Unconscious bias in hiring can impact diversity & fairness. Learn how to lessen bias, create inclusive recruitment tactics, and build a more equitable workforce
Think back to a time when you instantly liked a candidate for a job. Maybe they reminded you of yourself at some point in your career. You were probably inclined to give them the job – you had a good gut feel about them.
That’s unconscious bias at work, and it’s very common in hiring. In fact, 48 percent of HR managers admit that bias is a factor in choosing who to hire. Even if unconscious bias is completely natural, how do we make sure it doesn’t affect hiring decisions?
In this article, we’ll go over what unconscious bias in hiring is and how it can be reduced. It’s impossible to get rid of unconscious bias, but there are ways to become aware of it and take action. We’ll share some of these strategies here.
“Unconscious bias in hiring is the unseen force that can shape and influence recruitment decisions,” says Jessica Bilston-Gourley, director and founder of Australian consulting agency Positive HR. She is also one of HRD’s top HR leaders and executives in the world.
Based on her experience, some of these biases come from:
In an interview setting, unconscious bias comes in when the interviewer’s preferences influence decisions and choices in hiring. Because these preferences are so ingrained, the interviewer is unaware of these biases.
Because we are unaware of our own biases, we are also unaware of the impact it has on the decisions we make every day. Here are some ways that biases can affect hiring managers and the choices they make throughout the recruitment process:
Putting some thought into the language used in job descriptions helps attract a more diverse talent pool. For example, using words like “competitive” tend to attract men, while “supportive” attracts more women. (For web development roles, the term “tech ninja” is apparently a big turn off for female applicants.)
A candidate’s name or where they went to university (if they did at all) are some factors that play into an interviewer’s preferences.
In the 2004 landmark study, Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?, resumes with white-sounding names like Emily Walsh got 50 percent more callbacks than Black names like Lakisha Washington.
Sadly, we haven’t had much progress since then. Figures from 2023 show that Black-sounding names still get 50 percent less callbacks.
Notice how quickly we make assumptions about a candidate the moment they walk through the door? Their hairstyle and outfit, the way they speak and move...these factor into judgements we form about the candidate, whether we admit it or not.
Making hiring decisions based on unconscious bias affects your organization’s efforts in diversity and inclusion. The workforce misses out on a multitude of talent, opinions, experiences, and areas of expertise when unconscious bias looms over the hiring process.
A recent report even shows that 84 percent of employees want more DEI initiatives, despite the US government’s clampdown on diversity agendas.
To help address unconscious bias in hiring, we must start by bringing awareness to it. Here are some common types we see in recruitment:
This is also known as “like me” bias, which means we tend to favor those who are a lot like us. Affinity bias shows up when we meet candidates who:
The danger with affinity bias is it results in cookie-cutter versions of ourselves. It offers little room for diversity and challenge, which leads to stagnant growth and innovation.
This type of bias happens when succeeding decisions hinge or anchor on a piece of information that was given. In the hiring context, this can happen when:
an applicant who is nervous at the start of the start of the interview is seen as disorganized and unprepared
an officer in the company recommends an applicant, who is then regarded as a strong candidate
a candidate’s resume states only two years’ experience, so they aren’t considered for the role despite strong skills and competences in other areas
We miss out on so many possibilities if we base our decisions on one bit of information.
Also called groupthink, conformity bias happens when we are influenced by the views and decisions of others. This stems from a naturally human desire to fit into a group. The downside is that groupthink discourages diverse ways of thinking which, in turn, discourages innovation and creativity.
Conformity bias shows up in recruitment when an interview panelist tends to go with the choice of the majority.
Ageism is another word for generational bias. This happens when we have stereotypes of certain generations – that Gen Xers are bad with technology, for example. This manifests when certain assumptions about an applicant’s skills and abilities are made based on their age.
We see generational bias in a lot of job adverts: for example, looking for “digital natives” shows an immediate preference for Gen Z candidates.
Here’s an example: the movie The Internship shows two gen Xers, Billy and Nick, as they work to earn spots on Google’s prestigious internship program:
This report shows data on ageism at work and shares ways to address it.
Gender bias is about giving special treatment or showing a preference for a certain gender. For example, roles in STEM (science, tech, engineering, and mathematics) are dominated by men, leaving limited opportunities for women.
These are just a few examples of unconscious bias. Here are other types of bias that could affect job interviews.
