The hiring process is fraught with numerous decisions being made based on criteria that can often change on a dime. Looking at this process objectively, it’s easy to notice how often bias comes into play. Biases are enforced when you just see the resume and don’t take in the context of the applicant’s character and experience. These unconscious biases often produce challenges for the applicant, known as hidden barriers. When making hiring decisions, it’s crucial to be aware of these biases so that you can overcome them.

What is Unconscious Bias in Hiring?

Unconscious biases are the subtle biases that are hard to notice when they pop up in daily life. These are typically judgments about other people that result from experiences in your background. A person raised with certain ideals will hold different biases than someone who grew up seeing people struggle with addiction.

We all have our own unconscious biases; it’s an unfortunate result of being human. These biases lead to hidden barriers unless we’re able to overcome them. The way that biases are overcome is not by eliminating them: instead, awareness is the cure. When an unconscious bias is made conscious, it allows you to understand why you react to certain people or events differently. You can take that reaction objectively and change the way you respond with the knowledge that you are just reacting due to an unconscious bias you hold. 

Identifying Unconscious Bias

Unconscious bias is tricky to catch, hence why it’s unconscious. In the hiring process, it appears often. The way that you react to a candidate's outfit might be a form of unconscious bias. Seeing “warehouse worker” on their resume and assuming they lack intellect is another unconscious bias. Assuming that a coworker is lazy because they’ve shown up late to work for the past week will unconsciously affect your perception of them. These biases seem obvious when said out loud; the tricky part is recognizing them in the first place. 

Overcoming Your Biases

To identify your unconscious biases, evaluate your reactions to the people around you, especially negative interactions. Consider both sides of the story, and ask yourself if you’ve given the other person a chance to disprove the notions you have of them. It’s likely you settled into this opinion of them and haven’t ever given them a chance to break the mold: try it out!

Hidden Barriers That Affect Candidates

Hidden barriers are the covert obstacles that employees face when being hired and working at their jobs. The most well-known hidden barrier is unconscious bias. Unconscious bias has been heavily studied for its effects on the hiring process, and the general consensus, as a result of these studies, is that unconscious bias plays a bigger role than we think.

Lack Of Role Models

Another hidden bias in many workplaces is a lack of role models. Simply put, a lack of role models is a lack of representation at the upper levels of the company, be it the manager or the CEO. This hidden barrier has an insidious effect on people based on the group they believe they belong to. 

The easiest example of this is a person of color seeing a managerial class with no representation. Despite their manager's best efforts, it’s going to be hard for that employee to believe in their ability to be promoted to the managerial level. Even if they think they can, they might be subconsciously exhausting themselves with the thought that they’re going to need to be the first manager of color, a burden that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Breaking the glass ceiling is no easy task; it’s up to companies to remove it before it confronts employees.

Communication Differences

Another less insidious but still impactful hidden barrier is a communication barrier. This barrier can appear from a multitude of places; lack of confidence, speech impediment, or difference in language. Regardless of the source, a person’s perspective of their ability to communicate is shaped by these factors. 

You can see this hidden barrier come into play in interviews, where people who struggle to communicate are routinely passed over for those with a knack for reaching people. As a member of the hiring team, it’s crucial to give everyone time to communicate in their own way, and not discriminate against those who struggle with hidden barriers.

Unequal Access To Training

A final hidden barrier that doesn’t often come to mind is a lack of training. This doesn’t seem like a hidden barrier at first: it seems like a very visible barrier that can be overcome by spending a few weeks in training. The reality is that not all training is created equal, and neither are people. 

Everyone learns differently, and this difference in style has a large impact on how much or how little an individual gets out of the training process. Some people train for a week and have the ins and outs of the job mastered. Others take three weeks and come out of the training with questions that weren’t answered. The person who took three weeks to learn will look at the person who took one week and immediately internalize that. They’ll think that they’re not as smart or qualified because it took them longer to train. This will cause that person to hide their questions to appear knowledgeable, thus setting them back even further. Eventually, they quit or are fired because they struggle to do their job properly.

This barrier even bleeds into the hiring process. A candidate who isn’t trained properly will go into their next job struggling to articulate the things they did and what they know. That foundation of knowledge that is built on good training isn’t present for those people, meaning they’ll struggle in interviews to convey what they’ve accomplished. All too often, candidates are blamed for the struggles they’ve had in past positions when really a hidden barrier like a lack of training is the root issue.

How Employers Can Remove Hidden Barriers

The reality of unconscious biases is that they aren’t going anywhere. What we can eliminate are the hidden barriers that stem from them. To do this, we need to observe with a fresh eye. If we have an issue with someone, take a step back and breathe. What caused this issue? Is there an unconscious bias at play that’s amplifying my reaction? Use that knowledge to properly respond to them: you aren’t mad at the person, a bias you’re struggling with has reared its head.

The same holds true for training. The best way to overcome hidden barriers in training is to take a step back and look at what is happening objectively. Is there anyone struggling? Why might that be? Having a conversation with that person can be helpful in determining where their struggles lie. You can tailor your training to help that person learn at their own pace and in their own style. If that isn’t possible, observe this person and provide answers or additional context when they seem confused.

Removing hidden barriers from the hiring process is a tall order, but there are a couple of options available for a hiring team to improve. Firstly, a diverse hiring panel is a great way to reduce unconscious bias. Diversity ensures that the hiring team won’t all share an unconscious bias, allowing each candidate a fair shot. The interview process can also include an assessment portion to reduce the weight of the resume. The assessment allows you to check that a candidate can do the job, despite a potential lack of experience on their resume. The communication barrier in an interview is a hard one to overcome. Again, the assessment can come into play to show a candidate's qualifications. Multiple rounds of interviews are also advisable; they allow a candidate to create a second impression if the first one didn’t go well.

The Solution In Hiring

The hiring process is a tricky one. There are a lot of moving parts and a ton of factors to consider when choosing the next person who’ll work at your company. Luckily, Premier’s got you covered. With 26 years of experience in the staffing industry, we know what it takes to hire the perfect candidate. Our expert recruiters are trained to handle their biases and provide the best possible candidate, regardless of background. Allow us to handle this part of your business and see how Premier can help you today!