Ways to Remove Unconscious Bias from the Recruitment Process

According to research, 79% of hiring managers believe that unconscious bias exists in the hiring process. But what exactly is it, and how can we ensure it doesn't creep into our decision-making when hiring new team members?
In short, unconscious bias is a preference or judgment towards something or someone without being aware of it. In the workplace, this can refer to certain characteristics of an employee or applicant or to social categories such as race, gender or disability.

The difficulty lies in the name of the term. If it's "unconscious," how are you supposed to make sure you and your team aren't guilty? The IceHrm team has some tips and tricks that can help you.

Educate yourself about unconscious bias

The first step is education. Unconscious bias is something we all experience in our daily lives, whether we know it or not. But it's definitely something we can learn to control in the workplace.

During the hiring process, you'll likely involve people from all areas of the company, from different departments and at different levels of management - with staged interviews and culture conversations. So you need to make sure everyone knows about unconscious bias and its effects and how to prevent it.

Automate parts of the hiring process

By using HR software technology to automate hiring processes, you can eliminate some of the human elements that could introduce bias. From reviewing resumes to sharing pre-interview questionnaires, this helps create a more structured and equitable process for all applicants.

Review your job descriptions

Job descriptions are the first point of contact you have with potential applicants and contribute to their first impression of your company. So when we suggest double and triple checking your word choice, we mean it!

Job descriptions must be inclusive and promote diversity. So avoid gendered or other terms that might alienate a certain group of people. It might be a good idea to go over the descriptions with different people in your company, in case they notice something that you didn't notice the first time around.

Introduction of a blind application process

Blind applications can minimize various biases, from gender and religion to socioeconomic background and sexuality. Hiding these details allows you to focus on the person's experience and skills for a specific job - because that's what matters.

Although blind recruiting can eliminate unconscious bias in the early stages of recruiting, it will not help in the face-to-face and onboarding stages. That's why it's so important to reduce bias in the workplace through education.

Make data-driven decisions

Unconscious bias naturally arises from our feelings and emotions about certain things, so it can be helpful to eliminate these and focus on objective data. You are looking for someone who can meet the requirements of the position, everything else should be left out of the interview.

Let us work harder to make the unconscious conscious. If you would like to learn more about the importance of emotional intelligence in HR, you can visit our user guide here.

HR software can not only speed up and streamline your hiring process, but it can also help eliminate unconscious bias if you want to create a more diverse workforce. Book your free demo with the IceHrm team and find out more.