If you are making hiring decisions based on the idea that you want to work with somebody just like you, you may want to think again before finalizing your next hire. If your reaction to that statement was, instead, “I would never do that,” you may also want to pause. Why? Because you might be doing just that through a subconscious tendency, and you aren’t even aware of it happening.  

This article will examine the concept of subconscious bias and its role in the hiring process. I will also provide valuable tips and strategies to combat emotional hiring practices throughout your organization. 

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Many instruments are designed to help us understand ourselves and the people around us more deeply.  My personal favorite is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Part of my dissertation focused on the impact of personality type on the pass/fail rates of post-secondary health sciences majors. That allowed me the opportunity to dive deeply into the MBTI and its sixteen personality types and to become a life-long student of Type Theory.  

The basics of type theory inform us that each MBTI personality types has strengths and weaknesses. However, the strengths and weaknesses of each of the types are different. While the MBTI can help inform all aspects of our life, using Type Theory for leadership and workplace development is especially relevant when contemplating building a functioning team. The most basic of all the MBTI leadership and workplace development tips is to hire and build a team with strengths to balance where you, as the leader, have challenges or deficits. While it is logical to believe that such a hiring protocol would be beneficial, as leaders, we are unfortunately not immune to the role that our emotions or subconscious may play in our hiring decisions.  Research indicates that instead of hiring people who are different from us and have strengths to complement our weaknesses, we tend to do just the opposite. Courtesy of our subconscious bias, we instead tend to hire people who are just like us.

Subconscious Bias

Precisely what is subconscious bias? Subconscious bias refers to a bias, positive or negative, that exists within an individual’s mind at an unconscious level. Our subconscious bias influences our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward an individual or group. The lack of conscious awareness or intention behind the biased thoughts or reactions distinguishes subconscious bias from conscious or explicit bias. Subconscious biases are not inherently malicious or reflective of a person’s character. However, failure to recognize that these biases exist during the screening and hiring process can hamper our ability to find and hire the best candidate and contribute to the systemic dysfunction of a team or an organization.

Kimberly Giles, a self-described human behavior expert, states that she is fascinated by the bad hires most companies continue to make every day. Ms. Giles asserts that unconscious bias toward people of the same race, education level, and economic status and who have the same personality, fears, or values influences who you hire much more than you think. She contends you subconsciously look for points of similarity in everyone you meet because similarities make you feel safer. 

Tales from the Boardroom

If you ask now if any of this is real, the answer is yes. In fact, I have a “case study” to share with you that, while textbook perfect, happened to a higher education colleague of mine.  

My colleague, recounting his woes, freely admits that he may have fallen under the spell of subconscious bias in a recent hiring decision. He stated that during an online screening interview that one of the candidates repeatedly responded to the interview questions that resonated with him and mirrored how he would have responded to the same questions. He noted that the individual was personable, energetic, and had a similar education and experience. He earmarked the candidate and asked his HR Director to schedule that candidate for an intensive in-person interview.  

During the in-person interview, various people joined him throughout the day and shared positive feedback about the candidate. Ultimately, my colleague made an offer to the individual and the candidate accepted. On the surface, it sounds like a good hire, unfortunately; this is where the story takes a not-so-positive turn. My colleague admits that what he thought was a dream hire was a nightmare. In fact, on the first day on the job, he claims that the person who showed up for work that morning, was not the person he hired. Disappointedly, the rest of the story did not get better from there.

Mistaken identity? Probably not. Is it, instead, a great example of how unconscious bias can negatively impact a hiring decision? The odds are definitely yes! While my colleague felt incredibly foolish and “beat himself up” about making such a poor hiring decision, he is not alone. All humans can become prey to unconscious bias, especially when it masquerades itself as “positive bias.”

“Positive” Bias

What I term “positive” bias is depicted in these five categories of unconscious bias:

1. Affinity Bias: This bias occurs when a hiring manager unconsciously favors candidates with similar backgrounds, interests, or characteristics, such as the same alma mater or hobbies. While logically, you usually wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that just because a candidate graduated from the same college that you graduated from that they would make the perfect hire. Yet, logic tends to be overpowered by our unconscious bias. 

2. Halo Effect: The halo effect is when positive impressions in one area of a candidate’s profile influence the overall perception of their abilities, leading to biased judgments. If you value energy and enthusiasm in the workplace and a potential candidate describes how high energy and a positive attitude are their super-powers, that alone may influence how you view the candidate. Even if the candidate lacks experience or education, you may view them as a top contender for the position.

3. Similarity Bias: Similarity bias occurs when hiring managers are more inclined to select candidates who resemble themselves or existing employees in terms of background, appearance, or mannerisms. This bias expands the concept of hiring someone just like you toward hiring someone you deem just like one of your existing and favored employees (yes, we all have favorites, but that’s a whole different article.)

