The Important Facts About Unconscious Bias Diversity

By | June 26, 2021

It is widely recognized the importance of workplace diversity for companies seeking to become or remain leading innovators in their fields. For many companies, there appear to be some uncomfortable factors preventing them from doing so.

It's easy for your recruiting team to become unknowingly addicted to and to certain groups of people – after all, that's human nature and usually acts without thought or malice.

Such prejudice can take many forms – perhaps racist, gender, personality but what is undeniable is that it exists. Here are some forms of unconscious bias diversity to look out for.

Is the travel industry diverse and inclusive? It depends who you ask.: Travel Weekly

Right now, we only need to take a quick look at social media to see how compliance bias can manifest itself in groups of like-minded people.

This is a form of bias that can arise from simply following the opinion of the majority and ignoring your own views. When recruiting, this can happen in a panel interview where some people are afraid to disagree with the majority and therefore avoid spreading their own thoughts.

However, the opposite can happen with what's known as the "bimbo effect," where someone who is traditionally attractive is also rejected.

This could result in unsuitable candidates being deemed a good fit, for example because they studied at a very prestigious university, or you might view a suitable candidate as unsuitable simply because they did not like one of their previous careers.