Mitigating Unconscious Bias in the Search Process
Mitigating Unconscious Bias in the Search Process
Recruiting and retaining diverse, skilled, equity-minded employees is one of the most significant opportunities for transformation that will impact departments and institutions for decades to come. Achieving such outcomes requires the work and commitment of diverse, skilled, and equity-minded hiring managers and search committees.
Research shows that unconscious bias is prevalent in organizational hiring practices, impacting how search committees approach hiring, how candidates are engaged, and ultimately how hiring decisions are made.
The workshop series, "Mitigating Unconscious Bias in the Search Process," facilitated by Shayla Herndon-Edmunds, will highlight areas where unconscious bias may manifest during the search process and provide remedies for search committees to implement in order to account for and manage them. The themes for each session are:
Session 1: Preparing to Launch a Search
- Developing position descriptions with an equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) lens
- Do's and Don'ts of Diversity Statements
- Avoiding bias in decision-making processes
- Strategies for creating a deep and diverse candidate pool
Video: Preparing to Launch a Search (59:10)
Slide Presentation (PDF)
Session 2: Evaluating Candidates
- Tools and practices for ranking/evaluating candidates
- Developing strong interview questions with an EDIB lens
Video: Evaluating Candidates (01:09:06)
Session 3: Interviewing Candidates
- Best practices for interviewing candidates
- Addressing issues of bias in real-time
- Considering internal candidates
- Preparing for finalist selection
- Evaluating the quality of references
Video: Interviewing Candidates (57:55)