Promoting representation and diversity in the workplace is an essential part of running a successful business. Companies that fail to do so experience lower company engagement and morale, and studies have shown that diverse teams improve productivity by 60% compared to non-diverse teams. However, many businesses still allow hiring bias to affect the recruitment process.
Implementing blind hiring is one of the most effective ways for a business to begin combatting this problem. Blind hiring involves any steps a hiring manager takes to hide information about a job applicant, including name, age, gender, race and/or ethnicity. This process of concealing identifying information helps to ensure that judgments or unconscious biases don’t influence hiring decisions.
While purposely concealing information about a candidate may feel counter intuitive, blind hiring actually comes with a lot of benefits for both businesses and employees. A survey showed that 83% of millennial employees are more likely to stay actively engaged if their company promotes a diverse and inclusive culture, and companies with high racial diversity see 15 times more revenue and sales than companies with little to no racial diversity. Additionally, employees at firms that promote both acquired and inherent diversity are 70% more likely to report that the firm captured new markets.
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That said, blind hiring alone may not be enough to eliminate hiring bias altogether. It may still be present during face-to-face interviews, and it is sometimes possible for identifying information to slip through the cracks. Blind hiring could even hinder efforts to promote diversity in companies that try to actively seek out diverse candidates.
If your company falls into that category, it can help to supplement blind hiring practices with other initiatives to promote diversity. Educating current employees about unconscious bias and creating a standardized interview process are both good places to start. Once current employees are knowledgeable about hiring bias and the benefits of promoting diversity, consider working with them to create a list of interview questions that focus on skills rather than personal lives or hobbies. Getting your whole team involved can boost morale and help avoid any miscommunication issues down the road.
Promoting diversity in the workplace should be one of your top priorities as a business owner. If you are looking to update your recruitment process, see the infographic below to learn six ways to implement blind hiring.