Ensuring Fair Play: Mitigating Unconscious Bias in Recruitment for Admin Roles

Unconscious bias in recruitment can inhibit building a diverse and inclusive administrative workforce. Despite proactive policies, biases concerning age, abilities, gender, nationality, culture, or appearance can still infiltrate the hiring process.

Recognising the best candidate goes beyond face value. In this blog, we outline steps to help administrative hiring teams eliminate unconscious bias and ensure a fair selection process.

Salary & Transparency  

For those in hiring and recruitment roles, it is essential to recognise your duty to potential hires, especially regarding fair and just compensation. Proposing a living wage should be standard practice, an integral part of fostering a just and equitable work environment. Committing to this principle might mean engaging in challenging discussions with stakeholders, yet such conversations are critical for advancing towards a more ethical and respectful employment landscape for admin professionals. All applicants are entitled to a wage that acknowledges their value and sustains their well-being. As gatekeepers to employment opportunities, it is your obligation to lead the charge in valuing this profession appropriately and ensuring that the undervaluation of labour is left behind.

Additionally, transparency in compensation is crucial. Just as it would be unthinkable to shop in a store without price tags, expecting candidates to apply for a position without a clear understanding of the salary is unreasonable. Therefore, it is requested to include the salary, or at least a salary range, in all admin job postings. This allows applicants to determine whether the compensation aligns with their financial needs and expectations.

The Job Advertisement

Before your vacancy hits the job boards, consider the language used in your ad. Phrases perceived as gender-specific can deter qualified applicants. Tools like the Gender Decoder can help neutralise job descriptions to ensure they resonate with a diverse applicant pool.

Also, diversify the channels you use to promote the vacancy. Certain platforms may not reach all demographics, potentially missing out on experienced admin professionals. 

In Australia we have Admin Avenues, Ethical Jobs, The FIeld Jobs

In the UK we have: Admin Avenues, My G Work, BME Jobs 

The Shortlisting Process

Sifting through stacks of resumes can be overwhelming, but it’s crucial to consider whether all listed requirements are truly essential. For instance, is a specific degree imperative, or could a candidate with a rich blend of experience enrich your team even more? It’s time to evolve from strict degree requirements to recognising “degree-equivalent experience.” This shift is not just about broadening your talent pool – it’s about fairness. Disqualifying a candidate solely because they haven’t attended a university isn’t just a loss of potential – it verges on discrimination. Life experience, on-the-job learning, and alternative training can be just as valuable, if not more so, than formal education. By valuing diverse experiences, we can foster a more inclusive and equitable hiring process.

Blind applications, where CVs lack personal identifiers, level the playing field. Studies have shown that this approach can boost the competitiveness of underrepresented groups, including those from varied nationalities or socioeconomic backgrounds.

Partner with recruitment agencies that support unbiased practices to enhance fairness in your hiring process. I did a LinkedIn post on a company who used this to fill their Chief of Staff role. You can read this HERE.

The Interview

The informal, conversational interview is a relic of the past. Today’s interview should be structured with behavioural questions that allow candidates to demonstrate their skills and experience. Incorporate standard criteria to evaluate all candidates evenly, but also include questions that reveal the candidate’s personality and motivation.

Assemble a diverse interview panel, possibly with members outside the immediate team, to provide a balanced perspective.

During interviews, focus on the candidate’s qualifications and presentation. Avoid letting subjective opinions about their appearance influence your assessment.

The Final Decision

Base your hiring decision on concrete data rather than intuition. With a shortlist of blindly screened candidates evaluated by a diverse panel, you’ll have a wealth of objective information.

If a tiebreaker is needed, it’s permissible to consider how candidates responded to motivational queries or their potential cultural fit, as long as the reasoning is sound and justifiable.

Unconscious bias is more than an ethical issue—it can lead to missed opportunities in discovering the best candidate for your administrative team. By implementing these steps, you can champion a recruitment strategy that is equitable, inclusive, and focused on uncovering genuine talent.