Tackling unconscious gender biases in the recruitment process

Today we celebrate International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme #BreakTheBias has struck a chord with me as a recruiter. I’m proud to work in a business with a female majority, with colleagues and peers who are using their limited free time to build initiatives to help further us in our journey towards inclusion and diversity. But to really tackle bias, stereotypes and discrimination in hiring, it’s our unconscious biases that need to be acknowledged and addressed. The internal perceptions, influences and preconceived notions that we aren’t even aware of, but which might impact our decisions and inadvertently cause us to treat people prejudicially.

In Executive Search, we’re heavily involved in not just the search and selection for candidates, but also throughout their interview and offer processes. Whilst no colleague or client I’ve ever worked with would consciously discriminate against a person based on protected characteristics including gender, the fact remains that there is an imbalance between the number of men and women in senior technology roles. In fact, a UK study found that 77% of tech director roles are filled by men. So, let’s explore the role that unconscious bias could be playing in maintaining this imbalance…

What is unconscious bias?

Conscious bias is intentional, relating to prejudices held about groups of people, usually based on stereotypes or negative experiences with individuals which have been conflated with wider groups. In conscious bias, there is an intent. On the other hand, unconscious bias refers to attitudes that operate outside of our awareness and immediate control. They are difficult to determine and extremely tough to avoid. There is usually no malicious intent involved in unconscious bias, yet unfortunately, the results can be the same.

Gender bias in the workplace

Though there have been great strides towards achieving gender equality in the workplace, and it would appear that these changes are progressing slowly and surely throughout the world, unfortunately, gender bias is still affecting the advancement of women’s careers across the globe. In fact, over 8.2 million employees in the UK feel that they’ve been discriminated against on the grounds of their gender in the workplace.

Bias can begin before a candidate is hired...

A large-scale study of recruitment advertisements in the UK has revealed that the use of gender-biased wording in ads can decrease the likelihood of applications from female candidates. Of 1 million job ads reviewed, 69% contained gender-coded words. An analysis of the gender bias breakdown in these ads showed that 45% were biased against women, compared to 32% being biased against men. And a Special Eurobarometer survey on gender equality has emphasised that gender equality has not yet been achieved in EU Member States. Although 84% of respondents to the survey considered gender equality to be important, the same respondents demonstrated gender biases in later answers, with 35% believing men to be more ambitious than women and 69% believing that women are more likely than men to make decisions based on their emotions. It may be these unconscious associations that cause recruiters and hiring managers to use gender-coded wording in adverts and therefore discourage diverse applications.

A separate UK based study found that candidate gender had a measurable impact on call back rates following applications. When drilling further into the data, an even greater difference was observed in traditionally masculine vs feminine roles, like engineering and secretarial positions. This tells us that men tend to be favoured for typically masculine roles, and females tend to be favoured for traditionally feminine ones, further perpetuating the gender imbalance within them.

Tackling gender bias in recruitment

Deconstructing biases is not easy. Awareness is a crucial first step, as, by their very nature, unconscious biases operate outside of our immediate perception. If you’re already reading this article because, like me, you’ve been prompted to consider your hiring processes, then you’re already on your way. After carrying out some desk research, here are some of the active steps I’ll be committing to and encouraging my colleagues to implement in our internal and external hiring efforts:

1.?????Address the bias – Whether you initially think you’re susceptible to unconscious biases or not, the likelihood is that they will in fact have played a part in at least some of the decisions you’ve made in your life. A key first step is to address this fact and, rather than deny it, use the discomfort it may at first cause you as an impetus to actively tackle it. You can check your implicit bias by completing a Project Implicit test here. The results may surprise you.

2.?????Open a dialogue – You might worry that opening up a dialogue around unconscious bias in your workplace or hiring process will be uncomfortable or awkward, but it’s a necessary step in taking action. Not to mention, whatever unease you and your colleagues might risk feeling will be outweighed by the potential discomfort you stand to spare candidates and colleagues affected by unconscious bias. If you’re unsure where to start, a good first step is to raise the matter for discussion and consideration in a management or leadership meeting or to approach a manager or leader on a 1:1 basis to broach the subject on your behalf. After initial discussions, consider forming or joining a diversity and inclusion committee in your workplace. Ideally, any task force or group meeting to discuss diversity and inclusion should themselves be diverse and inclusive. Try to avoid such groups having an imbalance of any one cohort, even if it’s reflective of your company’s current landscape.

3.?????Outline preventative measures. These might include:

• Reviewing and re-writing active job adverts to remove gender-coded wording.
• Ensuring that job adverts are posted on multiple platforms to increase visibility to a wider audience and avoid an imbalance.
• Reviewing CVs without anything that gives information about the gender, age or ethnicity of a candidate.
• Utilising AI for shortlisting where appropriate.
• Aiming to balance candidate shortlists to ensure that where possible, there isn’t a gender imbalance by the time the interview stage is reached.
• Implementing a diverse panel to carry out interviews. ?
• Developing and adhering to structured interview processes designed to assess candidates based on predetermined criteria.

4.?????Set goals and KPIs – Holding yourself and your colleagues accountable by setting measurable KPIs will help to keep momentum. Look into your current employment ratios and set a goal for where you’d like these to be in six months, one year and two years’ time. Create an action plan detailing the measures you’ll take to get there and keep tracking your performance against your goal. With regular benchmarks set in place you should be able to see whether you’re on track to meet your target or need to review the measures you’ve agreed upon.

Ultimately, unconscious biases can only be tackled with a conscious effort. Gillespie Manners will be?following the steps outlined above in our internal and external hiring processes to challenge biases including but not limited to gender. Once we’re in a position to report back on improvements, we’ll share our results and our full journey with our clients, peers and networks to contribute towards awareness.

#BreakTheBias

Written by Lizzy Kurtzer

Lizzy manages the Supply Chain and Logistics function at Gillespie Manners.