Is There Bias in Your Hiring Process?

No one likes to think of themselves and their organization as biased. Most of like to think of ourselves as being nice, decent and fair, as well as competent so to suggest there might be bias in your process may offend or anger you. Yet for years, I have heard managers at clients refer to wanting to hire a junior person as a euphemism for someone under the age of 27, someone who is perfectly spoken for someone who is born in the US or someone who can work nights and weekends for someone who is not a Sabbath observer.

Yet bias is often far more insidious in most organizations.

For example, by not offering standardized testing for skills-based positions, subjective interviewing, rather than objective measuring become part of the process far too often. By this, I mean, interviewers start asking questions by whim, influenced by the appearance, race, age, gender, perceived sexual orientation and other biases.

An article I recently read described a search process for a major firm that was hiring for a division and strongly considered hiring “the good looking” male candidate until someone remembered to probe into their measurement of success in their current position. Upon doing so, they discovered that the candidate had swung business to MAYBE a 3.5% improvement in profits. When they interviewed someone who was “less good looking” who had turned around a division at a competitor and brought them from losing money to strong profits.

Another way to examine bias in your organization involves looking into your organization and noticing patterns in departments

Here are more examples.

Is everyone in the department male?

Is everyone born in India and no one from Pakistan?

Is Saturday test time the requirement when it could just as easily be Sunday?

Is everyone male?

Have you noticed that no one is over the age of 40? 50?

Are all the worker-bees from a minority group and all the managers white?

Some of the points may seem obvious to you but it never hurts to remind someone that you can ask:

1. Reasons for termination of previous employment,

2. About references;

3 . Work Schedules;

4. Previous work experience;

5. Job-related feeling about previous assignments or present position;

6. Career interests;

7. Job duties of job training;

8. Education;

9. Job-related professional associations;

10. About qualifications for the duties related to the job; and

11. Any other information on the application related to the position.

You cannot ask questions to find out:

1. Age or date of birth;

2. Previous address;

3. How long at present residence or whether they rent or own their residence;

4. Religion or name of priest, rabbi, or minister,

5. Father's surname or mother's surname;

6. Maiden name or marital status,

7. Age of children or how many children or who will care for the children;

8. Spouse's place of employment or spouse's residence;

9. Parents' residence or place of employment;

10. Loans or financial obligations or about wage attachments or personal bankruptcies;

11. If ever arrested or about legal convictions, unless relevant to the jobs;

12. Services in a foreign armed service or about foreign languages spoken, unless requirement for the job;

13. Dates of education;

14. Race or membership in social organizations; and

15. Attitudes towards geographical relocation, unless required for the job.

In addition:

• You may not ask questions of one sex and not of the other.
• Questions about race, color, place of birth, national and family origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or ancestry.
• Questions about past, present, or future marital status, pregnancy, plans for a family or child care issues. You can ask if the applicant has any commitments that would preclude the applicant from satisfying job schedules or performing job-related travel. If such questions are asked, they must be asked of both sexes.
• Questions about weight and height, unless this information is job-related.
• Questions about the candidate's state of health.
• Questions about disabilities, and the time needed for treatment of the disabilities, unless this information is necessary to determine the candidate's ability to perform an essential job function without significant hazard.
• Questions about a foreign address that would indicate national origin. You may ask about the location and length of time of a candidate's current residence.
• Questions about a candidate's native-born or naturalized status. You may ask if the candidate is eligible to work indefinitely in the U.S. if the question is asked of all candidates.
• Questions about a candidate's native tongue or how foreign language ability has been acquired. You may ask about foreign language skills if the position requires such ability.
• Questions about a candidate's willingness to work on religious holidays. You may ask about willingness to work a required schedule.

Things to Do:

Evaluate your hiring process.

Speak with the manager or determine for yourself what questions will be asked to determine applicant qualifications. Be specific!

Make sure that every person who will be evaluating knows what the focus of the questions needs to be so that they don’t stray from their expertise.

Require standardized post-interview reporting of thoughts and qualifications. Remove the comments for elements of bias.

These four steps are a start. There is no simple recipe or cookbook to eliminate it. After all, bias tends to go further underground when a flashlight shines on it. Yet it may offer a starting point to attack a problem that may be keeping your firm from hiring gthe most qualified candidates.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Tell Them What You're Thinking

A few months ago, a friend referred someone to me for some advice before being flown in for an interview. He wanted to have an idea of what to expect, believing that he was well prepared AND wanting to make sure. He called last week, wanting to tell me what had happened and some of his thinking.

