Inside Our Biases Around Diversity And Inclusion
Many professionals, both managers and employees alike, claim to understand the importance of diversity in the workplace. But, while there are dozens of studies tying increased diversity to growth , it often seems like an HR special project, as opposed to a concept baked into the daily DNA of a company.
How do you transition your company from “diversity is owned by a HR task force” to “diversity is a core tenet of how we operate here?” The common advice in this area is “tie it to fiscal performance.” That’s true. There is an even more granular way to bridge the divide, though: begin with how you hire and what’s impacting your attempts at diversity there.
Logically, building a diverse team (micro-level) or organization (macro-level) begins with hiring. (Note that the process should never end.) Hiring for diversity presents both a problem and an opportunity.
The diversity hiring issue
In Jhana’s own research with 98 managers and HR leaders , 59 of them (60.2%) indicated they’ve experienced unconscious bias at work. Of those managers, the №1 way they believed unconscious bias clouded their decision-making was in hiring, with 38 managers saying that.
There is decades of research on how specific unconscious biases, i.e. confirmation bias, lead to potentially poor hiring decisions. Hiring from a place of unconscious bias can also result in teams with a high degree of homophily , or sameness. While that can be positive for quickly coming together, it can also be bad for those teams in times where new ideas are needed.
In sum, we know that diversity is an issue in workplaces.
What’s more: 41–43% of overall recruiters claim one of the biggest problems with hiring for diversity is “simply being too busy.” (Doesn’t seem like the best rationale.)
It’s hard to achieve diverse teams when unconscious bias is a (perhaps unseen) component of the hiring process.
Can we overcome unconscious bias in hiring?
It is a challenge for many organizations — remember, by definition unconscious bias refers to biases you’re not always aware of having — but it is definitely achievable.
One approach is to use blind or random trials in a hiring context. Candidate names often cue biases related to gender, race, nationality, and more, without our even realizing it. (One of our business development managers at Jhana wrote a moving article about his encounters with unconscious bias entitled “Is my name too black?” ) Ask HR to replace the names on top of resumes with initials or an identification number — or do it yourself for the rest of your interview team. You can also find apps that will help you hide certain information on job applications . Consider removing names for sample projects, too.
领英推荐
While uncomfortable for many, you should also consider seeking out someone with a different perspective when a key decision needs to be made. Oftentimes those most different from us expose biases in ourselves that we may not have initially seen. When you kick an idea/decision around with people who are very much like you, you create bias blind spots.
The third way to overcome bias is simply to allow time for better decision-making and reflection. Often in hiring, a manager may need to “backfill” quickly, or his/her current team is drowning in work without a specific role filled. The manager may then rush through hiring — and a rushed hiring process typically involves looking at the last job held, title, and maybe school. This ultimately won’t get you quality, or diverse, hires — and your unconscious bias will be ever-present. In Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg’s book How Google Works, they admit that the best managers spend over 50% of their time on hiring. While some managers may scoff at that, Larry Page — a co-founder and long-time CEO of Google — used to approve every hire himself.
A final approach is to ask for stories. Stories resonate with the human brain more than almost anything. Simply hearing “we’re all biased” or “bias is all around us in the workplace” doesn’t do much to inspire people to think and act to reduce bias. What does? Personal stories.
For example, we spoke with one female marketing manager who told us how she was patronizingly asked to serve as a “booth babe” at an industry conference, and how she once had to fight for her preferred job candidate after her boss tried to veto, suggesting that the candidate’s being overweight would likely come with “emotional issues.” Stories such as that help to expose biases. Once exposed, they can be dealt with more effectively.
What we do at Jhana around diversity
Our CEO, Rob Cahill, has written about this several times — including this LinkedIn post on our diversity and inclusion programs, which noted some of these stats:
(A few of these numbers have changed ever-so-slightly since he wrote that post.)
Those are the broader numbers.
Overall, it’s important not to wait for the diversity committee to come back with a report. Managers and leaders get forward-thinking on diversity issues within their own team, including rethinking their hiring processes to drive diversity.
Remember: we often try to tie diversity programs to the bottom line, and that’s not a bad strategy on face. It will make executives care more. But diversity should not be simply a business imperative. Rather, it’s a moral imperative.
Diversity and inclusion are not zero-sum games, where one side has to lose for the other side to win. Understanding that and making that part of your company begins with hiring, because that’s how teams and organizations are ultimately shaped.