Reducing unconscious bias in your recruitment process

Reducing unconscious bias within your recruitment process takes work, but today I wanted to share what was discussed in a recent webinar on this topic to help make it easier for you.

I was joined by 180 HR experts for 360’s How to reduce unconscious bias in recruitment webinar on Wednesday 26th August, covering this important topic in a number of key areas of your recruitment process.

Before I get started, if you would like to find more HR resources featuring recruitment best practice, take a look at all of 360’s previous webinars here.

What is unconscious bias?

Simply put, unconscious bias, also sometimes known as implicit bias, is a form of prejudice that the person holding it may not be even aware that they have or act on. These biases may be held by an individual, group, or institution and can have negative or positive consequences.

We are likely aware of conscious biases, where someone knows that they are prejudicial towards certain groups, but unconscious bias is tricky. Due to its nature, even someone who tries to practice tolerance for others will hold unconscious biases without realising it. In fact, it’s fair to say that pretty much everyone will hold an unconscious bias in one form or another.

This is important, as one study discussed in the webinar found that candidates with minority-identified names received fewer call-backs and job offers around 30-50% of the time, even when CVs were otherwise identical.

However, it’s not just ethnicity where unconscious biases can lie, as many other characteristics are subject to this bias. This includes gender, age, class, physical ability, weight, religion, sexual orientation, and even accents and the schools candidates went to.

As such, it’s vital to start reducing unconscious bias as much as possible to assist otherwise ideal candidates to have the same chances as others in your talent pool.

How to promote a diverse and inclusive company culture

Your employer brand is a reflection of your company, its values, and mission. It plays a major part in why any candidate will come and work for you. As such, if it does not showcase your diversity or policies towards inclusivity, you will not attract candidates from your desired demographics.

With our own Employee Expectations Survey finding that 86% of jobseekers prefer to work for an organisation with a culture that matches their personality, connecting with diverse candidates on a personal level will give your inclusion efforts a real boost.

What you want to do is understand what makes your company stand out. Then, widely showcase your diverse company culture, and make full use of your careers site and employer-branded videos to let your diverse employees speak for themselves about why someone should join your organisation. I go into these topics in more depth during the webinar.

Of course, if you are starting from scratch with your diversity strategy, mentioning your policies and efforts to be inclusive can also go a long way towards attracting the types of candidates you need.

If you would like to find out more about reducing unconscious bias in your recruitment process, including how to begin creating an inclusive application process, how to start reviewing your job advertising for inclusivity, and reducing bias at the interview stage, check out the rest of the webinar here. You will find the recording and slides for our latest HR webinar.

First published on the 360 Resourcing website here.