Get rid of the "B"!

No matter how hard you try, that “B” always shows up. That “B” shows up when you are with friends having a good time, when you are at work with colleagues, even when you are alone watching television. They provide insight into yourself, including why you engage with people the way you do. It can be darn right embarrassing. That ‘B” is Bias, and a killer for changing learned habits.

Bias is an implicit mindset that can lead to judging, stereotyping, discrediting, and belittling people and views based on differences in experiences, beliefs, socioeconomic status, affinity groups, and other factors adopted from dominant discourse, which is often based on generalization. Intentional or not, it is rooted in discrimination that we’ve all, in some form, learned and practiced. When it comes to hiring practices, we’ve seen bias show up with interviewers judging and comparing an introvert to an extrovert on how they “show up”, to determining who’s a “smart'' candidate based on their pedigree. Neither provides evidence that these indicators identify a promising candidate who can do the job within your organizational culture. They’re assumptions are based on a controlled ideology. To combat this, the best practice is to have

• Bias training for all hiring managers,

• Rubric (with specific interview questions and responses) that is objective, measurable, and aligns with the organization's core values and competencies, and practice the rubrics with fidelity.

• Have at least 2:1 interviews so that an additional perspective and expertise (heterogeneous) is provided to call out that “B” when it creeps up. So that decision makers are not making decisions alone that can jeopardize value.

#recruitment #hiringpractices #mitigatebias #effectiveleadership #talentacqusition