Long story short: Don't let bias corrupt your recruiting efforts

December 9, 2022 1:38 PM

Employers and recruiters often have a clear idea of who would be the best fit for their organization, but that may lead to damaging biases that go against a company's DEI mission.

In this week's top stories, organizations are grappling with invasive hiring biases that impact both their workplace culture and a prospective applicant's career trajectory. In the tech industry in particular, less than 8% of workers are Black. To close this gap, employers should seek outside counsel and provide greater mentorship and sponsorship opportunities so all employees have a fair shot.

Recent current events have put anti-Semitism in the spotlight, and it could have an impact on the workplace. In fact, a recent survey by ResumeBuilder.com revealed that nearly a third of recruiters admitted to being less likely to hire Jewish applicants than others. If employers want to make good on their promises to build diverse and equitable workplaces, they need more education and greater accountability. Here's how to find it:

Tech layoffs will create new hurdles for Black STEM talent. Can the industry refocus DEI efforts?

Despite much lauded DEI efforts, Black workers still account for just 7.4% of the tech workforce, according to a 2021 report from tech-focused nonprofit AnitaB.org. Factor in the 2022 elimination of nearly 40,000 jobs within the industry, and Black tech talent is facing a fresh uphill climb.

"Recent layoffs in tech may have an impact on corporate DEI initiatives, which could stall emerging efforts to diversify the tech workforce," Michael Collins, vice president of Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit that supports equitable economic advancement, tells associate editor Paola Peralta. He shares how outside evaluations can help employers identify hiring bias, among other tips for sticking to your DEI goals.

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Tech layoffs will create new hurdles for Black STEM talent. Can the industry refocus DEI efforts?

Can DEI efforts combat antisemitic hiring bias?

A new survey of hiring managers and recruiters suggests significant job discrimination against Jews that squares with the nation's rising tide of antisemitism. In a recent poll by ResumeBuilder.com, 26% make assumptions about whether a candidate is Jewish based on their appearance, 23% say they want fewer Jews in their industry and 17% say leadership has told them to not hire Jews.

Shine A Light, a platform for organizations and individuals to combat antisemitism, provides resources to address antisemitism in the workplace and has engaged more than 60 major U.S. companies in this work. "Antisemitism is often referred to as 'the oldest hatred,' and as such, has become normalized over centuries to the extent that it can be difficult to call out and even more difficult to talk about," says Aaron Mitchell, former director of HR for Netflix Animation Studio and DEI adviser to Shine A Light.

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Can DEI efforts combat antisemitic hiring bias?

Where do DEI and healthcare meet?

With the COVID-19 pandemic having laid bare certain fundamental health disparities, employee health has emerged as a central focus in the drive toward equity. Health plan data can be leveraged to address racial and ethnic disparities and thereby advance health equity, and the American Benefits Council teamed with the Urban Institute and the Deloitte Health Equity Institute, with support from Elevance, to study the issue.

Some findings were unsurprising: racial and ethnic data remains incomplete, inconsistent and not easily shared across different entities in the healthcare sector. This makes it difficult to identify and track health inequities and evaluate efforts to reduce them. These barriers are steep and will be difficult to surmount. Yet establishing trust and confidence among employees gives organizations an opportunity to make strides toward real health equity with sound counsel from their brokers or advisers.

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Where do DEI and healthcare meet?

Deep fakes and lip-syncing: How to spot candidate fraud while recruiting

Remote work has transformed the recruitment process, and while many of those changes have been for the better, it's also opened up a new world of deception and fraud. Glider AI, a company dedicated to digital hiring solutions for employers, reported a 92% jump in candidate fraud since the start of the pandemic.

The golden rule is to treat remote interviews just like one would treat an in-person interview, Satish Kumar, founder and CEO of Glider AI, tells associate editor Deanna Cuadra. But as employers find themselves opening up the candidate pools to a larger demographic of candidates, making accommodations for factors like geography or various types of disabilities may naturally come into play. It's vital that companies define what a '"fair" hiring process looks like, explains Kumar.

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Deep fakes and lip-syncing: How to spot candidate fraud while recruiting