Don’t Let Unconscious Bias Sabotage Your Diversity Effort

Humans can consciously process 40 bits of information per second. An impressive feat until you consider our ability to unconsciously process 11 million pieces of information per second. This seemingly super-human ability makes decision making incredibly efficient and allows us to be quite productive as we go about our day. However, this superpower becomes problematic when it leads to biases and ultimately decisions that contradict our explicit values and circumvent our conscious mind. Such biases can potentially become a liability when acted on in the workplace.

The best evidence of unconscious bias undermining diversity goals is found when we examine an organization’s published commitment to creating a diverse workplace and then compare it to its actual workforce. If those items don’t match up, it’s likely because the organization, while consciously committed to diversity, is unwittingly fostering a culture firmly rooted in unconscious biases. Inevitably, these biases end up circumventing and undermining the organization’s commitment to diversity.

Be Aware: Three Common Unconscious Biases Found in the Workplace

Name Bias is the tendency to judge and prefer people with certain types of names. When hiring managers decide to interview only those candidates whose names they can easily pronounce or names they are familiar with, they are effectively limiting their talent pool and stonewalling diversity efforts. The easiest way to prevent name bias from becoming a factor in the recruiting process is to require hiring managers review resumes blindly, without candidate’s names.

Affinity bias or similarity bias is the tendency to connect with others who share similar interests, experiences and backgrounds. During the interview process, hiring managers may favor candidates or be more lenient toward candidates who attended their alma mater or grew up in the same town. Employers should encourage hiring managers to assess candidates’ qualifications equally. This strategy will increase the chances of hiring someone who is a “culture add” and not purely a “culture fit.” 

People who unconsciously practice beauty bias and heightism try to predict a person’s success based on how they look — characteristics the individual has no control over. For example, there is no data supporting the notion that CEOs over six-feet tall are inherently better at their jobs than CEOs who are five-foot, nine-inches tall yet 58 percent of male CEOs are more than six-feet tall. Hiring authorities in sales and marketing are especially prone to beauty bias. Imagine how many talented, hard-working sales and marketing professionals are passed over for jobs because they do not look the part.

We all explicitly agree that a person’s physical appearance has zero bearing on their performance. However, the opportunities afforded to tall and/or beautiful people often exceed the opportunities afforded to those who are short or are perceived to be less attractive.

Familiarizing yourself with these common biases is the first step to eliminating them from unconsciously impacting your organization’s conciseness efforts and decisions.  

For additional resources, follow this link to explore the Society for Human Resource Management’s Implicit Bias Resource Guide or Click here to take an unconscious bias quiz.