Thankfully, many of us managed to cross most of 2020, where one witnessed a global pandemic and disturbing riots across North America. The one thing that was common amongst these two major events- racism. Since the coronavirus emerged in China, there were incidents across the world where people from the Asian community were slurred with racial comments.
Further, the riots that took place in Minneapolis were sparked by the death of George Floyd, which set the stage for the protests across America in demand of justice for the Black community. As a human being, I was concerned about the state of the world. Still, as a Talent Acquisition Professional, these events strengthened my passion for Diversity & Inclusion. Further, they evoked me to share my thoughts and best practices globally with a broader audience.
In my opinion, discrimination has an alternative word, known as bias. Bias is not visible or tangible, but something that is felt and originates from our minds.
Moving the dial back to the 90s, a famous neuroscientist Melvyn Goodale researched few individuals with a visual agnosia condition. He started the study to understand how a brain processes vision, but it further led towards the discussion of Conscious and Unconscious parts of the brain.
As per Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, it defined our brain’s “Conscious part as our mental processing aspect that enables us to think and talk rationally.” The conscious mind includes thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions, and reveries inside of our existing awareness. Extension to the conscious mind is a subconscious mind, also known as a preconscious mind, which encompasses feelings or emotions that we are not thinking momentarily but can be quickly drawn into our conscious awareness.
Here comes the flip side of the brain- our very own shadow, which we cannot see or feel, i.e., Unconsciousness. We all have hidden emotions, beliefs, urges, and emotions in our unconscious mind, which we are unaware of, but studies prove that it still influences our behavior.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” – George Eliot
Also, the times are changing now, and not many people stick with one company for a longer duration. Mostly, we live in a Gig economy, and many people choose to contract now. Sometimes, a candidate starts a new job with certain expectations, and post 1 or 2 months; they find a stark difference in either the culture, role, organizational structure, etc. compared to what they expected.
Therefore, we should be intrigued to identify the motivation or real reasons behind these gaps or small/long duration jobs. Whatever reason you find out, good – bad – ugly, you will ensure inclusiveness in your recruitment process.
A candidate based out of a lower socio-economic location might come across as an individual who did not do well at their last jobs. A candidate from an area known for higher criminal activities or a specific ethnicity would not define incompetence or mediocre performer. As mentioned earlier, many candidates these days choose not to disclose their address on a resume, which has helped eliminate this bias to a certain level.
We should always be aware that not all candidates are great at drafting resumes or LinkedIn profiles. So, there’s still more than what meets the eye.
Following the Job description revamp, the next important step is to review the resumes blindly (Not literally). Review the candidates’ resumes by comparing them with the job description you just created and not focusing on their names, university, photos, or personal information. If you feel that you cannot control the urge to look at these details in the resume, try downloading all the candidates in an excel file (Depending on your ATS features) and hiding the columns representing their personal information.
If your company has some extra budget for D&I initiatives, a few of the paid options of doing this is to utilize specific tools like Textio, Hired, Blendoor, and PinPoint.
ways or methods of assessment that provide equal opportunities to the candidates regardless of their background, sex, religion, color, etc. Standardization of interview processes for all jobs by categorizing a specific job profile type is where one should start. The interview process should have an assessment in place for all qualifying candidates who meet the job’s essential requirement. Assessments can be done via self-defined questionnaires that have to be filled by the candidates before applying to a job or more advanced based on the job type.
For example, Technical job openings will require an assessment tool that involves some coding exercises or assignments. Suggested tools- HackerRank, HackerEarth, Codility, CodinGame, etc.
These days, even Non-tech roles such as Marketing & Sales, Finance, Operations, etc. require an assessment in place. Suggested tools- HireVue, Pymetrics, Mettl, HireSelect, etc.
Assessments help you, and your company kills two birds with one stone (Again, not literally). One benefit is that you provide equal opportunity with a standardized process for each candidate to prove themselves. The second benefit is that you turn your interview process into a more efficient one (Reduced Time to Fill and Improved Quality of Hires).
Imagine what impression a female candidate will have of the company culture or diversity when she is being interviewed by a group of 5 interviewers who are all men?
Unconscious bias is our own shadow, and on a typical bright sunny day, we can see our shadow walking and behaving just like we do, but the only difference is that unconscious bias is a hidden shadow, which impacts the entire decision-making process of our mind. More than ever now is the time when we need to identify this hidden shadow or unconscious bias of ours and take control.
Unusual times call for extraordinary measures, and it is time for each of us to contribute our bit. Let’s open the doors to Diversity of all kinds, make them feel included, because, at the end of the day, change begins at Home.
