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It's 9:30 in the morning and I had a good sleep.
This often happens in my line of work. I frequently work 16 hours a day trying to make change within organizations and society; helping organizations to advance workplace diversity and inclusion, helping them assess the issues within their workforce and create meaningful change, conducting social research, developing and delivering training programs. Normally when I go to sleep I am exhausted. So, when I wake up, I like to ease into my day with a few cups of coffee, checking my Twitter feed, and then a brisk walk before I get to work. But it is not going to work out that way today. Steve Paikin's "Did the Nancy Elgie story have to end this way? Some personal reflections" has my blood boiling. (The post was included on LinkedIn and has since been disappeared from the internet.) And so I'm at my laptop forgoing my walk and am hammering this piece out at what for me is an ungodly hour.
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In this blog series I have been exploring unconscious bias in the workplace. In the last blob post, I explored how unconscious bias plays out in the hiring process. This time, we'll explore how what hiring managers can do to minimize bias in the hiring process. First of all, those involved in the hiring process need to reflect on their biases in order to identify them. This can be done in the following ways: 1. Increase your self-awareness: The first step to minimizing the impact of your biases in hiring is to be aware of these biases. Harvard's Implicit Association Test is an online tool to help you explore your biases. You can access it at: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/education.html 2. Explore your thoughts and feelings: Explore your thoughts and any feelings of discomfort you may have when interacting with people from diverse communities, backgrounds and identities. This will help you identify any biases you may have.  Throughout this series I have been exploring unconscious bias. In the first blog post, I introduced you to unconscious bias. We then looked at the impact of unconscious bias in the workplace. This time, we'll explore how unconscious bias plays out in the hiring process.
Despite an increasingly diverse labour market, women, racialized people (visible minorities), Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities continue to experience higher rates of unemployment and under-employment, even with equivalent levels of education. The outcomes for these groups provide evidence of the systemic and interpersonal discrimination they continue to experience in the labour market. While it is important for organizations to review their hiring process to ensure that it focuses on assessing the candidate's skills and abilities, it is also important that those on the hiring panel understand the impact of their biases on the process and the hiring decision. In this post, I'll review the 13 types of unconscious biases that impact the process and hiring decisions. These biases are summarized here and discussed below: |
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