Bias in the hiring process has been a tough nut to crack. The pressure on recruiters and hiring managers to identify the top talents and make a good hire is exponential. In such a situation, we often move away from an analytical approach and let our intuitions and biases take control of the situation. The result:
According to 89% of hiring managers, they form opinions about candidates within the first 15 minutes of the initial interview.
Male candidates are 1.5 times more likely to be selected for the initial interview stage, compared to equally qualified female candidates.
Where there is a constant effort to battle these biases, unconscious biases can unknowingly linger in the shadows and go unnoticed. So, there must be a conscious decision to standardize the hiring process to remove any biases. With this blog, we try to identify a variety of interview biases and discuss tips to eliminate them.
Why Is It Important to Tackle Interview Bias?
Bias can step in and pollute your recruitment strategy at any stage. However, with tools like Skima AI that objectively screens your candidate profiles based on their aptitude to furnish the given job role, recruitment chatbots, and severalsimilar software, it’s fairly comfortable for recruiters to enjoy standardized and objective sourcing and screening processes. The same cannot be said for an interview.
When the candidate finally reaches the interview round, it’s a human-to-human interaction where technology becomes secondary. When a hiring manager or recruiter conducts these interviews bias can take control when their own experiences and prejudices take center stage. This can result in issues like each candidate being treated differently, the questions they are asked vary and the barometer that judges them is also damaged. So, finally, a candidate who might not be the best fit for the organization or the role is hired, leading to extended onboarding time, higher attrition rates, and slow growth of the company. Thus, tackling biases at the interview stage of the hiring process is necessary.
Common Types of Interviewing Bias
Unstructured question
One job role, one job description, then why a different set of questions for each candidate? It’s a common practice among hiring managers to “go with the flow” when interviewing candidates. This develops an unstructured approach to the interview process, which is a common type of bias. When each candidate is asked a different question, quantifying their ability to actually perform the job is solely based on the intuition of the hiring manager and not the candidate's ability. One can attribute such errors to the lack of training of the hiring manager. Since they haven’t had formal training on how to interview the candidate, they shape interview questions on their perception of an ideal candidate.
Stereotype
43% of job interview requests between 2018 and 2020 were sent only to male candidates. Restricting your search for an HR executive to a female is a type of gender stereotyping. Similarly, if you want a sales executive and deny interviewing someone above the age of 30, it’s stereotyping based on age. From name to culture, experiences, and more, there are several types of stereotypes that can set in to hinder your hiring process. This not only damages your employer brand but also restricts you from hiring the right person for the job.
Contrast effect
A contrast effect happens when an interviewer unconsciously compares a candidate who they are interviewing currently to someone who they interviewed previously, for the same job role. Example - candidate A was very positive and the interviewer really enjoyed the way they answered each question. However, candidate B is an introvert, and although all their answers were on point, the way they answered these questions was not as charming as candidate A's. Thus, the interviewer chooses candidate A over B without realizing that B is more capable of executing the job functions than A.
First impressions
A bias that is triggered based on the perception of a hiring manager when they first interact with a candidate is termed as first impression bias. It can arise from a variety of reasons, including the way a candidate behaves how they look, their way of talking, or their attitude. Sometimes a first impression can establish a strong prejudice in the recruiter's mind and negatively impact the interview process. Both negative and positive first impressions can alter the course of the interview. Therefore, while the candidate must work towards creating a better first impression, the recruiter must be neutral in their approach and should refrain from drawing any conclusions based on the first impression.
A disparagement
Disparagement occurs when the interviewer holds a strong opinion of a candidate’s negative information. For example – a hiring manager who believes that a candidate must complete their master's before working at an organization might hold a strong opinion about a candidate who, although meets all the parameters of the job requirement, might not sail through because of a lack of master's degree. Here, the interviewer disregards a candidate's aptitude and focuses on a single negative factor to base their decision on.
Confirmation bias
If a recruiter has a preconceived notion about a particular candidate, they would want to confirm it by seeking out information and misinterpreting it while disregarding evidence that contradicts them. For example – if you read through a candidate's resume and create an initial impression that they lack the necessary skills for the position. From here, you will unconsciously try to focus on any details in their application or interview that support your initial impression, while overlooking their qualifications and positive attributes.
In the 1960s, cognitive psychologist Peter Cathcart Wason conducted a series of experiments that revealed this inherent bias in human thinking. His research demonstrated that individuals are more likely to favor information that aligns with their preconceived notions, thereby reinforcing their original beliefs.
Halo and Horn effect
These are two of the most talked about biases in recruitment. They are a type of cognitive bias that describes our judgment of one particular aspect of a person or situation that can unduly influence how we perceive other unrelated aspects. In the case of the Halo effect, this can stem from a positive experience. For example – a candidate might provide an exceptionally good answer to an initial question. This positive impression can, then color our perception of their subsequent responses, making us more likely to view them favorably even if their later answers are mediocre.
In contrast, the Horn effect relates to a negative experience. For example – if a candidate stumbles over their words at the beginning of an interview, this initial misstep might lead us to judge their entire performance more harshly, regardless of the quality of their answers to later questions.
These biases can have significant implications in various settings beyond job interviews, such as performance appraisals, academic evaluations, and even everyday social interactions.
Decision fatigue
A study made on judges in Israel and their decision-making patterns discovered that judges made more favorable decisions just after breaks but overall gave harsher decisions as the time frame increased.
Making more decisions leads to higher fatigue which leads to bias. When hiring managers have to deal with tens of interviews in a day, their energy level and decision-making abilities drastically deteriorate. After a point, they just want to do away with it, which is where even the most promising candidates can lose the chance to have a fair chance.
Cultural noise
A common interview bias occurs when candidates focus on saying what they think will impress them rather than expressing their genuine preferences. This can lead to a situation where you miss out on understanding the candidate's true motivations and needs. For example, a candidate might advocate for a particular stance because it aligns with what they perceive to be the socially acceptable or politically correct answer, leaving you with little insight into their authentic views.
Few Tips to Battle Interview Bias
- First, the hiring manager must receive formal training to understand the basics of hiring and interviewing to ensure an effective interview process. Also, the recruiter or hiring manager must prepare a standardized line of questions, answers to which will be a must for candidates. These standard questions and their answers will work as the basis of a candidate's acceptance or rejection.
- By incorporating elements from the job description, and person specification, and assigning weights to each criterion, you can ensure that all candidates are evaluated fairly and consistently, focusing purely on their qualifications and ability to perform the job effectively.
- Use a skill-based hiring approach by training hiring managers to objectively look at each candidate. Before beginning the candidate hunt, develop a candidate persona based on skills, experiences, qualities, and other abilities for the job and base your hiring criteria on the same. Make diversity training an integral part of the organization and promote DE&I practices within the company.
- To refrain from decision-making fatigue, recruiters must carefully plan interviews with adequate breaks between them. This will allow hiring managers to have enough time to start afresh with each candidate.
End Note
As a recruiter or hiring manager, it’s necessary to keep your ideas, throughput, and cultural nuances away from the interview process and judge the candidates based on their skills and relevance to the job role. Refrain from making assumptions based on the candidate's first impressions, prepare a standardized line of questions, and take adequate time between interviews to make the interview process better for yourself and the candidate.
All the best!
