We committed to the following goals in our Commitment to Dismantling Systemic Inequality In Recruiting:
- Provide a visible, quarterly report on our growth and understandings as well as our diversity recruitment efforts on our website.
- Create awareness and educate our partners, clients, candidates, and community on diversity recruitment best practices.
- Share talent pool demographics with hiring teams pre- and post-engagement.
As promised, we are sharing an update on how we are continuing our growth and understandings as individuals, a team, an organization, a service provider, and as a member of the community. Q4 continued to enhance the opportunity for our team to dive deeper, learn more, ask tough questions, and ultimately, continue to lean in.
In November, we kicked off the month by reviewing our recruiting funnel and looking for any indications of bias, conscious or unconscious, and we’ll continue to do this on a quarterly basis going forward. Our team participated in a facilitated session led by Jessica Hickey of 1029 Consulting. In this session we focused on raising awareness of the areas of oversight created by bias in real world situations. The session creates the opportunity to compare and contrast biases and where those biases impact us in the working world, especially the virtual one we live in.
Continuing into December, we just recently subscribed to Stacey Gordon’s new Simply Diversity bi-monthly newsletter to spark continuing conversations in our team huddles. If your are following our progress, you’ll see that we are a big fan of Stacey Gordon’s work. And lastly, we prepared the following to share with our client partners:
While both our initial and continuous discussions stem from the racial divide our country is currently experiencing, exposure to Stacey Gordon’s training on unconscious bias made us aware of points that are part of the bigger problem, and their impact on our day to day lives – including how they might influence hiring decisions.
Affinity Bias – A positive response to people who are similar to us. How might an affinity bias impact hiring for a “cultural fit” in an organization?
Perception Bias – The tendency to form stereotypes and assumptions about certain groups that makes it difficult to make an objective judgment about an individual. Do you unconsciously form stereotypes about where someone attended college?
Halo Bias – Admiring all of a person’s actions because of their praiseworthy actions in the past. How do you view qualified candidates when you also have a highly recommended candidate from someone you trust?
Confirmation Bias – Seeking out evidence that confirms our initial perceptions, ignoring contrary information. Have you ever lobbed a softball question to your top candidate, seeking to reinforce their strengths instead of challenge their approach?
It’s never too late to start learning and to correct influences that might be invisible to us. As always, we welcome any thoughts or feedback.