Eliminate hiring bias through blind recruitment and applicant testing

There are plenty of important factors that go into hiring decisions, but employing a diverse workforce is essential for success. Consider this: Roughly 70 percent of job seekers say that diversity of a company is one factor they consider when analyzing a job offer, according to Glassdoor. In addition, the majority of people surveyed believed that the organizations they worked for could make more of an effort to increase diversity in the workplace. It’s worth noting that these professionals believed that hiring managers, CEOs and human resource professionals were the ones most capable of doing so.

Ending biases in the workplace
In order to improve a company’s diversity, it is important to first look at the hiring and recruiting processes, respectively. In the modern business world, it is entirely possible for hiring managers and other decision makers to make decisions as a result of unconscious biases. Often times, hiring managers will favor certain applicants over others due to race or gender without even realizing it. Studies have found that HR professionals have a tendency to hire people who look or have similar backgrounds as they do. The same is true of management. In fact, according to a research by Indeed, managers who graduated from top colleges prefer to hire candidates who graduated from similar institutions.

And besides the issues with biases in the recruiting and hiring stages of a business, the lack of workplace diversity can impact overall performance of a business. Diverse businesses are generally more productive places to work, have a higher rate of employee retention and are better at attracting top talent overall, according to a study conducted by Catalyst. Taking all of this into account, it’s a good idea for businesses to make the extra effort to hire a diverse workforce.

Blind hiring can be beneficial
In order to most effectively diversify their organizations, hiring managers must find ways to overcome the various types of biases. That said, doing so starts by taking an in-depth look at the existing recruiting and hiring processes of the company to pick out areas in which improvements can be made. When it comes to seeking out new talent, it’s generally a good idea to take a blind hiring process as much as you can.

Eventually, you’re probably going to want to meet with candidates for in-person interviews. But until then, you should search for ways to evaluate candidates based solely on their qualifications and abilities as they apply to the positions they will be filling. In other words, try not to consider any personal information about job applicants. When reviewing resumes, for example, you can simply cover the names at the top of each resume as you decide whether or not that candidate moves on in the hiring process. Doing so will eliminate any preconceived notions you may have about an applicant as a result of gender and race associated with a name.

Pre-employment tests are perfectly unbiased
In addition to the tips and tricks you can do to improve your blind hiring process, there are other tools available as well. Pre-employment tests and skills assessments give employers the unique opportunity to see firsthand if the potential employee has the knowledge and skill set required to excel at the position for which you’re hiring. Plus, pre-employment tests are objective ways to judge candidates and, in turn, diversify your own workforce. Whether your organization has had problems in the past or you are just looking for the smoothest hiring process possible, the professionals at EmployTest are here to help.