How to reduce subconscious bias in the recruitment process 

An unconscious bias describes the associations that we hold outside our conscious awareness, it affects everyone and are triggered by our brains automatic and quick judgments and assessments. Subconscious biases in the workplace therefore have existed since the first days of recruitment. This article is in no way stating that we can change the neurology of people but rather with the purpose of implementing small yet significant steps when  recruiting which should prevent or at a minimum reduce quick judgments and assessments of people and instead analyse the processes of recruitment in a mindful, fair and conscious manner. 

Say NO to gendered wording

Language is powerful and the language employers use when posting for talent is significant in who applies. Researchers have found that women are much more likely to apply to job descriptions that include masculine coded language such as ‘Active’ “Confident’ and ‘Driven’, interestingly the use of feminine coded words such as ‘Interpersonal’, ‘honest’ and ‘Support’ was negligible. Gender equality is a key priority for us at Diversify Construction and applying tools and extensions to your browsers helps to eliminate gender use when searching for talent, it is too an effective method for companies to support their diversity goals and allow a more neutral stance when advertising recruiting. 

Blind skills for the win

Your name, where you went to school and even where you once worked are all information which is highly personal to you but also one of the first things our minds subconsciously judge. Blind recruitment removes certain sensitive information from CV’s such as race, nationality, gender, age etc as these are factors which lead to biased decisions. 

Businesses such as GapJumpers and Mevitae remove CV’s from the application process entirely. GapJumpers believe in performance over privilege and pedigree. Structuring your hiring process this way will be a fairer process in which applicants will be assessed against the same markers, this can be done through asking a specific set of questions or being asked to do a certain task. This can help with subjectivity and allow candidates to be judged against others on the specific answers that they give. The likes of The Guardian and BBC have a similar technique allowing in-house assessments and challenges to mimic worklife to be the variable of review. Applications are then reviewed by the employers and interviewed accordingly based on the answers and not by their CV’s. 

This method of blind recruiting is modern and effective and an overall successful level of assessment for talent as it is based on merit and not personal information. Companies such as Greenhouse and Taleo use application tracking systems to remove selected components from the CV which tackles notions of gender, race, educational background for example. Blind skills tests have been effective in allowing more fairness into the workplace and a great way to reduce subconscious biases when recruiting.

Change the channel please

With more and more people digesting video content, hiring managers are looking at other channels to advertise roles. An Australian app ‘VIDEOMYJOB’ offers companies the chance to do this. It offers employers to write a script and record a video of themselves talking about the role, which can then be edited and shared on social media. This is an affordable and authentic service for even smaller companies to create branded video job adverts. Another method is through advertising on social media through paid advertisements, this can help reach wider audiences and move away from outdated job boards. Some companies are even looking for talent on non-traditional social media platforms such as TikTok!

Consider an interview panel

Interview panels can be a good human based approach to consider. Establishing a panel or committee which includes a diverse set of colleagues, sex, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background and age can help ensure that personal unconscious biases are mitigated and help you to consider an applicant from a wider perspective and make a more informed decision. When designing the process of hiring, this panel should also be involved as a collective effort also means differing perspectives and identities. Each stage from posting the job, outreach to on boarding would have been scrutinised, consisting of culture checks, bias check and diversity and inclusion checks, making it a fairer way to seek talent. 

Unfortunately it is hard to just ‘switch off’ our unconscious bias however prepping your business with the right tools, processes and being more mindful and educated can significantly reduce the unconscious bias within the recruitment process and beyond. Furthermore we believe that all companies should have processes in place that make recruitment fairer, modern and unbiased.