Welcome to Talent Talk, a collection of thought leadership articles from industry experts in the recruitment and HR tech space.
Each and every one of us believes that we are being as logical, objective, and fair as possible when it comes to decision-making. However, the reality of the situation is that we make thousands of micro-decisions on a daily basis and process more than 11 million pieces of information. As our conscious mind is only capable of processing around 50 pieces of information per second - most of the decisions we make on a day-to-day basis are impacted by what is called cognitive bias. These biases are what allow us to make decisions quickly and automatically - without even thinking about it.
When taking into account how much information we process daily - it comes with no surprise that sometimes we make the wrong decision. And hey, everyone makes mistakes, right? But what if the consequences of this wrong decision cause an even bigger problem? Whether we like to admit it to ourselves or not, bias also has the potential to negatively impact the hiring process and how we review candidates.
At Equalture, we are dedicated to shaping the world of unbiased hiring. We make use of neuroscientific games to objectively reveal the skills and behaviors of both your current team and your candidates, with the aim to hire people based on science instead of a gut feeling.
In this blog, I will tell you all about why an unbiased hiring process is important & how using ATS Software together with a gamified application process will help you to create a bias-free hiring process while simultaneously creating a streamlined candidate evaluation process.
The conditions of an unbiased hiring process
Avoiding bias at the pre-selection stage
Bias in the hiring process starts with screening candidates in a subjective way, simply because a CV doesn’t provide us with the info we need to get an objective first impression of someone.
Let’s imagine a situation where you think you have found the perfect candidate. They’re likable, friendly, with an amazing educational background and work experiences, and they seem like the most sociable person ever. So, based on your first impression and gut feeling - you hire them. It takes one-tenth of a second to make a wrong judgment about someone, and thus, it comes as no surprise that first impressions can be misleading.
Hiring the wrong person (or rejecting a great one) can end up being a costly mistake six months down the road. We often tend to hire people based on what we can see, while a person’s fit depends on what we can’t see. Think about it this way, can you determine someone’s fit for the job, or their skills and talent right away just by looking at their resume or motivational letter? Even if your answer to this question is yes, let me remind you that often these judgments are influenced by your very own bias. Now you might be left wondering, is there any hope at all? Luckily for you (and everyone else), yes, there is!
Gathering valuable, data-backed insights in an unbiased way
In order to get the right first impression of a candidate, it’s important to look beyond the resume and to focus on the things we cannot know for sure by reviewing a CV. Soft skills, personality traits, intrinsic motivation, and so on. Screening questions will help you assess intrinsic motivation, but then still, soft skills and personality traits remain a secret, while they have a tremendous impact on job fit and culture fit.
Equalture’s neuroscientific games are introduced at the beginning of your hiring funnel, which means that candidates are asked to complete them as part of their job application. As a result of that, you will gain insights into someone’s personality, skills and talents right away, allowing you to base your first impression on the aspects that really matter, and are moreover collected in an objective way.
We also offer Blind Hiring on a candidate’s profile, which means that information such as name, gender, date of birth, and other identification details are blinded out. When characteristics like these are not visible, you are more likely to select candidates that are the best fit for the job vacancy, not just candidates that you intuitively think will be the best fit.
Standardized follow up
Apart from collecting the right information at the right time, in order to de-bias your first impressions, unbiased hiring also requires you to automate & standardize your screening follow-up process. An ATS, such as Recruitee, allows you to automate the follow-up process by eliminating endless paperwork and standardizing every step of it for the most seamless hiring experience.
Using an ATS will also help you to standardize the follow-up process in two main ways:
- You can set up who from the hiring team is in charge of reviewing the candidates (for the most bias-free hiring process - it’s best to assign this to two people, as that decreases the chances of subjective opinions being formed).
- You can create & share interview scorecards that will result in a more standardized and objective job interview (take a look at our blog to find out how interviews can actually help you remove bias).
The more standardized the process, the fewer chances of bias creeping in. Pretty awesome, right?
Make hiring decisions that are bias-free
In a hiring setting, being biased can lead to wrongfully rejecting high-potential candidates, or hiring low-potential candidates. Get ready to say goodbye to bias and begin basing your first impressions on what actually determines job fit and prevents wrongfully rejecting good candidates or advancing the wrong ones!
Check out how AI can help reduce unconscious bias right here
