We have all used the term “the right fit” at one point or another when considering who we may want to recruit for our organizations. But what does that really mean? Bias hiring in Canada is very prevalent in pre employment screening and is so deeply entrenched for some people. In many cases it may be considered unconscious bias (they may not even realize they are doing it).

Bias hiring occurs when hiring decisions are influenced by personal preference or stereotypes. According to Harvard University, unconscious bias in recruitment can be defined as “the mental processes that cause a person to act in ways that reinforce stereotypes even when in our conscious mind we would deem that behavior counter to our value system.”

There is some bias in hiring that is more difficult to mitigate, like name bias. You can’t change the name your staff see and unfortunately, according to the Rotman School of Business, resumes for those Black sounding or Asian names received 30-50% fewer call backs than other resumes that were equivalent as far as experience. 

So, what are some ways you can reduce bias hiring in your pre employment screening?

One of the easiest ways is to introduce background checks that have checks and balances to protect against bias.

The food industry is a great example. There was an article about bias hiring and how in the food industry some hiring manager are influenced by a candidates race, country of origin, immigration status, Indigeneity, gender, and physical appearance.

If your staff are creeping your candidates’ social media (as a great example) under the guise of pre employment screening, this is a prime example of how bias hiring can occur. You can’t turn back the clock if your hiring manager checks and doesn’t like a person’s size, look, style, etc.

In these examples, deploying background checks like social media background checks are an excellent way to mitigate hiring bias. Once your employee, at a subconscious level, becomes biased toward a candidate based on something they see online, it’s too late.  A social media check will flag candidate behaviour and simply let the hiring manager know what came up that could be an issue: hate speech, violence, substance abuse, etc.

Third party reference checks are another really great way to mitigate bias hiring. Accents or dispersions over even references can create bias in hiring. When a third party completes these verifications, your team receives a report that simply outlines the reference’s answers as it relates to the position vs how they sounded, if they had an accent, etc.

You can work with your background check provider to hone-in on areas in your operation where you think hiring bias could be occurring and they can, through their deep expertise, help you achieve the right mix of third party checks and verifications to reduce the prevalence of bias hiring in your organization.

Making a concerted effort to cut down on bias hiring will make your organization more inclusive, diverse, and also help you avoid potential liability in the future. For more information about strengthening your pre employment screening please visit www.tritoncanada.ca.