Managing Interview Bias

Interview bias occurs when the interviewer judges a candidate not only on their skills and competencies but on unspoken criteria hence making the interview less objective. Interviewer bias can show itself in many different ways which can influence the selection process. Biases are unavoidable, therefore you should take steps to bring awareness to them and exclude them from the interview process.

Recommendations to reduce bias include:

• Prepare yourself in advance to reduce your unconscious bias. Familiarize yourself with the different biases that can occur to help be more self-aware. 

• Don't let first impressions fool you; Focus on how well the candidate fits the qualifications of the job rather than focusing on their personality.

• Avoid evaluating a candidate on a skill or attribute that is not relevant to the job.

• Use multiple interviewers with diverse backgrounds and different perspectives.

• Use structured interviews in which all candidates are asked the same questions.  

Examples of bias include:

• Overconfidence Bias: Humans are overconfident in their judgment. We think we aren’t biased in our thinking when we really are. In most cases, your gut reaction isn’t a product of hidden wisdom. It’s actually the result of unacknowledged biases. In the interview process, this can lead you to overlook high-potential candidates. 

• The Halo Effect: People also have the tendency to let a candidate’s good attributes color their perception of their less attractive ones. We essentially give them a “halo” to hide their potential weaknesses. Why do we do this? We tend to like people who are like us and who we perceive will like us back. 

• Similar To Me Bias: Another bias includes the tendency for people to seek out others who are similar to them. This can be in terms of hobbies, schooling, or hometown. Once we find common ground with someone else, we tend to hold them in a more positive light. Oftentimes, interviewers convince themselves that the candidates they like the most are the most qualified. 

• Leniency Bias: Managers who give higher ratings to certain employees, even while knowing they have clear room for improvement, often fall prey to leniency bias. For example, leaders show a clear preference for those who are within their in-group while judging others more harshly.

Resources for Managing Bias:

• The Definitive Guide to Unconscious Bias in the Workplace from the Blue Ocean Brain's website

• Harvard’s Project Implicit, a non-profit organization that was founded in 1998, offers a way that you and your team can discover your subconscious preferences. The Implicit Association Tests, also known as IATs, can provide insight into which preferences you may have on a variety of categories, such as age, religion, sexuality, skin tone, race, weight, gender, and disability.  

• Qualifi developed a quiz to test your knowledge of unconscious or implicit biases. Take the quiz here: https://hubs.ly/Q01KBdQD0.  Your result might surprise you.