Everyone has an unconscious bias. Unlike a normal bias, which the person is aware of, an unconscious bias is not always obvious – often, the person may not even know about it. This is partially due to how well ingrained these thoughts and beliefs are, but also because they can show in much less obvious ways. Unconscious bias is heavily influenced by personal experiences such as our upbringing, our friends, and even the books, films and TV shows we consume. These influences can determine how we feel about minorities, or people from specific groups, or even just someone with a different colour hair to us. Just because we all have unconscious bias, it doesn’t mean it can’t be unlearned. To unlearn these ingrained behaviours, we must tackle them head on and get uncomfortable with them – only then is change possible.
Unconscious bias in the workplace can have major consequences on an employee’s experience and in the long run, could affect how well the business operates. It is the duty of the HR leaders to ensure that there is a culture of challenging unconscious bias to guarantee the workplace is not only diverse, but safe for everyone. But what actionable changes can be made to help combat this?
Talking transparently and tackling tough conversations
As we all know, the first step to dealing with problems is talking about them. Being part of honest conversations about bias is crucial for getting the wider team to address their own. While it can be uncomfortable and could be met initially with some distaste, putting yourself in the hot seat is a great first step. This can be done on large or small scales, ranging from setting group meetings to discuss company bias to simply just correcting yourself when your bias shows. Speaking with transparency helps employees to feel more comfortable discussing and challenging their own bias and demonstrates what an ingrained bias may look like practically. And as most people are unaware of it, this can be an important step to helping employees with recognition.
In addition, the words we choose are equally as important. Your choice of vocabulary can make a huge impact on an individual. For example, if you normally greet the team by saying “good morning guys” try saying something more inclusive like “good morning team”. Similarly, try referring to your colleague’s spouses as partners, rather than assuming they are a husband or wife. To further amplify these language choices, ensure you are openly correcting yourself in front of your employees. This will help employees feel more comfortable correcting themselves and ensure inclusive language is adopted throughout the organisation.
Getting input from all
Ignoring and interrupting is one of the most common manifestations of unconscious bias. It’s far too easy for people to be overshadowed in group meetings – and this usually tends to be minorities. While unintentional, the most vocal employees could be the biggest perpetrators of unconscious bias. Giving those who could be easily overshadowed the space to speak also allows new ideas and viewpoints to be explored.
Every so often, our biases will show up subtly while in group discussions. When HR leaders begin to ensure that everyone is heard – and make a point of it – it will help those who usually dominate conversations to take a step back. Sometimes, this can be difficult for some individuals. Unconscious bias is so deeply ingrained that some people may not be aware they are overshadowing their colleagues or why they are doing it. When you find yourself with a particularly difficult case, try taking the employee to one side, explain what you have noticed and bring it to light for them. It is likely that the employee has been unaware and will be willing to change their behaviour.
Questioning decision making processes
Another great way to ensure that more voices are heard is by diversifying your decision-making processes. If your team is about to make a big decision, it’s important to step in and question the decision-making process. This can be simply asking what criteria the team used to make the decision or asking how diverse the decision-making team was. This should be executed with complete transparency to demonstrate a continued effort to show that you are keeping bias from affecting decisions. Here, it is also important to take ownership by stating that you do not want any of your personal bias impacting the decision.
One example of this is looking at the current hiring processes. An individual sifting through CVs could unconsciously dismiss the candidate bias after scanning a name or address. An objective filtering process can help prevent this and technology can be incredibly helpful. For example, process automation helps to ensure that you, as a company, are looking for the best talent. The same approach can be used for succession planning and performance. Someone deserving of a promotion could be overlooked due to bias but technology can highlight who may be ready for a promotion to ensure talent is not accidentally overlooked. Technology doesn’t discriminate, so you can ensure decision-making processes are fair and unimpacted by bias.
Working on challenging an unconscious bias can be difficult, it takes a lot of hard work, effort, and uncomfortable conversations. Achieving a culture of challenging unconscious bias can have numerous benefits including having more diverse opinion heard, increased opportunities for new, innovative ideas to be expressed and implemented and more creative ways to challenge the current business challenges. Being open and honest about our own biases can help others to discuss theirs. The more we discuss our bias, the less likely we are to hold onto it and the more likely we are to challenge it as we go. Making the workplace a safe space to discuss bias, will help organisations to build a culture of challenging bias. With everyone working together, it is possible!
Geoffroy De Lestrange is currently the International Product Marketing and Communication Director at Cornerstone OnDemand. He has years of experience in international B2B marketing management in the tech sector, specialising in talent management systems and human capital management. He is also experienced in international and multi-lingual marketing as well as analyst relations. Geoffroy is passionate about learning, the future of work and how HR can make a real business impact. Previously, he spent many years in marketing across different European countries, in software, robotics and insurance.
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