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First, Do No Harm: Eliminating Unconscious Bias in Recruitment
Manage episode 322322559 series 3308090
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Tom's Notes:
This week we're sitting down with Mike Shwedick. Mike has 14+ years in the HR space, working with companies like Apple, Tapout Fitness, Moxie, Addressable, and most recently the Pinpoint team.
Mike walked us through his approach to ensuring HR teams eliminate unconscious bias and hire a representative pool of candidates, even if they’re a bootstrapped startup with minimal assets. If you’re looking to make an impact and gain a competitive edge, you’ll love this episode.
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is paying lip service to grandiose Diversity & Inclusion plans before they have the resources to make those plans a reality. “So first, be really honest about where you are. If you’re at a level one out of ten, stop the bad practices and bad actors as a first step. Put a process in place to get you to a two or a three.”
For small businesses and startups, Mike first works to understand the state of things: basics like headcount, established processes, and significant pain points. Then he looks forward to an organization’s ideal state, including elements like growth, funding, etc.
From there, he establishes the core HR processes and software that will create the foundation of a healthy People Ops team, including an HRIS and an ATS. With a single source of truth and a streamlined way to manage employee and applicant data, it’s much easier to take steps to eliminate individual bias from the way companies manage their teams.
One of the organizations where Mike put his considerable talents to good use is Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit with a fantastic mission: to increase career opportunities for working adults without a four-year degree. Mike tells us how even with blinded applications, an enormous percentage of diverse candidates are overlooked at the stage of screening for a bachelor’s degree.
His advice for how to open up your pipeline to a more representative pool of qualified candidates:
- Write intentional job descriptions
- Ask about STAR status in the same way you ask about racial diversity
- Think about gateway jobs
- Mitigate unconscious bias within teams and with hiring managers by delivering quality training
- Be honest about where you are
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