What is unconscious racial bias? It’s the subconscious attitudes and racial prejudices that we involuntarily absorb from the world around us. It’s difficult to measure and, due to it’s unconscious nature, we aren’t always aware of how and when it affects the decisions we make or the way we interact with those around us. As a founder of the tech recruitment agency, Futureheads, Be Kaler Pilgrim has some essential insights to share when it comes to eliminating unconscious racial bias in the hiring process.
Recognising that, as a recruitment agency, they could be a real conduit for positive change, Futureheads recently embarked on an ambitious and far-reaching diversity project. They teamed up with researchers at Versiti to take a closer look into the ways unconscious bias, as well as more overt forms of discrimination, impacts diversity in the tech industry.
With only 15% of the tech workforce currently from BAME backgrounds, according to a report by Tech Nation, it was strikingly obvious to Be and her team that there is some serious work to be done. And eliminating unconscious racial bias in the hiring process is a great place to start.
Anonymous CVs
A study carried out by Full Fact found white job applicants to be 74% more likely to have success than applicants from ethnic minorities with identical CVs. This is where anonymous CVs are key.
Like any normal CV, they include a summary of the candidate’s professional experience, references to publications, mentions of awards and academic qualifications (which, in some cases, are included without mention of the institution they were awarded from). Crucially, however, anonymous CVs do not include names or other personal identifying information, meaning the response of recruiters is less likely to be clouded by unconscious bias.
Inclusive job descriptions
The first stage of the hiring process is the point at which a prospective applicant decides whether or not to apply. When it comes to reading a job description, even something minor, like a single word, can affect whether or not you are attracting a diverse talent pool.
So, as an employer, it’s essential to pay close attention to the language used in job descriptions. One such example of racially biased wording is often found in cyber security job descriptions, where the term “blacklisting” is used to detail malicious or suspicious entities that shouldn’t be allowed access to a system or network. Amazon and Twitter are just some of the companies that have recently made moves to remove this term from their job outlines, opting instead for the less racially biased terms “reject list” or “block list”.
Alongside this, actively inviting BAME applicants to apply through including the line “we particularly welcome applications from those of BAME backgrounds and other marginalised groups” is a clear way to communicate your commitment to diverse hiring.
Diversified advertisement channels
Diversifying your advertisement channels can mean anything from posting new job opportunities across a range of diversity-focused job boards, to demonstrating a diverse range of people working at your business or, more broadly, across your industry on your website and social platforms.
This also means making diversity a key discussion point across social channels, celebrating the successes of colleagues and industry professionals from diverse backgrounds. All of this, when combined, communicates to candidates that your business is making diversity a top priority.
Formalised interview process
As we’ve already discussed, unconscious bias comes into play in situations where our subconscious brain takes over and absorbed prejudices are allowed to surface.
One way to combat this as a recruiter, is to make sure that interviews are formalised with a consistent structure in place. By sticking to a pre-planned outline of carefully considered questions, discrepancies that arise as a result of racial bias can be avoided in interviews.
Diverse interview panel
Lastly, the best way to combat racial unconscious bias in the interview itself is to make sure that interview panels represent the diversity already present in your company.
Not only will this help BAME candidates feel represented by your organisation, it’s another way to limit racial bias affecting the style of questions asked, ensuring candidates are given every opportunity to work to their strengths and perform to the best of their ability.
