The Invisible Bias That Could Affect Your Recruitment Process

Despite the significant advantages of diversity in the workplace, unconscious and hidden biases still exist in the hiring process.

Even the most open-minded individuals have unconscious biases that may affect their hiring decision-making. However, acknowledging these biases is the first step to ensuring neutral hiring efforts.

Here are five ways employers can remove bias when deciding between candidates:

Ask For Work Samples 

Where applicable, asking candidates to submit work samples may predict how well they will perform based on past performance and skills. Using past work samples allows the interviewer to judge the candidate based on their work rather than factors such as gender, race, appearance, age and personality.

Use Structured Interviews

Structured interviews design interview questions based on job-related skills and are standardised for all candidates. For example, questions may include “describe a situation where you have participated in a team” or “tell me about an obstacle you were able to overcome in the past.” Structured interviews use the same set of questions and are asked in exactly the same way and order to each candidate. This is in contrast to unstructured interviews whichtend to flow like a conversation and are generally subjective.

Collaborative Interviewing

Collaborative interviewing involves using multiple team members to interview candidates. This type of interviewing helps to eliminate unconscious bias and reduce human error. Altering the interview process to include more interviewers provides a diverse range of opinions and increases the likelihood that the new hire will be a good fit.

Create An Interview Scorecard

An interview scorecard evaluates the qualifications and suitability of candidates based on quantitative measures, which can help level the playing field for candidates. An interview scorecard uses applicable criteria such as technical ability, leadership skills etc., and a rating system to assess each criterion, i.e. 1-5. Interview scorecards can be used to compare results between interviewers as some interviewers may be lenient on some criteria and too harsh on others.

Use Gender-Neutral Job Descriptions

“Gender-coded” language in job descriptions may unintentionally lean toward one gender more than another. If your job description lists non-essential skills and qualifications or uses masculine words such as “ambitious” or “assertive,” candidates may be deterred from applying as they do not consider themselves a good fit. When writing job descriptions, separate the essential and desired qualifications, and focus on the behaviours needed to perform the role rather than personality traits.