Attraction, recruitment and selection. How can we take unconscious bias out of the hiring process?

Difference inspires business
ATTRACTION,
RECRUITMENT AND
SELECTION
How we can take unconscious bias
out of the recruitment process

2
Gaining access to
organisations is a challenge
to visible minorities.
People are an organisation’s greatest asset, so we must
ensure recruitment and selection are fair.
Diversity and Inclusion should be treated with strategic
importance, and there are many business benefits to a
diverse and inclusive team, for example, more innovation.

3
People are an organisation’s
greatest asset, so we must
ensure recruitment and
selection are fair.
Diversity and Inclusion should be treated with strategic
importance, and there are many business benefits to a
diverse and inclusive team, for example, more innovation.

4
Attracting diversity
Shortlisting
Selection tests
Interviews
Opportunities for
improvement lie in these
key touchpoints in the
recruitment process

5
ATTRACTING
DIVERSITY
...

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THE ROLE OF NETWORKS
Networks do more than just provide
information about the opportunity…
They also play a role in assessing the
suitability of potential candidates.
Even informal networks can be highly
effective for recruitment.

7
Referrals and word of mouth
recommendations have a built-in guarantee
of suitability…
because the recommender is often a trusted
individual, and take a degree of
responsibility for it – it’s their reputation at
stake as well.

8
Research has shown that minorities and
women don’t respond as well to such
referral methods, preferring more formal
selection procedures.*
*Newman, D.A & Lyon, J.S. Recruitment efforts to reduce adverse impact: Targeting recruiting
for personality, cognitive ability and diversity. J. Appl. Psychol. 94, 298-317 (2009)

9
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Managers tend to select people of the
same ethnic background as themselves.
…Partly due to their limited contact with
people from other groups.

10
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
For the individual, the personal touch can make
a big difference in how they navigate the
selection progress, for example:
Establishing contact with the business
Knowing how to respond to employers
Appreciating how to complete an
application form

11
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Organisations who refer to diversity in their recruitment
advertisements, brochures and websites are viewed more
positively by minority applicants than those who don’t.*
Public image is important for every business, however women and
minorities pay more attention to messages from external stories…
Media coverage about a company’s commitment to diversity (or
lack of) is more influential than imagery on a company website.
Even the most clever, slick recruitment ads will be undermined by
press coverage about discrimination cases.
*Newman, D.A & Lyon, J.S. Recruitment efforts to reduce adverse impact: Targeting recruiting
for personality, cognitive ability and diversity. J. Appl. Psychol. 94, 298-317 (2009)

12
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Personal experiences of friends and family working for
that organisation play an extremely important and
influential role. Their first hand testimonies can’t be
underestimated for a candidate thinking about applying.
Although recruiting via word of mouth may exclude
minorities, it does have an impact in helping minority
candidates form an overall picture of whether an
organisation will treat them fairly.

13
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Minority candidates tend to use the selection process as an
indicator of what the organisation will be like to work for.
The more considerate and careful the process, the more
likely a candidate will continue with the process.
But the longer and more stages within the process, the
more likely minority candidates are to pull out.*
*Zwysen, W. & Longhi, S. Labour market disadvantage of ethnic minority British graduates: University choice, parental background
or neighbourhood? Non-technical summary (2016) www.iser.essex.ac.uk/research/publications/working-papers/iser/2016-02.pdf

14
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
(Although this higher withdrawal rate may also be
connected to minority candidates casting out a wider net in
the first place)

15
SHORTLISTING

16
SHORTLISTING
Discrimination within the shortlisting process has been
heavily researched and evident amongst recruiters.
Some organisations are trying to remove this bias by
taking names off CVs… which may be effective.
But it’s a shortcut, and although cheaper, is not a good
substitute for training recruiters properly.

