Eliminating bias in the hiring process has been a noble decades-long effort in the business world. We can carefully assess the skills of candidates. We can work harder to recruit from a broader pool of candidates and, although we’ve done very well in moving the ball forward, there are still a few lingering inherent biases in hiring that we can work on.

The savviest hiring managers learn to identify the inherent bias in both themselves and in the system and find clever ways to work around them. Here are some of our best insights to do the same.

1) Assess Resumes Without Names

When you are comparing resumes, hide the names of each candidate. Names are often the only thing on a resume that reveals (or hints at) the gender or culture of the applicant. Without names, your brain will be forced to make objective-only decisions without envisioning who the person is and what they look like, therefore triggering any psychological biases that may be lurking.

We all have psychological hiring biases, not even always positive or negative. Just assumptions we need to overcome when hiring to find the best candidate. By looking at resumes and skill tests without names (at first) you can make the most objective assessment.

2) Do Not Consider Candidate’s Previous Income

One of the insidious traps for female inequality in the workplace is basing today’s salary on previous salaries. If a candidate was underpaid in their last job, that’s no reason to continue to underpay them for the role. Assign a wage offer based on the role, the skills, and the negotiation choices of your candidate. Not on what they made previously.

This simple change can help you eliminate not just gender inequality in job offers, but other hiring biases that create wage gaps like cultural bias, class-gaps, and language barriers.

3) Include Online Skill Tests

Before you make a decision about a candidate’s self-promoted skills, assess their real skills. Women learn not to over-promote themselves because, socially, it comes off differently. Don’t hold it against a candidate if one person is better at selling themselves than others. If it’s not a marketing position, performance matters much more than interview hype.

So, implement a real test of skills, ideally outside the unusual interview environment. Send a proctored online skill assessment or create a workplace environment for your candidates to test within. Let the ladies with skills shine even if they don’t self-promote or your internal feelings assume a man might be better for the role.

4) Universal Dress Code Standards

Drop the old appearance standards in the workplace to avoid hiring biases. Business-casual is business-casual. If a woman wants to wear a dress shirt, slacks, and no makeup to work, that should be considered reasonable. An increasing number of modern professional women don’t feel that dressing up for work is necessary. Looking clean, professional, and in-tune with the company culture is one thing but applying mascara and wearing heels is something entirely else.

In most roles, feminine attire is neither necessary nor the most practical choice. So drop it from the company culture expectations enjoy the more casual, equal environment that creates. It may also reduce incidences of workplace harassment if women are not required to appear feminine while doing their jobs.

5) Offer Flexible Hours to All Candidates

Flexible hours are often seen as making the workplace more welcoming for women. In reality, flexible hours make the workplace more welcoming for people from many walks of life. All parents, dads included, need family time and flexibility. Flexible hours are also more appealing to students, night owls, those with handicaps and limiting medical conditions, and many people with myriad outside-of-work responsibilities.

Flexible hours are an inclusive hiring process, and more inclusive than most employers realize before the policy is implemented company-wide.

6) Make an Interview Tally for Knowledge, Passion, and Attitude

Finally, make sure to interview with more than your eyes. Bias is strongest when you are looking at the candidate and assessing everything they say or do through the lens of appearance-based assumptions. It’s something most people do naturally, it’s actually one of our survival traits for gauging what people will do at any moment. But it’s less useful for fair hiring.

Instead, make a small tally of objective points. Tally for knowledge, passion, and attitude in how interview questions are answered. Instead of gaging for confidence or self-selling, listen for the passion and capability reflected in how each candidate speaks. Listen for a positive attitude, a problem-solving approach, and understanding of the role’s needed skills.

Conclusion

Hiring without bias is one of the greatest challenges we have ever taken on in the name of equality. Every single human has a natural bias and, as a result, it has been built into the structure of business cultures across the globe. Overcoming that bias is all about assessing each person without their identity or background factors in consideration, and offering roles that would be appealing to any modern professional. Contact us for more insights on achieving your positivity goals in the workforce without hiring biases.