| what is unconscious bias? | key points |
|---|---|
| "Unconscious bias occurs when people favour others who look like them and/or share their values. For example a person may be drawn to someone with a similar educational background, from the same area, or who is the same colour or ethnicity as them. A manager who wasn't successful at school may listen to, or be supportive of, an employee who left school without qualifications because, subconsciously, they are reminded of their younger self. The same can be true of a manager who is educated to degree level, favouring employees [...]" [see more] |
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| what are some examples? | |
| Q: "In one study, job applicants with white-sounding names got what percentage more callbacks than identical job applicants with Black-sounding names?" A: "It led to 50% more callbacks—the equivalent of adding eight years of work experience." | |
| Q: "In a study of performance reviews, what % of women received negative feedback on their personal style such as “You can sometimes be abrasive”?
And what % of men received that same type of feedback?" A: "66% of women and 1% of men." | |
| Q: "According to Harvard University’s Implicit Association Test, what % of people more readily associate men with “career” and women with “family”?" A: "76%" [see more] | |
| what can I do? | |
| These examples might help you when you're setting your intentions: | |
| Situation: "In a meeting, a client only looks at and speaks to the men on your team." What to do: "Do your part to make eye contact with everyone and try to find ways to bring more women into the conversation. When possible, you can pass the baton to a woman in a way that highlights her expertise: “[Name] would be great to answer this. She’s actually our resident expert on the topic.”" | |
| Situation: "You realize that your company gets most of its new employees through referrals by current employees." What to do: "If the new hires lack diversity, talk to HR or someone senior. Say that you’ve noticed that your company tends to hire people who are referred by other employees and explain the shortcomings of this strategy. Another issue could be that your process for evaluating new hires is too subjective, so someone saying, “He’s my friend” [...]" [see more] |
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| feature topic: name-blind recruitment | |
| "Name-blind recruitment is when an employer removes information such as name, gender, and age from their application form before it's shared with the person carrying out the recruitment. This will help to overcome possible discrimination or unconscious bias, and promote diversity in the workforce. Research has shown that a person's name can affect their success within the recruitment process. Removing certain information that could unintentionally bias a manager can help under-represented groups have confidence that their application will be fairly considered. It's important for organisations to train managers on how they can recognise, and overcome their own unconscious bias [...]" [see more] | |
| feature topic: recent developments | |
| Pin-ya Tseng from Paradigm: "When it comes to unconscious bias in the workplace experience, the conversation in the last decade has moved away from addressing explicit bias or overt discrimination towards uncovering how an organizations might be unintentionally inviting bias [...]" [see more] | |