Yes, he did well on his interview. He is knowledgeable and intelligent plus he presents his ideas extremely well. Yet, he said, there was something troubling for him about the experience that he thought was worth sharing.

He said that he originally took the position as a consultant and the firm kept pressuring him to join fulltime. You and I can understand that desire easily. It's expensive to keep a consultant working for you.

Yet, from his vantage point, he really wanted to join them and kept asking them one question that, for some reason, they couldn't or wouldn't answer for him.

Why me? What is it about my experience that makes me a good fit for your firm and your plans?

Up until that point, he thought that there were many people who could do what he was doing and, although they kept speaking in general terms (We see you as someone who can help us grow. "How?"), they never gave him the feeling that he mattered.

It's a good lesson, particularly with experienced talent.

People want to believe that they can make a difference. Explain to them how they can.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com .

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

6 Steps to Guaranteeing Successful Hires

Hiring people is not a science. Like riding a bike or cooking, it is a skill that can be learned.

Try to master the six points I’ve made.

1. Don’t be distracted by appearances. Substance should be your most important benchmark for hiring

He or she arrives and they are treated like a rock star. They are good looking and have a great wardrobe. Their credentials speak for themselves. You’ve Googled the word “success” in your industry and their picture is the top response.

If you think I’m kidding, I’m not. People are too readily influenced by unimportant qualities such as appearance to the point where they do not investigate the individual’s credentials adequately. The questions asked are easier. They are given “a pass.”

It is important to scratch below the surface and get into the muck of the individual’s experience to see if there is something worthwhile there.

An early lesson I learned before becoming The Big Game Hunter was to ask simple open ended questions early in the interview, listen and then become progressively more pointed with my questions.

For example, I might start with the usual soft question of, “Tell me about yourself and what you’ve been doing professionally?” Eventually, I might progress to, “You say you increased sales by 42%. How much of that would you attribute to a better product offering for your firm and how much for you?”

“You increased your sales by 42%. How much did your costs increase during that time?”

“What might you have done differently that could have improved them to 46%”

“Everyone makes mistakes. Tell me about a professional mistake you’ve made and what you learned from it.”

And I’ll ask detailed questions based upon their answers.

2. Make sure you’ve decided what someone really needs to know and how you will measure for it. Communicate what is needed to the search firm, agency or recruiter.

It is fascinating to read some job descriptions. They go on for pages and spell out in incredible detail what is being looked for. Then, following an interview, when I ask the candidate what was asked and what was explored, I hear about questions that don’t in any way relate to the position description. As a result the search goes on far longer than it need to with suitable consequences to all concerned.

Try to identify the four or five key points or experiences your new hire must have in order to stand a chance of being successful and then, ASK QUESTIONS TO DETERMINE THE SKILLS OF THE PEOPLE IN THOSE AREAS.

Communicate what you want to the search firms, recruiters or agencies you’re working with and how the requirements and your thinking evolve. Recruiters are incapable o mind reading. You’ve hired them to help you hire someone. Tell them what you want and they’ll find it for you more quickly than if they have to piece things out based upon the information you share when you reject someone (BTW, the person is never “too light.” Tell them where their skills or experience was deficient).

3. Make sure everyone who is part of the hiring process understands their role and what they are there to determine.

It seems peculiar for the programmer to reject the project manager for their management experience yet it happens all the time. It is also odd to have the programmer ask esoteric questions, interviewing by the seat of their pants. Insure tat everyone knows their role I the process and what they are there to evaluate.

4. Put an end to wishful thinking

If a person has only worked in temp jobs or as a consultant, it is probably not their fault that they have worked at a lot of companies. Sometimes, layoffs occurred. Sometimes, projects were abruptly cancelled.

Many times, though, if you investigate, you’ll find that the person plays the employee version of “My way or I take the highway.” As skilled as they are, you can’t fix them.

5. Be prepared to answer one question

When you are about to extend an offer to someone, answer this question:

Why does this person fit my job better than anyone else I’ve met?

Compare your answer with your “Must have” list and your preferences.

6. Correct mistakes quickly.

The biggest mistake you can make is one you don’t fix. Putting your head in the ground and praying for a miracle will lead to both you and your employee being shown the door. Correct your mistakes quickly. Remember it is YOUR MISTAKE, not the employees. Arrange for a kind severance. Do not blame them or the search firm for your hiring misjudgment.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com .

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).