6 Ways to Identify Recruitment Bias

Bias can be a seemingly unavoidable issue in the hiring process. Even with new technologies, unconcious biases can sneak in, whether that be intentional or not. Still, it’s so important to take charge and eliminate as much bias as possible. As such, there must be intentional changes made. From looking past just where someone graduated to identifying patterns in your recruits, here are insights from executives and recruiting leaders on how you can best identify and address bias in the recruitment process.

Don’t Recruit Just Based on School

Strictly hiring based on background or school is a usual way recruiters show bias. One way we can identify this is with what schools a company focuses on for job fairs. Making sure as a company you focus on recruiting from all levels of schools is a good way to give equal opportunity across the board.

Maegan Griffin
Founder, CEO and Nurse Practitioner, Skin Pharm

Check Your Wording

Double-check the wording of your job postings in order to identify and remove any potentially biased wording. While such wording is often unintentional, it can still disrupt your hiring initiative if it drives away potential applicants before they even think about trying.

You’ll be able to find online guidelines for writing bias-free job postings that will be easy to follow and highly effective. Once you’ve removed any unintended bias, then you’re free to spruce up your posting and inject your personal style into it.

With ‌extra care, you can avoid accidentally putting off potential applicants who might otherwise be an excellent fit for your roles. It may add a few minutes of time to creating your listings, but it will be well worth it for your business if it helps you land quality hires.

Max Schwartzapfel
CMO, Schwartzapfel Lawyers

Conduct Blind Reviews

One thing I have done to identify recruitment bias is to conduct blind reviews of job candidates. Blind reviews involve removing any identifying information, such as names, genders, dates of birth, and even universities attended, so that decisions can be made on the merits of a candidate’s qualifications alone.

This process removes potential sources of bias by preventing hiring managers from making assumptions based on demographic or other non-essential factors. Additionally, I have conducted surveys among my recruiting team to understand their own personal biases and experiences before developing an interview rubric for screening applicants.

Employers can also use data analytics on the impact of different recruiting strategies. For example, you could analyze whether certain recruitment channels are leading to more success in terms of applicant quality or diversifying your talent pool, versus looking at individuals who applied through less effective channels.

Travis Lindemoen
Managing Director, nexus IT group

Use a Standardized Interview Process

Companies should judge people on their credentials and achievements. If a company judges candidates during recruitment on their race, gender, beauty, or any other illogical thing, it’s highly unethical.

You can identify recruitment bias by using a standardized interview process. In this type of interview, an employer asks candidates the same set of questions for the designated position. It strongly minimizes biases in recruitment. We can fairly judge candidates based on their performance in the interview and the quality of their answers.

Don’t forget to set the questions according to the skills and abilities required for the particular job. This way, you can easily identify whether the interviewer is trying to discriminate. It is now a highly prevalent method of interviewing to avoid any unnecessary issues during the interview.

Saikat Ghosh
Associate Director, HR and Business, Technource

Do a Thorough Job Analysis

An effective approach to uncovering recruitment bias is to conduct a comprehensive examination of our job requirements and responsibilities. By gaining a clear understanding of what our positions entail and how performance is measured, we can pinpoint any potential biases in our hiring procedures. This vigilance enables us to eliminate discrimination and ensure that all applicants are evaluated fairly, regardless of factors such as their race or gender.

Kimberley Tyler-Smith
VP, Strategy and Growth, Resume Worded

Look for Patterns

This might sound bad, so please hear me out: but diversity isn’t just about goodness; it also is an incredible strategic advantage. For example, we actively review our recruiting practices nonstop, intentionally looking for patterns of new recruits.

If our engineers seem to reflect too many males, we go back over applications looking for females who might have been overlooked. This tactic has improved our skill sets and functional capabilities within the first year.

The old days of using “it’s just business” to rationalize building a company of people, all from one demographic, are over. Diversity is here to stay because it’s more than just good—it’s good business.

Shaun Connell
Founder and CEO, Credit Building Tips

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