Using key performance indicators (KPI) can help employees with their recruiting efforts. Not only is a recruiting strategy paramount to choosing the best person, but using recruitment KPIs metric during the recruitment process will smooth the process. Employees can ensure they have the best hire standards, boost the company culture, lessen turnover rates, and fill vacant positions. 

What Are Some of the Most Common Biases that Employers Exhibit When Hiring Employees?

Although you may not conspicuously know that you automatically feel a certain way about a person, place, or thing, it could be ingrained subconsciously into your brain. Unfortunately, this happens during the hiring process all too often. 

There are common hiring biases that employers will utilize when interviewing potential workers and choosing who would be the best employees for their company.

Being aware of the most prevalent biases helps avoid issues in the workplace and during the hiring process.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is one of the most common types of bias in the workplace. Confirmation bias is when a person has a "perceived" truth about a person based on a set of characteristics or features. 

These immediate instincts can lead to bias, prohibiting qualified candidates from being hired by a business. Employees must avoid confirmation bias and conduct professional interviews for all suitable candidates for job openings. 

Expectation Anchor

This type of anchor bias is when an employee has an unrealistic expectation about a specific role, which can immediately disqualify those who are qualified to do the job. If this occurs, the employer will use this unrealistic information to discredit those who are qualified or those who could fulfill the duties of the role.

Halo Effect

This hiring bias places an unrealistic expectation on the candidate to fulfill the duties of the role that are not accurate or plausible. The "halo" clouds the employer's judgment and focuses only on the current characteristics or aspects of the candidate, ignoring their history, qualifications, or past candidate experience. 

Horn Effect

In addition, employers may be susceptible to the horn effect. The horn effect is when something in the candidate's personality or characteristics can negatively sway the employer to go against them in the hiring process.

Overconfidence

Overconfidence is when an employer is overly confident in their abilities to choose the best person whose confirmation bias ends up being the end-all-be-all in the final choice. In this case, the business goals are clouded by the poor management of the recruitment funnel.

Similarity Bias

Furthermore, employers might have an unconscious attraction to those who are similar to them. Whether they are of the same gender, type of personality, characteristics, background, or education, they may favor a person who is similar to them.

Illusory Correlation

The illusory correlation is when the employer thinks there is a partnership or relationship between two things when there isn't one. This type of bias has a direct adverse impact on the talent pipeline and recruitment agency. If this is the case, the recruiting metrics must be changed to find the right type of candidate. 

Affinity Bias

Employers can also have affinity bias during the recruitment process. If a person has a certain "affinity" towards an individual or a candidate, you may feel like they are more qualified for the job. If you have a similarity, whether you came from the same hometown, went to the same school, or have the same hobbies, this can sway a person's decision-making to choose the person who is most similar to them.

Beauty Bias

Although this may sound unbelievable, it is true — "beautiful" people are often seen as smarter and more trustworthy. Recruiters will end up choosing a more aesthetically pleasing person over other qualified candidates due to their appearance. 

This onboarding process will harm the workplace culture since it can overlook the job requirements, quality of candidates, and pool of candidates as a whole. 

Conformity Bias

Another type of dangerous bias that can sway a person's decision-making process during recruitment is conformity bias. Conformity bias means a person may choose the candidate that everyone else likes. 

If you find that your entire recruitment group likes Candidate A, you may be more likely to choose the same person to conform with the majority. Choosing desirable candidates has to coincide with the candidate quality, not just the popular recruiting activities. 

Intuition

Lastly, intuition is another common type of bias used during the hiring process. Most people have heard of the phrase "trust your gut" — if recruiters do this, they may make a rash decision that doesn't consider all of the facts. 

This often entails evaluating metrics (like rejection rate, employee retention rate, conversion rate, one-year turnover rate, etc.) with the statistics of the candidate (job performance, performance reviews, job position, etc.). 

How Can These Biases Impact the Quality of the Workforce and the Overall Productivity of the Company?

Now that you are aware of the most common biases during the hiring process, it is helpful to understand just how detrimental these can be to the morale of the workplace. 

Check out how bias can influence interactions at work, the environment, and the atmosphere of the company:

Less Diversity

If an employer uses affinity bias to choose people who are just like them, or similar to everyone else already in the workplace, this can result in a less diverse workplace. Diversity is one of the most essential metrics that employers must use to create a proactive retention strategy and reduce employee turnover. 

Less Reward for Doing a Good Job

If a workplace uses attribution bias, this can lead to less praise when work is done correctly. Attribution bias occurs when a person accesses other people unfairly. In this case, you may think that when you do something right, it is because of your skills and intellect. However, if someone else does something right, it may be due to luck.

