Published on July 24th, 2018 | by Guest

Is Your Hiring Process Really Fair? Think Before You Claim

We are all biased and, in the majority of cases, our biases aren’t really harmful to people around us. However, when it comes to hiring processes, biases can easily lead to prejudice and even discrimination, which can result in making some rather poor decisions which will affect your business in a negative way.

On the other hand, if your recruitment process is really objective and fair, your business will be guaranteed to achieve higher productivity, employee retention, as well as higher acceptance and completion rates.

Even though many employers are already aware of the fact that fairness is of the utmost importance when it comes to hiring and that it can only bring benefits to an organization, not a great number of them is actually knowledgeable about how to implement these principles in an effective manner.

So, if you are willing to go an extra mile to make sure your hiring process is fair no matter what, but you are not really certain what exactly you should be taking into consideration, we are here to provide you with 7 actionable tips which are guaranteed to make this process unbiased and smooth.

1. Learn about discrimination

Discrimination in the workplace is what any business owner out there is trying to avoid, as it may cost them a lot in terms of litigation costs, various different fines, and bad reputation, which will directly lead to a decrease in profits and dissatisfaction among clients.

However, even if you are completely sure you are following all the rules and legal requirements, you can end up discriminating against your job candidates without even realizing it. In order to avoid such unfortunate scenarios, you need to have a broader insight into what discrimination in the workplace really means.

Discrimination happens whenever you are favoring some candidate over another based on some of the 9 protected characteristics, which include: race, age, sex, disability, pregnancy and maternity, sexual orientation, religion, civil partnership or marriage, and gender reassignment.

Apart from this so-called direct discrimination, there is indirect discrimination which usually refers to requiring your applicants to have certain years of experience, to shave their facial hair, to work on days when they are not supposed to, etc.

2. Base your hiring on values

After making sure you are not directly or indirectly discriminating against anyone, the next step is to create a hiring process which will be based solely on values.

Once you have established which exact values your employees need to possess in order to be valuable to your company, it will be easier for your hiring manager to make clever decisions based on them. Of course, it is needless to say that you and your already existing employees need to have those values as well, to set a good example.

This way, you will be able to ensure that you are hiring someone based on values instead of your own personal preferences, and easily avoid any potential discrimination.

3. Identify deal-breakers and share them with those not hired

A surprisingly high number of employers don’t provide their applicants who weren’t the right fit for the company with any reasons for their disqualification. In fact, out of 5,000 job applicants in the US, only 20 percent of them are provided with an explanation about why they failed to qualify.

So, if you want to be fair and transparent, always make sure to carefully identify what the exact deal-breakers are and inform the candidates about them in a timely manner. That way you can be certain that no protected characteristics played any role in your decision-making process.

4. Make sure everyone gets the same opportunities

A study conducted by Syracuse and Rutgers universities has shown that “less than 5 percent of applicants mentioning disabilities were contacted by employers”.

So, if you really want your hiring process to be fair, you need to embrace diversity and make sure that each and every one of your job candidates has the same chances of becoming your employee, regardless of their sex, race, religion, or disabilities.

Whenever you are interviewing someone for the job position in your company, base your final decision on the values that you have previously stated, and don’t let anything except for those values influence your thinking.

5. Train managers

Another important thing for business owners to do in order to ensure the hiring process is fair to anyone is to train their hiring managers properly so that they can be able to understand their criteria to a full extent.

Educate your hiring manager about different types of discrimination and familiarize them with what exact qualities and values you are looking for in your future employees to avoid any misunderstandings.

6. Focus on maintaining consistency

When you are conducting job interviews, you need to be consistent – if you have already determined which skills and values are needed for a certain job position in your company, don’t go around and change your opinion.

Always stick to your principles and make sure that your hiring manager does the same. If you are not entirely certain that one hiring manager will be able to make the best decision possible, you can always have 2 individuals conducting the interview.

7. Monitor results and apply changes

As well as any process going on in a company, the hiring process should constantly be improved. No matter how much time and effort you have put into creating a refined and fair hiring process, there is always room for advancements.

The best way to identify what exactly you can do to make this process even better is to monitor results on a regular basis and collect some feedback from your candidates. That way, you will easily see what’s working and what’s not, and you will be able to apply some changes accordingly.

To sum up, the next time you are interviewing some candidates for a job in your organization, first make sure that your hiring process is in accordance with these 7 rules, and if everything is checked, you can rest assured that you are being fair to everyone!

Author Bio:

Prabhash Bachhuwan is a content marketer who is an active contributor for Mettl‘s blog. The one who believes there is no sharper sword than the pen. The one who flows with the wind, intricately lacing words with emotions. A yet to evolve person whose creativity culminates through writing and smiles.

Tags: claim, fair, hiring, process, think