In recent years, an increasing number of companies have committed to hiring a more diverse workforce and have begun to publish their diversity numbers annually. The results have been varied depending on the case .
With so many organizations saying diversity hiring is one of their top goals and making good-faith efforts to revamp their hiring practices accordingly, it would be better to understand why the results haven't been enough. One summary might be that subconscious bias tends to have the strongest impact on historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the early stages of the interview process.
For example, the data reveals that, while Caucasian candidates see higher candidacy progression rates earlier in the funnel, talent of color and Hispanic/Latino talent see higher transfer rates at the remaining stages of the funnel: 62% Black talent and 57% Hispanic/Latino, vs. 54% Caucasian talent.
This suggests that diversity is often an issue early in the interview process, driven, at least in part, by subconscious bias. Candidates from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups have to work harder to prove themselves than their white counterparts, despite seeing higher offer rates later in the interview process.
In order to meet this challenge, there are best practices for recruiting teams to reduce bias early in the process.
Reconsider criteria for requested roles
Many of the things people list on their LinkedIn profile or resume have little, if any, correlation to their future job performance.
For example, requiring certain titles from certain institutions tilts the balance towards profiles with those privileges. The assessment of leadership experience may also be racially biased, due to the lower representation of non-whites at the executive level.
To avoid this, every time a new role is requested, start by asking yourself the question: How do we ensure selection is based solely on criteria relevant to the position?
From there, the goal is to clarify what skills and qualifications are absolutely necessary to be successful in the role, rather than focusing on the candidate's experience or education for example. Ask yourself what problems your history, problem-solving skills, cognitive ability, and your growth/improvement mindset suggest, to name a few.
Limit information that may lead to bias
One of the best ways to reduce bias is to remove details from the hiring process that could cause providers to focus solely on a candidate's skills and previous work experience. Some details that can lead to bias include candidates' name, age, address, photo, and previous titles and employers.
There are a number of tools that help facilitate this type of “blind hiring” by anonymizing applications and removing demographic information. LinkedIn offers a “Hide Candidate Names and Photos” feature so vendors can evaluate candidates based solely on their skills, rather than their appearance. In the same way, unbias.io is a chrome extension that removes names and photos, while Pinpoint y blendor remove all demographic information from resumes.
Fortunately, even if you don't have the budget for a new help software solution, there are workarounds. Candidate information can be exported to an Excel sheet and hide columns containing names and other data that may be biased. Or you can simply ask candidates to remove personal information from their resume or assign a team member to anonymize them.
Analyze subconscious biases as a necessary part
An increasing number of companies are rolling out subconscious bias training for all of their organizations, but it's especially critical for anyone in a recruiting role whose job it is to help fill the top of the hiring funnel.
Proactive sourcing is the most important tool available to influence the diversity of talent you bring into your pipeline, so there's a good chance a team of candidate sourcing that is unaware of its own biases will produce a smooth pipeline.
Organizations like P y Catalyst are well known for their company-wide subconscious bias training, but there are also plenty of free or low-cost resources: LinkedIn, for example, has some, as do other providers.
Diversity in the team itself
Including diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives throughout the hiring process is essential to limit bias. This is especially true for the recruiting team and, if applicable, the team that reviews resumes and conducts phone interviews.
You can do this with smaller teams by rotating people weekly or monthly from across the organization so that one person's bias doesn't inhibit diversity in the group.
Eliminate resumes altogether
These tips may raise questions about the appropriateness of working on resumes. This is a trend that is making its way into the market: the lack of usefulness of the standard curriculum.
More organizations are experimenting with doing away with resumes altogether and replacing it with skills tests, which can help ensure more members of historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups clear the most difficult hurdle: becoming the first hiring funnel.
Skill tests may include giving candidates a problem or challenge to solve, or asking them to describe a project they recently completed. These types of questions could be integrated into a shortlist (candidates submit their answers to the challenge or a sample of their work instead of a resume) or a phone or video interview.
Ensure assessment questions and scores are standard
Standard questions and dashboards are one of the best ways to mitigate bias in the selection process, whether it's for remote surveys or testing the skills described above.
The team needs to understand how pre-assessment tasks are perceived, whether they are "unsuccessful," "acceptable," or "excellent." All candidates should be asked the same set of questions during the initial interview so that a candidate's ability to connect with a vendor, and even her voice or tone, does not influence the outcome.
You should also regularly review the reasons why your team disqualifies candidates at the screening or initial evaluation stage, and eliminate the use of vague justifications such as "not a good fit." Solutions exist to track where members of historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups drop out of the hiring process or are disproportionately rejected.
If, for example, you see more dropouts at the top of the funnel from black candidates than from white ones, that's an indication that you might be dealing with some bias in your sourcing process.
When it comes to diversity hiring, the more data you have access to, the better. If, in fact, your primary challenge is subconscious bias in the initial screening and pre-screening stages, the tactics listed above can help quickly and easily get to the root of the problem and ensure a more equitable top of the funnel.
