Thoughts on HR Workshop: Avoiding Bias in the Hiring Process

Last Friday (September 15) I attended a workshop put on by the HR department called Avoiding Bias in the Hiring Process. Mikael Villalobos gave the presentation, which was totally interactive, thought-provoking, and informative. My main motivation for attending this workshop was to increase my awareness of diversity issues and to help me recruit student assistants in the most equitable method possible.

I learned that bias happens because each of us is a product of our experiences, which have conditioned us to hold certain beliefs. We cannot rid ourself of bias completely. Accepting the fact we all are biased allows each one of us to have an authentic conversation about it, and can only help us work to mitigate bias.

We did an exercise where Mikael flashed photos of different people on the projection screen, and we jotted down the first thoughts that came to mind. I was embarrassed of the adjectives I wrote down, words such as woman, happy, black, old, white, sly, demure, professional. I learned that, you know what though? Those thoughts are natural. They are my observations.

Observations are fine. However, I can probe my thought process to determine if I am creating a story in my head around those observations based on my socialized values. If so, that story is bias. If I make a hiring decision based on that story I've created, I am enforcing my bias.

On the other hand, by exercising awareness I can go through the process of interrupting the circuit between observation, story, and action which results in enforcing bias. This can cause me to experience dissonance, which happens if I take a step back and acknowledge the system of inequalities/marginalization that clashes with my socialized values. Dissonance can be disorienting and uncomfortable, but it is also my learning edge, and is very valuable!

To apply the theory to the hiring process, I can employ interviewing approaches that mitigate bias. For example, I can ask interview questions that challenge or confirm the "dilettante/renaissance" persona of a candidate; I can conduct reference checks to ask questions about qualifications rather than creating my own story about qualifications; I can set up role playing exercises to allow the candidate to actively demonstrate whether or not they are able to perform a certain job duty.

In total, it feels liberating to recognize the bias we all carry, and I am already able to put new thought processes in action that short-circuit those stories I tell based on my observations. I feel less guilt while also feel more capable of encountering people from different backgrounds than myself with an open mind.

By Dietmar Rabich - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 4.0