Two-thirds of Kiwis think of male leaders when it comes to CEOs

When asked to think about a CEO's gender, 65% of Kiwis said they had a male leader in mind.

This is the latest finding from Frog Recruitment's survey of 1,646 New Zealand workers in its study of unconscious gender bias in the workplace.

The result came despite the respondents "almost evenly split" between male and female workers, according to Frog Recruitment, and despite Gen Zs making up two-thirds of the respondents.

'Unacceptable' gender bias

Frog Recruitment's Intergenerational Bias online poll is aimed at looking at the unconscious bias exhibited by employees in the workplace.

Its findings revealed that not only is this unconscious bias prevalent for leadership roles, but it comes as early as the recruitment process.

In fact, in the interview stage of a prospective job, 32% of the respondents said they felt discriminated against for their gender, according to Frog Recruitment managing director Shannon Barlow.

"In 2023, it's unacceptable that we still have a gender bias blatantly evident in the recruitment process," Barlow said in a media release.

This bias is "letting down thousands of Kiwi employers" taking a fair and equitable approach to hiring diversely, she said.

Establishing a diverse workforce has been an emerging movement among many workplaces across the world as of late. In New Zealand, the country has come a long way since 2016 when 40% of employers did not have a policy in place when it came to diversity hiring.

"There has been a real shift and focus on recruitment equity and how an employer engages with candidates and new employees in the past five years," Barlow said. "How they back up the talk around who they are as a business is an important thread in their hiring tapestry and their brand experience."

Preventing bias in recruitment

Stamping out gender bias in recruitment will help leaders understand the needs and challenges of a diverse range of stakeholders, according to Barlow.

To do this, she suggested various steps to ensure that they are not exhibiting biases against jobseekers.

Having a diverse hiring team is the first step, according to Barlow.

"Subconsciously, people tend to recruit and attract people like themselves, and you can have a similarity bias. To offset this, we recommend involving multiple colleagues, so there is diversity in the interview process," she said.

Having clear hiring objectives before the interview process is also necessary to maintain consistency, she said.

"This can be sticking to a scoring or matrix system on how candidates' abilities and skills are assessed. This eliminates the risk of variable questioning, where candidates can get asked different questions in every interview," Barlow said.