What’s in a Name? Tackling the Persistent Issue of Bias in Recruitment

Nothing adds to the pressure of interviewing for a new job like being reminded that first impressions are formed in seconds. You’ve barely entered the room and your interviewer has already made a judgement of you. But what if they never even met you and still made that judgement?

For many people, this is their reality when applying for a role, with biases related to names, ethnicity, and socio-economic status in particular, negatively influencing the hiring decisions made about them.

We can see this manifesting throughout roles of every level of an organisation, at all stages of the hiring process.

A study on 12,000 applications to 4,000 leadership positions found that applicants with non-English names received 57.4% fewer positive responses than applicants with English names for leadership positions despite identical resumes. And it was the same story for non-leadership positions, where applicants with non-English names received 45.3% fewer positive responses despite identical resumes.

Why does it happen?

Every one of us has biases – they’re created and shaped by anything from the media we consume right back to how we were raised as children. When we’re not aware of our biases they can creep into the recruitment process. They could manifest as anything from unconscious preferences for certain names – perhaps you’re reviewing a CV from an applicant who shares their name with your loathed childhood bully – through to overt discrimination based on ethnic backgrounds. Our Associate Nishi Mehta’s experience that sparked this discussion reflects the studies cited above.

Nishi shared that she applied for jobs using two identical CVs, one under her actual name and the other using 'white British'-sounding name. Astoundingly, the latter gained three times more interview invitations, demonstrating evident bias.

How can you mitigate bias?

Inclusive assessment training: Being made aware of your biases and how they can stop you from appreciating the right person for the job is the first step to tackling them. Exploring your biases can be a confronting experience, so it’s important that it’s handled by an expert. Then, you can learn about the tools that mitigate different biases (for example: defining and writing inclusive job criteria).

Something we commonly see in our Inclusive Hiring course tasks is delegates marking equally competent applicants differently depending on which employer, or even which country, they’ve gained their experience.

Within recruitment, educating hiring managers and HR professionals is paramount, but bias awareness can deliver powerful results at any level of an organisation wishing to be more inclusive.

An unbiased process: Training can’t do all the work here; there’s always going to be times when you fail to check your biases, or, more often, you don’t have the time to reflect on every single instance where biases might kick in. Therefore, you need a hiring process that can reduce their influence on the final hiring decision.

Elements such as a skills matrix for sifting CVs and standardised interview questions ensure candidates are evaluated solely on their skills and qualifications, opening your organisation to a wider pool of talent.

Added bonus – an objective, consistent assessment process is also a more efficient and less risky process, something we will cover in future parts of this series.

What is the impact of recruitment bias?

A homogeneous workforce who all have the same perspectives and ideas? Not what any innovative, growing organisation would want. But with most recruitment processes we see out there, that’s exactly what organisations risk creating.

When you shut out difference from entering your organisation, you are also likely to struggle at a strategic level to meet your business and culture goals. It’s a vicious cycle; if diverse candidates are put off by your application process, they are less likely over time to apply, further decreasing your internal diversity. And who could blame mistrust in candidates when something as unrelated to your skillset as your name could automatically disqualify you for a job?

Inspired to see how Inclusive Hiring could transform your organisation? Contact us and read more about our Inclusive Hiring programmes.

Written by Maria Carolina Baggio