Increasing Diversity and Removing Unconscious Bias in the Hiring Process

July 6, 2020

 

Types of Diversity in the Workforce

The term diversity applies to all the qualities that make people different, including personality traits, education, skills, values, attitudes, gender, race, age, cognitive differences, etc. People perceive and process information differently and, according to Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Strength lies in differences, not similarities.” We must work strategically to uncover these internal differences to hire new and diverse talent.

How Digital Interviewing Can Increase Diversity Recruitment

According to a study conducted by HireVue, digital interviews use technology to help recruiters and hiring managers to compose unbiased interview questions and ask these questions to job applicants from a distance.

The “structured” part of the interview involves what kind of questions are asked, the way in which they are asked, and the order in which the questions are asked. Any of these variables can sway the responses of the candidates, leading to bias judgment which can prevent companies from hiring diverse employees. According to Benjamin Spar, author at LinkedIn, attractive and charismatic interviewees are not necessarily more capable, but we unconsciously assume they are. The bias problem in traditional interviews limits the hiring manager’s ability to assess soft skills and weaknesses. This can allow a traditional interview to shift more to a conversation and less of an evaluation of candidate grit.

Structured interviews ensure a fair, standardized interview experience for all. Structured interviews ask the exact same questions to all job candidates in the same way and in the order. Digital structured interviews take diversity recruitment one step further by digitizing and automating it and applying pre-defined, uniform scoring criteria so candidates are evaluated objectively.

Casting a Wider Net and Attracting a Larger Pool

With digital interviews, hiring managers can eliminate geographical barriers. This means they can interview any candidate, in any location, at any time. According to, HireVue this allows the 2x the diversity in your candidate pool.

Despite eliminating geographical barriers, digital interviews allow you to eliminate travel barriers and scheduling conflicts which can allow candidates from different socioeconomic backgrounds to attend more interviews and engage with hiring managers.

AI graded Assessments

At Talnlty, we take it a step further to ensure the fairest playing field for our candidate pool. We offer assessments that measure the fit of each candidate based on the skills needed for the position they are applying for. These assessments are conducted by I/O psychologist and scored with AI. According to SHRM, not only does AI scoring assessments allow you to remove all human bias, it holds everyone accountable in choosing the right candidate. The system will support your decision by showing that all the other candidates did not have all the skill sets you required.

Increasing Diversity in Your Hiring Practices

Digital structured interviews can help with your diversity hiring efforts. Whether it is an entry-level position or part of the executive team, the structured interview methodology is the secret to improving your recruitment and increasing your diversity hires. Talntly makes implementing this unbiased hiring method easy.