Human Resources Blog - Spark Hire

The Strategies You Need to Avoid Recruiter Bias

When you’re a recruiter, your job is to find the best candidates for that particular company. However, this becomes a challenge when unconscious biases come into play. Fortunately, there are a number of strategies that you can employ in order to shut down bias before it starts. Keep these tips in mind as you talk to potential new hires:

Know about the issue

In order to resolve the problem of unconscious bias, you first have to understand the issue and admit that everyone is vulnerable. Regardless of how fair you try to be, you can still find your judgment clouded by thoughts in the back of your mind. Allowing yourself to fall victim to biases can negatively impact your work as a recruiter. For this reason, it’s important to remain aware of the problem, instead of trying to pretend it doesn’t exist.

Have a structured, fair recruitment process

In order to fight unconscious bias, you’ll want to develop a strong and thorough recruitment process. This makes it harder for unconscious bias to come into play, thus making the experience a fair one for all involved. The process should center on a well-crafted job description that explicitly states the skills and behavioral traits that the right candidate should have. When recruiters know very specifically what the companies they serve are looking for, it allows them to match a candidate strictly based on personality, skill, and experience level, instead of other factors.

In order to keep recruitment fair for everyone, you’ll want to set up a formal step-by-step process that all candidates must go through as they interview. This helps to lower the risk of unconscious bias, as it sets an even playing field and makes it easier to compare candidates fairly.

Record each interview

A fair hiring process requires a significant amount of work on the part of the recruiter and the hiring manager. Copious notes should be taken about each potential hire, making it easy to offer someone the job based on their skills, and not insignificant details that someone picked up on during the interview. Holding all candidates to the same standard is an essential part of playing fair during recruitment.

How do you fight unconscious bias when you’re recruiting? Are there other strategies that a professional can use in order to keep the hiring process fair for all?

Lauren Levine

Lauren Levine is a copywriter/blogger who contributes to a number of magazines and websites including The Frisky, USA Today, and others. She also authors her own blog called Life with Lauren. She loves cooking, anything on the E! network, and is trying to convince herself that running isn't so bad.