Hiring Bias And the Impact On Client Experience

Hiring Bias

Admit it or not, you are biased. So is every person on your team. We all look at the world through a lens. This lens influences our thoughts and feelings. It could be about a situation, a person, or an idea. Our perceptions and interpretations are influenced by our experiences, our upbringing, society in general, social media, media, friendships, marketing, etc. The list is endless.

We carry these biases into every room we enter and into every interaction. Judgments are made and assumptions are created. These judgments and assumptions can lead to projections, which, in most cases, are not accurate.

When it comes to new hires, decisions are many times based on factors other than actual performance. Hiring decisions are likely based on intuition, gut feeling, and first impressions. All of which sound romantic but are certainly far from scientific and unbiased and can lead to regret.

On his podcast Revisionist History, Season 5: Episode 8, Hamlet Was Wrong, famed author Malcolm Gladwell shares a story of how he chose key employees. During the podcast he admits that he made risky decisions by following his gut and not following a more proven process. Those hire effectively took control of his life. Thankfully, his gut led him to a good decision. However, more times than not, when it comes to hiring and most other things, we must “trust” our gut “but verify” through a stringent and proven process. Otherwise, the consequences could be devastating.

How The Diamond In The Desert Was Built

Biases come in all shapes and sizes and are sometimes obvious and sometimes deeply seated and hidden from view. The obvious biases are many times recognized for what they are and can be managed accordingly. For example, I am a huge Ohio State University athletics fan. Therefore, I tend to ignore the data and go with my heart when it comes to who I think will win the game.

Knowing this, if I were in ‘Vegas I would refrain from placing a bet on the Buckeyes. My love for the school and their athletic program biases my decisions, making them more emotional and less empirical and rational.

That said, there may be times when my emotions lead me in the right direction, but it is the combination of managed emotions and thoughtful decision making that lead to more consistency in decision making and therefore increase the odds of making the right decision. This is exactly what Vegas hopes we don't figure out. Emotional decision making helped build that diamond in the desert.

Check The Unchecked

When our biases go unrecognized and unchecked, they can result in mistakes in the hiring process that can have a long-lasting impact on the organization's performance and culture. Unchecked biases can also lead to unnecessary litigation. By recognizing hidden biases and putting into place strategies to manage them you can increase the odds of making a smart hiring decision and decrease the odds of hiring regret.

The Impact of First Impression

We are all impacted by the impression someone makes upon us when we first meet them. As Malcolm Gladwell also pointed out in his book Blink, there's a reason why 30% of male CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are 6 for 2, while only 3.9% of the population of American men are that tall. The impression may be that tall, strong looking men are more confident and therefore make better leaders and decision makers. However, we all know that height has nothing to do with cognitive intellect, emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills, and actual decision making.

Having a bias is not always a bad thing. What would be bad is knowing you have a bias and doing nothing about to manage it. For example, to better manage the impact of first impressions, look deep inside yourself and reflect upon the biases you may have. Then map a strategy for checking them. It is important to know if you are prejudiced by gender, race, age, height, weight, marital status, disability, academic record, etc. Knowing this about yourself doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you a better person.

The Resume Impression

Similar to first impressions, impressions left on us by a review of a resume can be highly impactful. We can enter an interview with our mind made up and not even know it. This can lead to a poor decision and result in a missed opportunity and the placing of great talent in the circular file.

Academic achievement and job experience does not equate to a high performing employee. Just because someone attended an Ivy League school and worked for a Fortune 100 company does not make them a great fit for a position. What you want are results, not bling. Yes, you must screen applicants and pick those you think will be the best fit for the job. However, do this with job specific information in hand, not from a traditional academic and work history bias.

Know What You Are Looking For

When searching for someone to fill a position, know the job and know what success looks like after 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, and one year. Determine the behaviors and motivators that are present in those who are most successful in that position and look for those in the next hire. Make the interviewee tell you what they have actually done and how their performance mattered.

Performance based hiring should be the approach you take with every interviewee. It really is about what they have done, not where they have gone to school and where they have worked. There are many great people out there that don't work in the industry, have never attended an Ivy League school, and are working for small to midsized companies.

When a performance-based approach is enlisted you quickly realize the flaws that were present in the previous process and an entirely new and large pool of candidates is to choose from. This also has potential to dramatically increase organizational performance from an out-side-the-box thinking perspective.

Consider Using A Hiring Team

My experience is that we tend to select people for a job that are very similar to ourselves. At first it may not seem like a big deal. However, when everyone thinks alike it tends to lead to rubber stamping a decision and less debate and discussion about the issues that will move a business forward. When you have people of similar mind, they tend to agree with each other, which leads you to believe that you made the right hiring decision.

Consider employing a team approach to hiring. The team needs to be composed of people from different behavioral, experience, gender, and cultural backgrounds. Having a diverse team will lead to healthy discussion and debate, which increases the odds of making a good decision. That said, remember that each team member has a bias, agenda, and motivation. Choose people who are confident and willing to give an unbiased view.

Process Matters

Before the interview process begins do some internal interviewing to find out the type of person that is needed for the job from a performance, behavioral and cultural perspective. Then, select an interview team that is diverse. Screen applicants based on the information gathered in the internal fact-finding mission. Don't delegate the job of screening candidates to an intern or newly hired team member. Script questions that are performance based. Make people write down their first impression at the start of the interview and then assign them the goal of proving their first impression wrong throughout the interview. If the first impression holds then you likely have a good candidate for a second round. If not, you've avoided allowing your bias to rule your decision making.

If It Was Easy Everyone Would Do It

Managing bias is not an easy task. If it were everyone would be hiring better people. Many times, we don't realize the impact of our biases until it is too late. However, there are things we can do to mitigate its effects. It is our failure to do this that gets us in trouble and can lead to a poor hiring record. A poor hiring record will lead to poor business performance and ultimately a poor organizational culture. Bother are things clients do not tolerate for long.

Randy Stepp is a principal with Renaissance Leadership Group. RLG is a full-service medical aesthetics practice development company driven by Purpose, Passion, and Strategy and the goal of helping entrepreneurs realize their vision for their business.

Visit Renaissance Leadership Group at www.renaissanceleadershipgroup.com to learn more.