Written by Sally-Ann King | 8th December 2022
Unconscious bias is the term used to describe what happen when our brain makes quick judgments and assessments, outside our conscious awareness and control. We can be influenced by factors such as social stereotypes, our background and our personal experiences – and make decisions based on these without “knowing” we are doing so.
This can be especially problematic for employers during the recruitment process, when unconscious bias could influence a decision to hire someone based on their age, disability, race, belief, sexual orientation, gender, or any other demographic feature – characteristics that have nothing to do with an individual’s suitability for a role.
The Equality Act of 2010 makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate against a job applicant because of a demographic feature they possess, throughout any stage of the hiring process – but although this is designed to prevent conscious discrimination, employers should do everything they can to ensure their decisions are not unconsciously affected.
So – what can employers do to help avoid unconscious bias in the recruitment process?
- Review job descriptions
A job description can encourage a candidate to apply for a job or turn them off completely. Some language in job adverts can attract candidates of a particular gender, or background, making others feel like it isn’t worth applying.
Avoid gender-specific pronouns in your job descriptions – this rule also applies to collective nouns. For example, phrases such as “guys” can be easily replaced with “team”. Some descriptions – such as “energetic” or “experienced” can create a perception that a business is looking for younger or older candidates. Use words like effective instead of excellent when describing communication skills, considering people where English is not their first language or those with hearing/speech impediments. Ensuring your job descriptions are as neutral as possible in wording will help encourage a broad range of candidates.
- Set a criteria for CV screening
It is important to establishselection criteria before screening CVs. This means choosing the criteria you want your new hires to meet before the screening process begins.
For example, you might determine the technical experience, work history, educational background, and skill sets needed to meet the requirements of the job, which can help you to narrow down candidates. This can help avoid bias, as it makes it less likely that you will base decisions on someone’s suitability for a role on protected characteristics, or ones outside of the list you selected.
- Psychometric testing
Psychometric testing or personality profiling can help give you an idea of how well a candidate will fit into your team and whether they would be suitable for a job role.
Insights Discovery uses a method of four ‘colour energies’ to represent different personality traits and when combined with interviews, on-site tests and references can help you build a picture of a candidate, their strengths and development needs which can be explored further during the interview process.
Psychometric testing can be enormously helpful but they should be used as part of the hiring process – never base any hiring decisions on personality profiles alone.
The Reality HR team includes consultants who are fully trained in psychometric testing and can help design a recruitment process that sources candidates and helps select those who will be the best for your business, using a combination of interviewing, testing and psychometrics.
- Management training
Your hiring process is likely to reflect the attitudes and culture already present in your business. To ensure diversity and inclusion at all levels of your business, it is vital to make your managers aware of unconscious bias and provide training to educate them. Prejudices are often deeply rooted, with stereotypes feeding into narratives about who best suits a specific job.
Training for line managers and employees – for example Reality HR’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programme – can educate line managers about their unconscious biases, and how to overcome these. They will learn what to say (and not to say!), and how they can manage diverse teams effectively, and take away practical tips for increasing diversity and inclusion within your organisation.
Learn more about our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training.
- Outsource recruitment
You may choose to outsource your CV screening or recruitment process to a third party. This can increase objectivity, and the outsourced partner will be able to provide CVs that have been stripped of any information that may lead to unconscious bias.
The team at Reality HR can provide support with recruitment– whether you need a partner to run the whole process, or just need support with some aspects of it, such as CV screening or interviewing. Find out more on our recruitment page.