17
SHORTLISTING
One course of action is for recruiters to evaluate several
CVs at the same time. Here you examine a number of CVs
one criterion at a time.
This procedure can result in less bias than when each CV
was evaluated in turn.
It triggers a more analytical and rational approach rather
than an intuitive method.*
*Bohnet, I., School, H.K., Van Geen, A. & Bazerman, M.H. When Performance Trumps
Gender Bias: Joint Versus Separate Evaluation. Faculty Research Working Paper Series

18
SELECTION
TESTS

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A selection test is:
“an assessment procedure designed to
provide objective measures of one or
more psychological characteristics… The
important feature of psychological tests is
that they produce measures obtained
under standardised assessment conditions
which have known reliability and validity.”
- British Psychological Society
SELECTION TESTS

20
Tests of ability and intelligence pose a conundrum for
psychometricians and recruiters…
On one hand repeated studies show they’re valid and
reliably predict performance in a role.
On the other, differences in scores between white people
and minorities are regularly observed.
Their adverse impact of these test competes with their
predictive ability.
SELECTION TESTS

21
The issue is seen differently by academics and
practitioners; with academics more likely to explore
adverse impact and discrimination issues.
The failure to address this contradiction at the heart of
standardised testing, whether by intellectual omission
or commercial pressure, means a continuing paradox
between “adverse impact” and “predictive ability”.
SELECTION TESTS

22
Carry out a detailed job analysis.
Choose tests at a level appropriate for the role.
Importantly, choose methods which are reliable, valid and
have the lowest adverse impact. Don’t opt for a method solely
because it is relatively cheap and easy to administer.
Train your assessors and provide guidance to prospective
candidates.
Establish clear decision-making rules for the use of the tests.
Carry out validation studies.
Above all, be vigilant about potential adverse impact.
SELECTION: GOOD PRACTICE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6
7.

23
INTERVIEWS

24
Interviews are often considered the most important
part of the selection process.
Interviewers – especially untrained ones – form a first
impression within one tenth of a second of meeting
someone.
Negative information is given more weight than
positive information. After the first four or five minutes,
the initial decision is unlikely to change.
INTERVIEWS

25
Unstructured interviews by untrained interviewers
have, unsurprisingly been the most biased.
Larger organisations often have formal selection
criteria that describe the qualities required for the role
– and these criteria are used to guide all aspects of the
selection process… in theory.
In practice, what recruiters are looking for is
something slightly different.
INTERVIEWS

26
When asked, “What are you really looking for?”
answers can range from a general list of
competencies…
Or terms like ‘chemistry’, ‘impact’, ‘presence’ or
‘personality’.
Not formal criteria, and impossible to measure and
compare fairly across candidates.
INTERVIEWS

27
“This person is a good fit.”
This phrase should ALWAYS be challenged.
‘Personality’ is often inadequately assessed and poorly
described. E.g. someone may be deemed to have a
‘good’ personality or a ‘bad’ one.
Too often interviewers can try to determine the amount
or quantity: ‘lots’ ‘not much’ or even ‘no’ personality.
These terms help to justify selecting ‘mini-mes’.
INTERVIEWS

28
The interview process encompasses much of the
territory covered by psychological research and
theories relating to attraction:
We are drawn to people who are like us on many
levels, and this includes gender and race.
INTERVIEWS

29
It’s also based on attributes like interests, education
and experience. Race and gender are a proxy for
other dimensions of similarity.
They are obvious markers of difference and so can be
used as a means of perceiving whether people share
our interests.
INTERVIEWS

30
The feeling that someone is similar to you leads to
greater feelings of attraction: perceived similarity is
just as important as actual similarity.
Interviews are often not long enough for us to
determine whether perceptions match reality.
INTERVIEWS

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CONCLUSION

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Processes are in place to ensure consistency and
fairness across recruitment, however they are still
largely enforced by humans.
…And humans are loaded with bias. We need to accept
that no one is immune to bias and become conscious of
how this affects our decision-making.
CONCLUSION

33
Performance and progression rely on judgement, so
we must look at every part of the process through a
Diversity and Inclusion lens.
We must start collecting good data to ensure we have
visibility over our progress, and test assumptions.
Diversity and Inclusion is a business imperative: it
should be treated with strategic importance to
future-proof businesses.
CONCLUSION

34
To read more about modern racism, how it manifests in
the workplace and how we can all play a part in
addressing it, visit:
pearnkandola.com/racism-at-work/
And to find out more about the book: Racism at Work:
The Danger of Indifference, visit:
pearnkandola.com/book/racism-at-work/

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