We can’t get rid of biases; they are part of the human experience, so the best we can do is to reduce them. This is especially important in the hiring process.
“One practical approach to reduce bias in a recruitment process is to use interview guides," Bilston-Gourley says. “Guides help create a more objective evaluation by standardizing the interview experience, asking the same questions and reducing the potential for biases to influence decisions.”
Another approach is to have a diverse hiring panel. Think about interviewers of different cultures, backgrounds, genders, and cultures. "[This] can help counteract individual biases and foster more balanced decision-making,” Bilston-Gourley says.
Here are other approaches you can take when recruiting talent:
Blind hiring involves removing identifiers such as name, age, gender, and educational background. This helps put everyone on equal footing, reducing the possibility of anyone getting an unfair advantage over the others.
Studies worldwide have shown how effective this approach is in hiring more diverse employees. Some examples:
Europe, Canada, US: disadvantaged groups, in general, had better chance of advancing in the application process
Sweden: women who uploaded their details onto a database had a higher chance of getting an interview (with their gender information hidden)
The Netherlands: non-Western applicants had a better chance of advancing in public sector roles
US: older applicants for jobs in a restaurant chain had a better chance of advancing if they uploaded their applications online, concealing their ages
AI tools can help reduce bias by evaluating candidates solely based on job-related criteria. But as we have seen with Amazon’s AI tool – which turned out to be excluding female applicants from the talent pool – technology is not perfect. These tools still require humans to intervene, review, and audit the selection made by AI.
Now let’s go beyond the hiring process and look at unconscious bias at work. In what ways can we curb unconscious bias to make the workplace open, diverse, and safe for everyone?
“In the workshops I facilitate for my clients we focus on helping hiring managers to first understand unconscious bias,” Bilston-Gourley says. For many leaders, she adds, these workshops are the first time they learn about unconscious bias.
In these workshops, managers review CVs in a group. This gives them the chance to reflect on whether they might be showing any conscious bias in the process.
HR professionals can continue to support and encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion at work, Bilston-Gurley says. “[This] ensures bias awareness is not just taught but actioned through the day-to-day.”
What other approaches can organizations take to reduce unconscious bias? Here are a few other strategies that you and your teams can take:
Promote inclusive and considerate language that respects colleagues from different cultures, backgrounds, age groups, and genders. Establish guidelines to ensure all written and verbal communication is inclusive and free from biased terminology.
Set clear and transparent pathways towards promotion. Outline the criteria and processes to prevent biases – unconscious or otherwise – to influence the employee experience.
Make sure that mentorship and training programs are available to everyone who meets the criteria, including those from underrepresented groups.
Building an inclusive workplace is everyone’s responsibility. Some concrete action that leaders and the workforce can take:
It all starts from the top, as the cliché goes. Equip leaders with the skills they need to identify and manage their own biases. Encourage managers and their teams to take the implicit association test (IAT). It’s an assessment that measures different types of biases such as:
They might be surprised at what the results tell them!
Leaders should set an example for the rest of the workforce to follow. And if they fall short, have reporting mechanisms in place to address the issue.
Ensure that leaders and managers are evaluated on their contributions to promoting a bias-free environment. Make this a part of their performance reviews.
Psychological safety means feeling secure in speaking up, making mistakes, and challenging others without fear of punishment. A workplace that promotes psychological safety fosters innovation, growth, and healthy risk-taking.
Here are some ways to promote psychological safety:
encourage speaking up: challenging well and speaking truth to power help combat groupthink or conformity bias
train for active listening: show leaders how to listen without judgment and to respond in a positive way to feedback related to bias
establish support systems for employees: access to employee assistance programs, employee resource groups, and complaint hotlines help make the workplace safe
Unconscious bias is natural – we all have it. Our biases differ based on our cultures, backgrounds, and the environment we live in. Unconscious bias becomes harmful when it affects important decisions in life and at work. One of these decisions has to do with hiring the right talent.
To make sure that our biases don’t get in the way when hiring, we should develop an awareness for it. Only then can we begin to address the issue.
Reducing these preferences in hiring helps us make the right decisions for our organizations. We learn to look beyond age, gender, culture, and backgrounds to hire the best people for the job. That makes our workplace more colorful, more diverse, and so much more interesting.
What approach will your organization take to manage unconscious bias? Let us know in the comments below