4. Beauty Bias: Beauty bias refers to the tendency to favor more physically attractive candidates, even if appearance is irrelevant to the job requirements. This bias could be where the phrase “beauty is only skin deep” should be inserted, yet our unconscious bias is not paying attention to that adage; instead, it equates perfect on the outside with perfect in every aspect of the candidate’s being.

5. Availability Bias: This bias occurs when hiring decisions are influenced by easily recallable information or recent events, potentially overlooking other candidates who may be better suited. The term availability is not related to how soon an individual can start with your organization; instead, it has to do more with the concept of information recency. If you had lunch yesterday with a colleague and she talked about an article that she read online that indicated that the most suitable candidate for any position is someone who has a multi-disciplinary background, because you heard that comment just yesterday, if a resume’ for a candidate who has a multi-disciplinary background crosses your desk, you will tend to give that candidate consideration even if you are hiring for a chief financial officer (CFO). 

On the surface, all five of these biases are more about who we let in rather than who we decide to keep out during the hiring process. Yet, this is why I decided to use quotation marks around the word positive in the subheading for this section. A bias is a bias, plain and simple. While we may “feel” an affinity for a particular candidate, at the same time, we may be excluding a much better candidate just because we didn’t feel an immediate emotional connection. We may be hiring someone just like us instead of hiring the person who would round out our team because they are in some shape or form very different from us. 

One or two people on a team who are “just like you” may not automatically spell disaster, but what if your entire team is just like you? Ego’s aside, as leaders, we are not perfect—spoiler alert! Taking that proclamation one step further, you may be beginning to realize that subconscious bias in hiring may be happening throughout your entire organization.

Solving for “X”

The first step in combatting unconscious bias in your hiring process is recognizing it exists.   Addressing subconscious bias requires self-reflection, education, and an ongoing effort to challenge and reshape one’s beliefs and behaviors. By becoming aware of these biases and actively working to counteract them, leaders at every level of an organization can make significant leaps in hiring and team composition success.

A quick web search provides hundreds of articles and blog posts designed to help leaders and organizations overcome subconscious bias in hiring. The amount of information available on combatting subconscious bias can be paralyzing, especially if you are operating with limited time, energy, or resources. However, there are a couple of easy steps that you can take right now on your path to combat not only your own unconscious bias but that of your organization as well.

Your first step is to share this blog with your team. Learning more about the types of unconscious bias that can cloud our judgment is always a good idea. According to Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino, educating employees about unconscious bias is the first critical step. Professor Gino stresses the importance of awareness training because it educates employees about recognizing the signs of unconscious bias. Consider helping your team members learn more about themselves through a tool such as the Harvard Implicit Association Test. This test or a similar instrument can illustrate to your team members how unconscious biases form their personal and professional perceptions.

Review your hiring process. Start with the method that you use for reviewing applications and resumés. Is it the sole responsibility of the hiring manager to select the candidates who will participate in the interview process, or is it a shared process where a team reviews the application materials for prospective candidates? A team approach, especially one that contains a checklist of the criteria outlined in the position announcement or job description, is an excellent way to combat subconscious bias. The criteria outlined in the position announcement or job description were developed before the review of potential candidates; therefore, you measure against an objective list of desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes that a successful candidate must have to meet the minimum qualifications for the position. Identifying top applicants for further vetting using this tactic replaces subjectivity with objectivity.

Next, consider the use of interview teams. An interview panel provides a broader lens of multiple perspectives, ultimately leading to a more informed hiring decision. Constructing a team of individuals representative of your organization (in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, and socio-economic background) who will participate in the interview process ensures different perspectives regarding a candidate’s fitness for the position. Utilizing a panel or group interview structure, while it might be a little daunting to the prospective candidate, can ensure that individual subconscious biases are mitigated and, as a side benefit, may offer insight into how a candidate functions under stress. 

A final strategy worthy of consideration is building structure into your candidate interview process.  A structured interview approach, like a structured screening process, simplifies the hiring experience by creating a fair benchmark that each candidate will be rated. The steps to achieve a structured interview approach include assembling a list of questions relevant to the position and job description and creating a Likert-scaled matrixusing those questions. Utilizing only those questions for each prospective employee will allow the interview panel members to judge candidates against one another based solely on the responses provided by the interviewee and not on extraneous tidbits that emerged during the interview process.  Interviewers use the Likert scale process to rank candidates on their responses to a given question. A mathematical average of the rankings assigned by each interviewer will provide you and your hiring managers with a standardized way to benchmark candidate fitness for any position within the organization.

In conclusion, making the wrong hiring decision can be costly to you, your team, and the entire organization. The intent of this article was to help you to help yourself by recognizing potential hiring pitfalls caused by subconscious biases. The first step is the awareness that our biases can impact our objectivity and, from there, adopting any of the many strategies that exist, a few of which were outlined in this article, to put the best candidate to work for you.

It is always easier for someone looking into an organization to spot pitfalls that may sabotage your leadership ability to move your team or organization forward. Are you in need of an experienced outside perspective?