5 Ways to Alleviate Unconscious Bias in the Hiring Process
Unconscious bias refers to implicit attitudes and beliefs that unconsciously influence our perceptions, thoughts, and actions toward others. In the hiring process, it can affect candidate selection, leading to the exclusion of qualified candidates from underrepresented groups. Here are five ways to alleviate unconscious bias in the hiring process:
Establish clear criteria for evaluating candidates: Establishing clear evaluation criteria that are tied to the job requirements can help reduce the impact of unconscious biases. This will also help ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on the same criteria, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, age, or other personal characteristics.
Train hiring managers and recruiters: Hiring managers and recruiters can benefit from training that helps them understand and identify unconscious biases. This can help them recognize and challenge their own biases and make more objective and fair hiring decisions.
Use structured interviews: Structured interviews are those that follow a consistent set of questions for each candidate and assess them based on specific and objective criteria. This can help reduce the impact of unconscious bias by forcing hiring managers to focus on the candidate’s skills and qualifications rather than making assumptions based on their appearance, background, or personal characteristics.
Consider diverse candidate pools: Diverse candidate pools help to ensure that the candidates being considered for the job represent a range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This can reduce the impact of unconscious bias by exposing hiring managers to a wider range of candidates, and reducing the likelihood that they will only consider candidates who are similar to themselves.
Anonymous resume review: Anonymous resume review, where the name, address, and other personal information of the candidate is removed from their resume, can reduce the impact of unconscious bias. This can help hiring managers focus on the candidate’s qualifications and experience rather than making assumptions based on personal characteristics.
Unconscious bias can significantly impact the hiring process and create barriers to employment, but there are steps that can be taken to reduce its impact. Organizations can ensure that they make fair and equitable hiring decisions by establishing clear evaluation criteria, training hiring managers and recruiters, using structured interviews, considering diverse candidate pools, and anonymous resume review.