How to Overcome Hiring Bias: A Comprehensive Guide

Ready to improve your hiring decisions? Start by honestly assessing and addressing bias. Once you recognize how bias can impact your choices, you can implement changes to minimize its effects. Need guidance? Don’t worry, in this blog post, Aniday will give you a guide on how you can successfully overcome hiring bias!

Defining Bias

Bias, in essence, is any tool you employ to reach a decision. It encompasses shortcuts based on prior information, hearsay, and prototypes. While biases can be beneficial by simplifying the overwhelming amount of stimuli we encounter, relying on these mental shortcuts increases the likelihood of errors. This caution is especially crucial when making decisions about individuals.

Hiring decisions can be influenced by two levels of bias: individual biases (such as mental shortcuts and proxies) and systemic biases (how processes are structured, candidates are filtered, etc.). While complete elimination of bias is unattainable, acknowledging and actively working to mitigate its impact is essential at both levels.

Spotting and Mitigating Bias in the Hiring Process

Following the definition of bias, we deliberated on its potential emergence throughout the hiring process and outlined steps to alleviate its impact. Here are some key insights.

1. Sourcing

When recruiting on platforms like LinkedIn, it's common for recruiters to focus on specific schools or degrees, potentially excluding numerous qualified candidates. To counteract this bias, consider broadening search terms to encompass historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), women's colleges, and non-traditional educational institutions like coding camps.

Expanding the talent pool becomes a competitive advantage, as emphasized by Riham Satti, Co-founder and CEO of MeVitae. Additionally, analyzing your data can unveil valuable insights. The Upwork talent acquisition team, for instance, discovered a pass-through rate from application to initial screen of 4%, which rivals the competitiveness of Harvard. Armed with this knowledge, they set a goal to increase the initial screen rate to 10%, enhancing opportunities for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds within the existing pipeline without requiring additional sourcing expenses.

2. Screening

The onset of most cognitive biases occurs during the review of resumes and cover letters. Our studies have tracked the eye movements of hiring managers as they peruse resumes, revealing distinct "hotspots" where their attention is concentrated – the candidate's name, job title, and company name. Unfortunately, these elements are often susceptible to biased decision-making. Rapid judgments are made based on the recognition (or lack thereof) of a school or company name. Regrettably, job responsibilities and skill sets, which provide the most reliable indicators of a candidate's qualification for a role, receive minimal attention or none at all.

To mitigate bias in the screening phase, one effective approach is blind recruiting. In this approach, key details like name, gender, and ethnicity are omitted from resumes. Blind recruiting has demonstrated its potential to enhance gender and ethnicity diversity among candidates by up to 30%.

3. Offer Stage

Relying on candidates to disclose their salary expectations or current earnings can introduce bias into the offer stage. Research indicates that disparities in pay can persist throughout individuals' careers, and women are often less likely to negotiate initially.

Establishing transparent compensation packages is vital to counteracting bias during the offer stage. Defining clear compensation, bonus, and equity bands helps eliminate negotiating differentials. This practice not only benefits candidates and new hires but also fosters internal equity among existing employees.

Eliminating Unconscious Bias in Your Hiring Process

1. Remove Gendered Wording

• Analyze your job descriptions for gendered language that may unconsciously discourage certain individuals from applying. Use gender-neutral language to attract a more diverse pool of candidates.

• Emphasize the importance of skills and qualifications rather than relying on stereotypical traits associated with a particular gender.

2. Introduce Blind Skills Challenges

• Incorporate blind skills challenges or assessments in your hiring process. This enables candidates to demonstrate their skills impartially, free from personal information influence.

• Focus on practical tasks that directly relate to the job requirements, providing a more accurate representation of a candidate's capabilities.

3. Make Data-Driven Decisions

• Use data analytics to assess your hiring process for any patterns of bias. Routinely assess metrics like candidate demographics, interview scores, and retention rates for areas of enhancement.

• Leverage technology to support data-driven decision-making, ensuring that algorithms used in recruitment tools are regularly audited for fairness.

4. Advertise Roles Through New Channels

• Explore alternative channels for advertising job openings to reach a wider and more diverse audience. Utilize platforms that cater to underrepresented groups in your industry.

• Actively engage with diverse communities through partnerships, events, and outreach programs to increase visibility and accessibility of your job opportunities.

5. Make Your Interview Process Structured

• Create a structured interview process with uniform questions for all candidates, lessening subjective judgments for a fair evaluation.

• Train interviewers to recognize and avoid biases during the interview. Emphasize evaluating the candidate's skills and potential contributions to the team.

6. Have an Interview Panel

• Assemble diverse interview panels to introduce varied perspectives in the assessment process. Multiple viewpoints can help mitigate individual biases and provide a more comprehensive assessment of candidates.

• Ensure that interviewers are trained in diversity and inclusion to foster a collaborative and unbiased interview environment.

For the blog post, Aniday has explored how to overcome hiring bias. Overcoming hiring bias demands commitment, awareness, and ongoing improvement. Organizations can nurture inclusivity by addressing bias at various hiring stages. Embracing these practices benefits both candidates and enhances overall organizational success and innovation.