• July 20, 2022

  Issues With Implicit Bias

  

  Thinking about my past experiences being an applicant for jobs and interviewing for a certain position, I had some interviews that went well and others that did not go so well. One interview process that I did that was effective was recently from the job I have currently from this summer. This interview process had good reliability because it seemed like the interviewer asked me planned and thought out questions and the interview was structured. Tests have shown this to be the best way to interview and to avoid implicit biases. Questions were asked in a behavioral and situational manner that made this interview have validity. Also no questions violated EEO laws. Another interview I had was unstructured and unorganized. It seemed rushed and he seemed to just judge me based on if I was fit enough for the job and he hired me right then, but this isn’t the best way to hire, especially when diversity is a concern.  

I think implicit bias could impact the reliability and validity of the selection process because the idea of implicit bias makes the selection process not accurately measure the candidates. What we should do to help our implicit bias tendencies in hiring processes is to change the way we hire. According to an article by the Harvard Business Review “We should stop wasting resources trying to de-bias mindsets and instead start to de-bias our hiring procedures” (Bohnet). An emphasis should be on structured interviews rather than unstructured interviews since studies have shown unstructured interviews to lead to more bias hiring. Structured interviews help the interviewer to plan and ask standard questions to the applicant. The interviewer can ask more behavioral questions and situational questions that show the applicant’s personality and reaction to certain situations. Having structured interviews also helps the interviewer to avoid violating EEO laws such as discriminating against the applicant. Overall implicit biases can cause issues with the selection process, but there are ways to avoid this such as having planned and structured interviews.

Sources: https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews