How do you handle bias in a recruiting interview?

1 Identify your own biases

The first step to handle bias in a recruiting interview is to recognize and acknowledge your own biases. Biases can be conscious or unconscious, and they can affect how you perceive, evaluate, and interact with candidates. Some common sources of bias include your personal background, values, beliefs, experiences, emotions, expectations, and preferences. To identify your own biases, you can try to reflect on your own assumptions, prejudices, and stereotypes, and how they might influence your hiring decisions. You can also ask for feedback from others, or take some online tests or surveys to uncover your hidden biases.

2 Use structured interviews

The second step to handle bias in a recruiting interview is to use structured interviews. Structured interviews are interviews that follow a consistent format, use standardized questions, and apply objective criteria to score and compare candidates. Structured interviews can help you reduce bias by ensuring that you ask the same questions to all candidates, focus on the job-related skills and competencies, and avoid irrelevant or subjective factors. To use structured interviews, you need to prepare a set of behavioral or situational questions that relate to the job requirements, and use a rating scale or rubric to score the candidates' responses.

3 Involve diverse perspectives

The third step to handle bias in a recruiting interview is to involve diverse perspectives. Diverse perspectives can help you balance your own biases, gain different insights, and avoid groupthink or conformity. To involve diverse perspectives, you can invite multiple interviewers from different backgrounds, roles, departments, or levels to participate in the interview process. You can also seek input from other stakeholders, such as colleagues, managers, or clients, who might have a different perspective on the job or the candidates. However, you should also ensure that all the interviewers and evaluators are trained and aligned on the interview goals, questions, and criteria.

4 Use data and evidence

The fourth step to handle bias in a recruiting interview is to use data and evidence. Data and evidence can help you support your hiring decisions with facts, rather than with opinions, impressions, or intuitions. To use data and evidence, you can collect and analyze relevant information about the candidates, such as their resumes, portfolios, assessments, references, or work samples. You can also use data and evidence to track and measure the outcomes and impacts of your hiring process, such as the diversity, retention, performance, or satisfaction of your hires.

5 Review and debrief

The fifth step to handle bias in a recruiting interview is to review and debrief. This can help you evaluate your own performance, identify strengths and weaknesses, and learn from mistakes and successes. When reviewing and debriefing, ask yourself questions such as if you followed the interview structure and criteria, asked relevant and fair questions, listened actively and respectfully to candidates, scored and compared them objectively, avoided any biases or errors in judgment, and communicated clearly and professionally with the candidates. Additionally, you can solicit feedback from the candidates, interviewers, or evaluators to improve your interviewing skills and process.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?