Unconscious bias has kept untold numbers of diverse individuals from entering the tech world over the years. These Bay Area companies are working to change that narrative.
Curbing hiring biases isn’t easy or a task that occurs overnight. It requires employees across a business to first examine and dispel personal biases they may harbor through education. Then, hiring processes, from sourcing to post-interview evaluation, need restructuring.
The professionals we spoke to said they recruit from sources that reach diverse populations, like Jopwell, a job board for ethnic minority candidates. Applicants are greeted with job descriptions designed to maximize inclusivity, before coming in for a more standardized interview process. Every interviewee is asked the same questions and evaluated identically for a role. Individuals on hiring teams are given specific criteria to look for in candidates and instructed not to discuss an interviewee’s overall “fit” outside of formal forums.
Much of the work of dispelling hiring biases falls on humans improving their company-to-interviewee interactions. But technology equips companies with tools they can use to streamline their efforts. Textio is an augmented writing platform that makes job descriptions more inclusive with features like a gender bias meter and editing guidance. Greenhouse Inclusion, an inclusivity-minded extension of the recruiting platform, can anonymize applications and nudge hiring teams throughout the process to assess candidates objectively.
Doing away with hiring biases requires interventions from both humans and technology. But when done correctly, it can open the door to much-needed inclusivity across the professional world.
Tips on writing more inclusive job descriptions:
- Avoid gendered pronouns like “he” or “she.”
- Eliminate potentially gender-coded words like “competitive,” “dominant,” “patient” or “supportive.”
- List only the skills and experience essential to the position. Weed out unnecessary prerequisites.
- Limit corporate jargon.
- Call out the company’s major inclusivity efforts like employee benefits or community partnerships.
Inclusive language in job descriptions plays a key role in hiring at the marketing tech company NextRoll. Senior Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager Claudia Villanueva said using more neutral language helps hiring managers attract more candidates, and Textio helps them find the words they need.
What steps does your team take to reduce bias early on in the hiring process?
Before we start recruiting for a job, we use Textio to ensure that we create inclusive job descriptions. We use words like “teammate” versus “team player” to avoid corporate cliches, as studies show those terms decrease the number of applicants. Additionally, we avoid gender-coded words such as “rockstar,” which can decrease the number of women applicants.
We provide unconscious bias training for employees of all levels during hiring. Our cohort-based diversity recruiting strategy targets underrepresented groups in our sourcing and outreach efforts. We also challenge our hiring managers to consider non-traditional industry experience. Eightfold, an AI-powered talent platform, measures our pipeline diversity at all stages of the hiring process based on gender, race and ethnicity. It allows us to flag instances of a group moving disproportionately through the interview process.
We use words like ‘teammate’ versus ‘team player’ to avoid corporate cliches.”
How is your interview process structured to reduce bias?
Our team focuses on competency-based behavioral interviewing to ensure we are evaluating folks based on their skill set. Interviewers are trained to focus on a specific area to evaluate each candidate equally and ask the same questions to every person. Each interviewer has a predetermined understanding of what the role requires and what a “good” answer looks like so they can make a fair evaluation.
At every point during the interview process, we remind our interviewers to focus on their assigned core competencies. We also ask that they avoid sharing feedback outside of our formal debrief process to avoid groupthink or confirmation bias.
What tech tools are you using to reduce bias throughout the hiring process?
In addition to Textio and Eightfold, we leverage platforms like Jopwell and partnerships with external organizations to ensure we are attracting underrepresented talent. We also leverage Greenhouse as a way to help standardize our interview process and help interviewers focus on their key competencies and assigned questions.
“We know we’re not perfect,” said HomeLight Technical Recruiter Jenna Krusemark. “Incorporating tools and technology has helped us be aware of areas where we can continue to improve.”
After looking internally at their personal biases, Krusemark said the hiring managers at the real estate platform rely on tech like bias detection software to diversify their recruiting.
What steps does your team take to reduce bias early on in the hiring process?
We train our internal recruiting team on best practices in diverse sourcing. Our applicant numbers are tracked closely to understand where we can improve our recruiting. We host, sponsor and attend networking events that support underrepresented groups and partner with local boot camps geared toward female and gender diverse individuals. Our team is also in the process of creating a blind application process to remove any potential unconscious bias from the start.
We revamped our job descriptions to rid them of any gendered language. Hiring managers across the organization are provided a template and best practices on how to write inclusive, accessible and compelling job descriptions for their roles.
How is your interview process structured to reduce bias?
We standardized our interviews companywide to ensure that candidates are held to the same standards as the person before and after them. We diversified our interview panels to give candidates a better picture of who they will be working with day to day and a broader introduction to employees across the organization.
Interviewing is stressful, especially when considering the problem in gender wage gaps. So I contribute to 81cents, along with other HomeLight employees, in efforts to help navigate difficult conversations and close the pay gap for women and underrepresented minorities.
81Cents:
What tech tools are you using to reduce bias throughout the hiring process?
I don’t feel that technology is the best first step to solve for the challenges in hiring and representation. We aim to take the necessary steps first as individuals to learn about our own biases and make improvements internally as a company.
From there, we turn to technology to help scale these efforts. We run all job descriptions through bias detection software. We use a variety of sourcing tools focused on diversity recruiting. We’re also working on partnering with third-party vendors to help us continue to address any unconscious bias in our processes.
Data is beneficial to removing biases. CircleCI Director of Recruiting Lauren O’Neill said Greenhouse Inclusion allows the continuous integration and delivery platform to collect voluntary data on the candidate experiences of diverse applicants. The team uses that data to make its hiring process more impartial.
What steps does your team take to reduce bias early on in the hiring process?
We start by doing our best to make our job descriptions inclusive. We avoid gendered language or terms shown to discourage female candidates and underrepresented groups from applying. We also assess what previous experience or knowledge is a necessity before listing it as a requirement in our job descriptions. We remain flexible in terms of specific years of experience or whether a college degree is necessary. We also post our open jobs in a range of communities to encourage diversity in our applicant pool.
Remain flexible in terms of specific years of experience or whether a college degree is necessary.”
How is your interview process structured to reduce bias?
We practice structured interviewing to remain more equitable in our assessment of candidate responses. At each stage, we ask every candidate the same structured questions we created for a particular job. We still allow time for the interview to take an organic flow and for the candidate to ask us questions before assessing each candidate’s responses in the same way.
What tech tools are you using to reduce bias throughout the hiring process?
We use Greenhouse Inclusion, which enables us to customize the voluntary equal employment opportunity questions that are asked when a candidate applies through our careers page. It enables us to measure the candidate experience across diverse groups to get a sense of whether we’re being equitable in our process. All of this information is voluntarily self-reported, confidential and not tied to a candidate’s profile. We love when candidates choose to share those details because they help us get better at providing a positive experience to everyone we interact with.
