If you’re looking to hire in the space of information technology or information security, Upward Spiral is the platform of choice. Checkout what they can do for your business before making your next recruitment decision.
Unconscious bias isn’t something a business can address overnight by passing a mandate. Even after rectifying the issues that need to be taken to improve the hiring process and income more diverse talent, recruiter bias may detail efforts and prevent the company from finding the best and brightest talent.
Below, we explore 10 methods a company can implement to identify and reduce the impact of the biases that people within your organisation may hold. Improving your hiring practices and the many documented benefits of a more diverse workforce.
1. Define Diversity And Set Goals
Set business goals so that everyone knows that removing unconscious bias and building diversity is a priority. With that, define what diversity means to the company. What ethnicities, ages, genders and sexual preference groups are underrepresented and need to be addressed. Next, set metrics to achieve at each step in your candidate pipeline: applicant funnels, interview conversion rates and acceptances. Finally, communicate successes.
2. Admit That Implicit Bias Exists
Admit that there is bias. You have to name it to tame it. We need to not only look at qualifications, but also at what diversity is and how an outsider’s perspective can be an advantage. Instead of pretending to not notice differences, ask, “What will someone who is diverse, and in what way, add to our organization?”
3. Create A Foundation Of Trust
Creating a foundation of trust, commitment, accountability and collaboration is critical in supporting a company’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. Offering productive conflict development programs for learning how to better communicate creates unity that is essential.
4. Make Hiring A Collective Effort
Bias could exist in the design of the hiring process itself. Most processes are designed from one perspective (e.g., level, function, identity). In designing the process, make sure that it is a collective effort, with input from differing perspectives and identities. Or investigate a talent intelligence platform.
5. Have A Cross-Functional Interview Team
Having a cross-functional interview team is a great way to reduce bias in the hiring process. Another good practice is to have a session with the interview team to brainstorm what to look for and what to watch out for.
6. Appreciate Diversity In Management
Hire more diverse managers and show appreciation for them. By definition, those with unconscious biases don’t realize they have them. So the best approach is to focus on creating an environment with true diversity.
7. Use A Structured Interview
Develop the interview while developing the job description, creating questions to discern candidates’ knowledge, skills and abilities relative to the job. Be disciplined about asking all applicants the same questions, which allows hiring decision makers to base decisions on informed comparisons about applicants’ capabilities rather than their first impressions.
8. Check Yourself With Project Implicit
Project Implicit is an excellent resource from Harvard. Noticing the impact biases have on decisions is illuminating. We recommend semi-regular checks with Project Implicit several times a year to stay consciously aware.
9. Analyze Each Step Of The Hiring Process
Unconscious biases don’t just happen at the interview stage. Your hiring process is a series of steps, not a single act. Analyze each step and gather data. That will allow you to determine where the problem lies (e.g., advertising for candidates, a small talent pool, the application process, interviews).
10. Focus On The Job’s Behavioral Needs
Focus on the behavioral needs of the job role instead of skills and experience. Skills and experience are poor predictors of candidate success; in fact, skills are the easiest to train for. Instead, organizations should focus on assessing people against a behavioral target, followed by a structured behavioral interview designed to uncover alignment with culture and values.
If you’re looking to hire in the space of information technology or information security, Upward Spiral is the platform of choice. Checkout what they can do for your business before making your next recruitment decision.