8 Effective Strategies To Control Unconscious Bias At Work

Whenever we meet people, we judge them based on various factors, such as their appearance and attractiveness. In the corporate world, we also judge them on their appearance, educational or career background, and economic status. As humans, we don’t realize how quickly our brains start to process thoughts and lead us towards unconscious bias. It can result in discrimination towards some workers within the workplace.

However, promoting inclusivity and diversity becomes vital if you want your company’s success to skyrocket. It is possible when you ensure everyone within your workforce is treated justly and there is no discrimination. It will create a work environment where every worker will feel like they belong, thus contributing to your company’s prosperity.

Though taking control over unconscious favouritism in the workplace is an uphill battle, its outcomes are worth it. This blog will teach you the top eight tips to tackle unconscious bias at your workplace.

Top 8 Tips To Tackle Unconscious Bias At Your Workplace

Educate Yourself And Your Employees

Staying aware of steps that lead to discrimination is not enough. You should also take actions to mitigate within your company. But before that, you should study unconscious unfairness in detail and learn about its types, consequences, and prevention. Once you get to the crux of the matter, you can easily take control of it within yourself.

Have self-reflection and self-conversation to take out the bias demons within yourself. However, if you want to reduce discrimination within your workplace, you must educate every employee. Raise awareness about this matter and let workers know about their stereotyping behaviours and perceptions.

Let Your Employees Know About Your Expectation And Motive

Let your employees know your motive is to mitigate bias within your workplace. Promote this issue as much as you can through different ways. Whether you own CV writing services UK or some other company, include diversity, equality, and justice within your company’s values and preach them at work. Let the aspirants who want to join your organization someday know about your commitment to diversity.

Showcase Transparency About Your Recruiting And Promotion Process

Consider your recruiting and promotion process and identify any discriminative actions or policies. Ensure it is free from bias and entirely transparent and fair towards candidates or workers. More so, showcase your transparency and diverse employees over your official platform to gain the trust of potential candidates.

Promoting employees based on their performance rather than their gender, race, or other factors will encourage them. It will also boost their loyalty towards you, and they’ll happily actively contribute to your business’s growth.

Make Management And Leaders Responsible

As the management and leaders participate actively in the decision-making for the organisation and lead, watching their actions is essential. They show different teams or departments within your company, making them responsible. Remind them about their responsibilities and to stay fair towards everyone within the workforce. Revise the criteria for evaluation to ensure it is only based upon an employee’s qualifications, experiences, and performance.

Make Your Meetings Inclusive

The key to making your company’s meetings is valuing every member participating. It means knowing each individual and paying an equal amount of attention to each one of them. Ensure every team, management, or board meeting occurs constructively and fairly.

Hold Bias Training

Teaching every employee within your workforce can take a long time. Hold training to educate them about discrimination and boost their awareness of this issue to increase efficiency. You can do it on a monthly or annual basis. They will offer learning and developing opportunities to your employees, empowering them and making your workplace more inclusive. You can also share educational resources with them and encourage your workers to self-reflection.

Create An Anonymous Complaints Portal

Workers sometimes feel oppressed or face problems from their supervisor, team lead, managers, or hiring managers. They cannot report or eliminate unfair treatment despite enduring unjust behaviour. To tackle such a situation, you can create an anonymous complaint portal or dedicate an email to employees to report issues. It will inform you about the hidden obstacles or discriminative acts within your workforce, allowing you to mitigate them.

Seek Feedback

One of the primary reasons why many professionals switch companies is due to unconscious bias in the workplace. One of the ways to find out about discrimination within your workforce is to seek feedback from your former employees. Considering their insights and learning about their obstacles will enable you to incorporate better or more effective practices within your organization.

Besides, if you’re a victim of unconscious bias at your current job and are looking for a better workplace, the top-rated CV writer in Leeds can help you. Professionally, upgrading your vitae will boost your chances of securing a prosperous opportunity.

  • Why is bias detrimental in the workplace?

Bias is harmful, especially when it also involves power and privilege. It can influence decision-making and serve as the foundation for actions. Thus, it results in detrimental consequences for the most vulnerable workers within the workplace.

  • What is the theory behind unconscious bias?

Unconscious unfairness involves having discriminative thoughts against individuals who come from outside our backgrounds and are unknown to us. It also occurs against people or groups who are pretty different from us, and our minds can’t categorize them into our social world.

  • How many types of unconscious bias are there in the corporate world?

So far, studies have identified sixteen types of unconscious unfairness that usually occur within the workplace. It can negatively impact the hiring of candidates and the promotion of employees. However, the company can control it by considering the tips shared in this post.

  • What is a typical example of unconscious bias that occurs in the workplace?

Usually, as humans, we incline more towards individuals who are similar to us. A typical example is a hiring manager unconsciously preferring a candidate with the same alma mater. In another case, hiring the candidate out of two identical ones due to affinity bias can ultimately hinder the company’s diversity and success.

Closing Thoughts

Reducing unconscious bias at your workplace will boost employee retention, enhance productivity, and create a healthier environment. But it is possible to educate yourself and your employees about it in different ways, like training and sharing educational material. Revamp your company’s policies and hiring and promotion process to ensure unconscious favouritism. You can also seek feedback from your former employees and create a complaint portal to identify workplace discrimination.