You may not think about it, but unconscious bias impacts every decision you make about the people around you. And this is definitely true when it comes to hiring administrative employees. A lack of diversity in your staff can lead to broad issues, but diversity can apply to so much more than race and gender. When you allow your unconscious bias to impact your hiring decisions, you could be missing out on top talent. So how do you solve this? Here are some things to consider when you’re establishing your hiring processes.

Review Your Sources

Using the same recruiting sources over and over again may seem “tried and true” but it also means you’re limiting your resources. By expanding your recruiting sources, you can increase the diversity of the individuals applying to your company. If you hire primarily through online job boards, consider broadening to a referral program. Look at adding social media campaigns.

Create a Structured Interview Process

When you make decisions based on a gut feeling, you’re often at the mercy of unconscious bias. A structured interview format can help you overcome this. Involve more than one person in the interviewing process. Create a set of questions that are used for each candidate so you can compare apples to apples when deciding.

Hire for Culture Add, Not Culture Fit

There is a lot of talk about “culture fit” when it comes to hiring. This means you want your new candidates to fit in with the personalities of your current team. But rather than hiring only similar people, look at ways that hiring someone different can help add to the corporate culture in new ways. What can they offer that no one else can?

Develop Goals for Hiring

Another good program is to create diversity goals to increase the chances of hiring more people with different backgrounds. Look at each department and see how you can hire for diversity to add new thoughts and ideas to each team. What are you missing and what could help expand your office culture?

Use Objective Measurements

Finally, your company should invest in technology or other services that can help provide objective measurements for hiring criteria. For example, partnering with a staffing agency allows you to review online skills testing before hiring a candidate. Or require that candidates provide samples of similar work. You can review these blind to make choices based on skills and abilities rather than allowing unconscious bias to make the decisions for you.

Are you looking for a staffing partner who can help you with hiring initiatives? Contact the team at Harvard Resource Solutions Staffing Agencies in Troy MI today.