Following our successful webinar with Hayley Barnard of MIX Diversity on unconscious bias within the recruitment process, we thought it would be useful to share some of the wisdom we learned from the event with you.
Unconscious bias refers to ingrained beliefs, attitudes or perceptions, positive or negative, towards certain groups of people that exist outside of our conscious awareness. While we may be aware of some of our own biases, others are often acquired stereotypes we have unwittingly taken on throughout our lives. They provoke automatic responses that often don’t even reflect what we actually think or feel, even though they can influence our behaviour, body language and conversations. It is important that we identify our biases in order to challenge any potentially discriminatory beliefs and prevent biased outcomes from our subconscious decisions, including those we make when it comes to hiring.
Unchecked, unconscious bias in recruitment can result in an almost total lack of diversity within organisations, especially in more senior positions, when minority groups get discriminated against during the hiring process. Without diversity within teams and within the leadership of a company, businesses miss out on a rich range of ideas and perspectives from talented individuals who have been overlooked, which in turn affects innovation and ultimately growth.
During the hiring process, unconscious bias happens when you form an opinion about candidates based solely on first impressions or on criteria from a CV that is irrelevant to the position, such as their name, where they are from or a photo. Hiring managers will often use the phrase “gut feeling” about a candidate, and positive or negative, that feeling will inform the ultimate hiring decision if nothing is done about it. So, what can we do?
Aside from unconscious bias training and raising better awareness internally, and before we address actual recruiting process steps that can be improved, it’s important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of where our talent pipeline begins. Diversifying the whole hiring process will achieve better results than just concentrating on the final selection stages. Ensuring that we are considering and successfully reaching typically overlooked and untapped talent pools is crucial: endlessly fishing in the same pond delivers the same type of fish. Bias against education or background, or people who have taken extended career breaks or made radical career changes, hugely limits the candidate pool. Once we are offering an equal opportunity to everyone with the relevant skills sets, then there are plenty of other stages in the recruitment process that can be adjusted to ensure we don’t miss out on talent:
Please keep an eye out for more of our diversity and inclusion events in the coming months. If you would like more information on how to minimise bias in your recruitment process, contact us today.
Following the introduction of new regulations in 2015, women were given the option of exchanging their maternity leave for shared parental leave (SPL). After the initial two weeks leave new mothers are still obliged to take, parents can choose how to divide the remaining 50 weeks they’re entitled to between them. Despite this, a study published by the commercial law firm EMW in September last year revealed that fewer than 1% of parents eligible for shared parental leave (SPL) are opting to take it.
Is it because of a cultural stigma about men taking a significant amount of time off work to care for children? Or perhaps new mothers are worried about being judged for returning to work so quickly? Or is it simply the increased financial pressures at this time are putting people off taking SPL? Despite its slow start, there are many benefits of the shared parental leave scheme for both companies and employees, and there are many reasons why organisations should promote them:
The perks of a job are often just as likely to attract a candidate to a role as a salary (that may be very similar elsewhere). Having the option for both parents to spend time with their baby is not only a positive benefit to offer, it also ensures that your company is seen as modern and dynamic – something that is likely to attract the very best talent. In particular, this is likely to appeal to women in senior positions because they know they can return to work quicker without compromising on their baby’s childcare.
Thanks to common childcare issues and costs, many women in the UK are forced to leave the workforce entirely until their children start school or are entitled to free preschool care. This deprives companies of valuable talent they might be able to hold onto if shared parental leave was promoted.
Working parents will feel more goodwill and loyalty towards their employer if they know SPL is an option. This will increase retention rates among working parents and make mothers more likely to return to work after maternity leave.
Shared parental leave can be taken at the same time or at different times. While most couples may prefer to split the 50 weeks up so that one of them is at home to look after the baby for the full year, there are actually benefits of taking leave at the same time:
Research carried out by the Institute of Leadership and Management suggests that gender gaps in terms of salary and career progression are often associated with women taking time out to start a family. Whether companies do this consciously or unconsciously, women are often held back from being promoted or even hired if they seem a likely to take time off work to have children in the near future. If the ‘risk’ of this happening is equal for both men and women however, the potential for this prejudice is greatly reduced.
More information about SPL and eligibility can be found on the gov.uk website.
