How impartial is your hiring process?

There are lots of things in business that we now do very differently than we did, say, 20 or 30 years ago, but one thing that seems to have stayed the same is that the good old CV is still very much a part of the recruitment process.

Whilst the way in which potential candidates are identified has changed – talent search (or headhunting, as it is still sometimes known) has become far more widespread in recruitment, for example – the way in which they are shortlisted really hasn’t changed much at all.

All things being equal, the CV is a pretty reliable way of making a comparative assessment of experience, skills, ability and organisational fit – but it can also be a minefield when it comes to making impartial hiring choices.

The problem with traditional CVs is that they can provide a lot of ammunition for the hiring manager’s unconscious bias.

As the name suggests, unconscious bias is partisanship that is unintentional, and it’s formed without deliberate or conscious thought.

As an example, if you’re thinking about hiring someone to join a team of predominantly young people, you may have an unconscious bias that favours a young candidate – not necessarily because you have anything against older candidates, but because you may perceive that your team is, and therefore should remain, young.

Obviously unconscious bias and discrimination are different animals – one may be described as unintentional, the other deliberate – but bias is still a significant barrier to many hiring managers recruiting the ideal candidate.

There are, however, things you can do to factor unconscious bias out of your selection process:

Ask for blind applications

To remove any possibility of someone’s CV swaying you toward a particular decision you can request that all CVs be submitted without details that may influence your thinking.

Obvious examples here include personal details such as date of birth, marital status, race, religion and age, but you could go further and insist, for instance, that all dates are removed, making it impossible for you to unconsciously calculate factors like age through academic and employment dates.

A blind CV will eliminate all the additional noise that often makes up a resumé, allowing you to focus completely on skills, abilities and qualifications.

Make the job ad neutral

Consider how your job advert is worded. Are you using language that might commonly be interpreted as being either masculine, which research shows may have the effect of deterring women from applying?

Oddly enough, the research also shows that use of language typically stylised as feminine has little impact on the likelihood of men applying for a role.

There are now online tools available that will flag gender bias in the wording you use in your recruitment campaigns, but just reading through the ad copy to make sure your language is measured will help you to attract a diverse range of applicants.

Cast your net wider

Hiring businesses still tend to favour traditional advertising platforms like job boards and LinkedIn.

Whilst these may be effective in generating applications, they are also less likely to reach new audiences who are active on other platforms. If you’re a gaming company looking for a new software developer, you probably want to ensure you’re on funkier channels than just Indeed or Reed.

Make your job ads more contemporary

Written job adverts have their place, for sure, but given that video now accounts for around two thirds of all online content consumed worldwide, you might want to think about updating your hiring approach to meet current consumption trends.

Many businesses are put off creating video adverts simply due to the perceived prohibited cost. But no one is asking you to create the recruitment equivalent of the John Lewis Christmas ad.

Keep it short, simple and to the point. The most popular video online is less than 2 minutes long, so be realistic and keep it engaging (and inexpensive) – and open your business up to candidates you probably wouldn’t have reached otherwise.

Interview with others

Having an interview panel makes a lot of sense because other people will inevitably dilute each other’s unconscious bias.

To make sure you’re not in any danger of reinforcing your own unconscious ‘truth’ ensure your co-interviewers are chosen for their diverse experiences – and by that, I’m not just talking about factors like age, race or sexuality, but also their role and level of experience in your business.

Level the interview playing field

This really means introducing an identical structure to assess each candidate.

When you’re shortlisting, do so against clear and measurable criteria.

When interviewing, ask each candidate identical open questions (i.e. questions that can’t be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’) that are phrased in exactly the same way, and take notes based on what they actually say, rather than what you think they might have meant.

If you’re setting an interview task then ensure that each candidate is given exactly the same environment and conditions in which to tackle it.

In the end it’s impossible to remove unconscious bias completely – after all, all human interaction is based on impressions and (initially) uninformed opinion – but you can mitigate it in such a way that it enables you to hire the right person for your team at any given time.

If you’d like to know how Constantia Consulting can help you to apply objective and standardised processes and thinking to your recruitment strategy, please get in touch for a confidential no-obligation chat.