Yesterday’s Advisor took a look at how implicit bias during the résumé portion of hiring occurs frequently. A recent study published by the Administrative Science Quarterly found that even pro-diversity employers discriminated against minorities during hiring at the same rate as companies that don’t make use of pro-diversity language. Today, we’ll see the impact that has on your company, and how to avoid implicit bias.
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Take a look at yesterday’s article to see detailed findings. In short, the study found that if applicants were racially transparent (made no effort to remove indicators of their minority status like name and minority-oriented work experiences on their résumés) they were much less likely to receive callbacks. That can seriously affect any company by opening them up to serious legal problems.
A False Sense of Security
Implicit bias represents a false sense of security for recruiters, who most often think of themselves as bias free. Whether they are aware or not, such recruiters open up their employers to discrimination claims.
Another group of people with a false sense of security are minorities themselves who specifically seek out pro-diversity companies with the hopes that they have a good shot at being hired. The study shows that these types of applicants are much less likely to whiten their résumés when applying to those kinds of companies. Furthermore, more minorities apply to jobs that seem to be pro-diversity, all while feeling safe in not altering their résumés.
As a result, two things occur. First, minority job applicants are being discriminated against in general. Second, because they apply to pro-diversity companies in greater numbers, they are actually being disproportionately discriminated against by companies that claim they are pro-diversity. Besides being supremely unfair from the perspective of the applicants, from a compliance perspective, this is a nightmare.
Discrimination Lawsuits
This study shows just how vulnerable every employer is to implicit bias. If a company is shown to be accepting fewer minorities that are equally qualified to non-minorities, it won’t matter much to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) whether it was intentional or not. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can conquer implicit bias and make sure your hiring process is fair.
Awareness
The number one way to combat implicit bias is to train your recruiters and hiring managers about implicit bias. This training should remind them that:
- Implicit bias is not the same as overt bias, and as a consequence, might be a factor in your recruiters’ hiring process without them even knowing it.
- That there are real legal consequences to discriminating against minorities during the interview process (and of course, at any time)—even if that discrimination is not intentional.
Stick to The Criteria
Another way to combat implicit bias is to make sure that your recruiting staff stick to the basic criteria of the job, and match up the qualifications to those criteria. In other words, does the applicant have the requisite work experience and other qualifications to do the job well. If the answer is true, then that person should make it to the next step, no matter what his or her name is.
Give Each Resume a Detailed Read
Simply skimming a resume results in you absorbing very few details, among them, the name of the applicant, their location, their education, and some of their basic experiences. Some of these are also the kinds of things that will immediately reveal whether they are a minority. A thorough read of a resume will result in a better understanding of the candidate than just their name, and potentially, if they are a minority.
Anonymity
One final tactic you might try involves having a person who is not involved in hiring decisions review all resumes, and replace the names of the applicants with a code number. This prevents the recruiter from subconsciously drawing conclusions from the applicant’s name.