push the edge - they are walking the walk, effectively integrating  many of the interventions that disrupt bias.

Valued Guidance

To Read

To Watch / Listen

TEDx Talks: Unconscious bias: Stereotypical hiring practices.

LinkedIn Talent Solutions: Confronting Diversity: Grab your Bias by the Roots

To Learn / Study

HBR: How to Reduce Personal Bias When Hiring

LinkedIn Learning: Diversity Recruiting by Stacey Gordon

Diversity Officer Magazine: The Fool Proof Cultural Diversity Recruitment Bias Buster

Pulsely: Bias in Hiring: Why Does It Matter And How To Tackle It

Pulsely: Bias In Hiring: Going Beyond The Basics

Implementation Plan

Foundational Actions:

  • Provide unconscious bias training with a focus on awareness raising as a way of opening eyes and minds to the impact of affinity bias.
  • Pre-Align On Clear Needs For Job Roles to set out the hiring criteria based on what is actually needed for a successful hire.
  • Write Neutral and Approachable Job Descriptions - by making the language of job descriptions conscious, gender neutral and inclusive, your organization will become more able to attract diverse individuals.
  • Recruit a Diverse Slate of Candidates - if there is 1 woman or underrepresented individual in a final candidate pool, he or she has 0 chance of being hired. If there are 2 women, the odds are 79 times greater, and if 2 from an underrepresented group, 194 times greater.
  • Use Blind Resumes - stripping out socioeconomic factors that trigger conscious and unconscious assumptions keeps the focus on ability, qualifications and talents while choosing from resumes.

Growing Actions:

  • Give Work Sample Tests - mimic the tasks, problem-solving dilemmas or skills that will be required on the job.
  • Conduct Structured, Standardized Interviews Or Digital Structured Interviews where the decision has been 99% made before the final formality of a face-to-face meet.
  • Get Data-Rich and Data-Wise About Recruitment - action without evaluation can too often lead to wheel-spinning. Data analytics also help you track the progress.
  • Build Your “Diversity Brand Equity” which reflects how people - including prospective talent - view your organization when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
  • Form Diverse Hiring Teams composed of individuals from different groups and different functions. Candidates are evaluated through diverse perspectives. It isn’t the same as group interviews.

Leading Actions:

  • Hire for “Cultural Add”, not for “Culture Fit” - replace the question of likeability and cultural fit with assessing whether a candidate is truly an addition to the current organizational culture: do they stretch the demographic diversity, diversity of perspective, cognitive diversity, communicative diversity for your organization?
  • Create Dedicated Recruitment Initiatives for Specific Groups - especially when it comes to including underemployed talent such as women,  black candidates, neurodiverse individuals or people with disabilities.
  • Be a Culture that Embodies Counter-Stereotypical Examples - the most evolved leaders in DEI will be the companies who challenge themselves and the organization to push the edge - they are walking the walk, effectively integrating  many of the interventions that disrupt bias.

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About the Author

Betsy Bagley is Pulsely’s Co-Founder and DEI Director.
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