Employers must avoid using this bias to promote a positive internal culture, use realistic predictive models for company performance, and create a thorough benefits strategy. 

Selective Observation

The next result of bias in the workplace is selective observation. In this case, employers may only focus on things that reinforce their own opinions and beliefs, and ignore things that go against their beliefs. 

This can lead to inaccurate portrayals of people in the workplace. Instead of analyzing someone's skill sets or looking at the entire process, employers may only notice certain attributes of job candidates. This could lead to low-quality candidates and reduce recruiter efficiency. 

Different Treatments Based on Gender

Gender bias is very common in the workplace. If men or women in charge have hatred or beliefs about gender roles, this can lead to unfair treatment based on gender – not based on character, intellect, skill, or background. There should be an equal acceptance rate for men and women during the recruiting process. 

Wasted Potential

The last effect that bias can have in the workplace is the wasted potential of a potentially valuable employee. If bias leads to lower morale and a toxic workplace, this can cause a person to second guess themselves at their job or quit altogether. This can lead to lower employee performance and a higher first-year turnover rate. 

What Are Some Steps that Employers Can Take to Avoid Bias When Hiring?

Employers need to advertise open positions on job boards to find ideal candidates in the candidate pool. Searching for high-quality candidates can be time-consuming - and bias can creep in.

Follow these next KPI for recruiters to prevent biases when hiring:

Understand Biases

This could be the most important recruiting KPI. Most of the time, employers and individuals can get rid of biases by reflecting on themselves, their thoughts about people in general, and any stereotypes they may have. Knowing oneself can lead to understanding how this impacts the hiring process.

While sifting through job applications, the recruiting funnel should consider the candidate experience score, candidate surveys, and recruiting budget - and avoid any external factors or stereotypes. 

Use Blind Recruitment

Blind recruitment helps prevent a person from choosing an individual based on looks, personality, or persuasive skills in person during the interview. Blind recruitment uses just the statistics that can be helpful while hiring a qualified employee.

Take Your Time

The last thing you want to do is rush the hiring process. If you have a quota to meet or you need to decide within a time frame, this can cause you to use bias to choose a person who seems to be the easiest pick.

Use Gender-neutral Language

Another way that employees can avoid bias is to use gender-neutral language to make the business inclusive for everyone involved. Changing your marketing may be a vital recruiting stage for recruitment efficiency and the applicant success rate. 

Take a Survey

Along with interviewing newly qualified candidates, taking a survey of current employees can help employers figure out where they are going wrong and what they can fix. Surveys are great KPIs for recruitment purposes. 

Train Your Employees

The last way to avoid bias is to use unconscious bias training with all employees to avoid any harmful practices in the workplace. Although it costs money, training can provide a healthy return on investment, help your business reach company goals, and provide real-time insights into your business' efficiency. 

How Can Job Seekers Protect Themselves from Bias During the Hiring Process?

Although employers should be the ones who remove bias during the hiring and recruitment process, job seekers may also have to take matters into their own hands to make sure they are not a victim of bias during the interview stages. Understanding every recruiter KPI is helpful to employees and employers alike.

Research the Company 

The first way that potential employees can avoid bias during the hiring process and with a new job is to research the company. Figure out the diversity in the workplace and check out the number of male and female employees. Looking into data about a business is one of the best KPIs for recruiting.

Look Online 

Job seekers can also look online to see if the company has had any negative press written about them in recent years due to HR issues. Analyzing any news stories in recent years can help future workers use KPI recruitment most effectively.

Look Out for Gendered Ads and Language 

Companies that do not use gender-neutral are typically more "backward" than progressive businesses that are more inclusive. Job seekers need to look into the basic KPI of recruitment to see the effect of gendered language on the business.

What Are Some Red Flags That May Indicate That a Company is Exhibiting Bias in Their Hiring Practices?

There are certain KPI for recruitment that could be seen as red flags. Keeping an eye out as a job seeker will help you make a good decision during the job search process.

Gendered Language

Gendered language indicates a company is not progressive or inclusive or "up to date" with the latest social standards.

Unprofessional Interviews

If the interview is not professional or conducted in a professional setting, this is a red flag that the business does not know what they're doing. The interview process should be standardized to help minimize bias.

No Diversity Goals

Reputable companies will have diversity goals and quotas that they should meet in their workplace. Compatible candidates, and actual hires, should meet the diversity quota set forth by external recruiters and business leaders. 

Rescheduling

Constant rescheduling of interviews and unorganized procedures indicates a lack of structure in the company. The hiring pipeline should be consolidated and conducted over a set period.  

As you can see, businesses need to understand KPI in recruitment to avoid bias in the workplace and during the hiring process. KPI in recruiting helps employers avoid any morality issues that can arise when choosing the most qualified candidates.