How to Build a More Equitable and Unbiased Hiring Process

How to Build a More Equitable and Unbiased Hiring Process

Right now, we’re seeing so many companies grapple with how to create more equitable people processes and reduce implicit bias in the hiring process in order to attract the best possible talent. As humans, we all have unconscious bias, and it’s no secret that there are striking disparities based on race, gender and sexual orientation that start in the hiring process and carry on throughout the employee life cycle. If you don’t intentionally build (and stick to) equitable processes, bias can seep into decision making, limiting your ability to attract diverse candidates and undermining DEI initiatives. 

It’s up to business leaders to tackle this issue head-on, starting with evaluating our processes and being honest about how those actions have (or haven’t) translated into real outcomes. Once we’ve done our own inventory, we can dive into tangible ways to promote an inclusive culture, mitigate unconscious bias, and create a more equitable process. If you’re ready to dive in, start with the four steps below or find all 10 steps in our free Beginner’s Guide to Reducing Bias in Your Hiring Process that you can download HERE.

1. Conduct Unconscious Bias Training

Start by educating your hiring team on unconscious bias and inclusive language to create a shared understanding. After all, we can’t mitigate bias if we are unaware that we all have it! There are free online training sessions available from Facebook and Google, but we recommend bringing in professionals if you can. One option is Bias Sync, which pairs online assessments with interactive virtual training content (we’re not affiliated with them, we just love their work). They can also connect you to subject matter experts to lead your team through live training sessions for a deeper dive on bias and other DEI-related topics.

2. Audit Your Hiring Materials

Words matter. Using inclusive language and eliminating gendered keywords from external materials like job postings, job descriptions and career pages can diversify your candidate pool. While you’re at it, take it a step further by refining your welcoming and onboarding materials to make sure all employees feel included from the moment they walk through your door. Use a tool like Textio to flag gendered keywords like “support”, “affectionate”, “aggressive”, etc.

3. Utilize Performance Assessments

Another way to create equity in hiring is by judging candidates not only on their interview performance, but also their performance on job-related skills. Introducing a performance assessment after the first round of interviews can reduce some of the bias that comes up in interviews by allowing all candidates the chance to be judged on a level playing field. Our free beginner’s guide (linked below) has an example of an assessment we might use for a position to give you an idea of what that could look like.

4. Create Standardized Interview Questions

As tempting as it can be to go into an interview and wing it, you risk adding an element of bias. Before you start interviews, decide which questions to ask in each round and stick to those questions with every candidate. Choose relevant questions based on your hiring criteria and eliminate leading questions that prime the candidate to tell you what you want to hear.

Want to learn more? Click the link below to download our free Beginner’s Guide to Reducing Bias in Your Hiring Process.