Ep 5: How to Remove Bias From Your Hiring and Recruiting Process with Alison K. Dougherty

January 12, 2023

Unchecked biases can negatively shape your company’s work culture. Not hiring and promoting a more diverse workforce could lead to a toxic work environment with high turnover that can ultimately impact your company’s bottom line.

Alison K Dougherty

In this podcast episode of Managing Well with Tonya Ladipo, we talk with HR practitioner Alison K. Dougherty, Ed.D about how to check for unconscious bias within the hiring and recruiting process.After the episode, download our worksheet for tips on how you can show up as a better people manager and leader in your organization.

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Reflection Questions:

What are the main reasons people leave our organization?
What are my organization’s long-term plans to retain and recruit diverse hires? Where do we currently post job openings?
The lack of diversity in leadership could be a red flag for candidates. How do we discuss and address this with incoming candidates?

Action Items:

Create a recruitment plan to diversify staff. Consider starting a hiring committee to develop a strategy to attract a more diverse candidate pool for all positions, not only entry-level roles. Build relationships outside of your organization and network to find diverse candidates. Post jobs with affinity groups within your organization and local chambers of commerce.
Use inclusive and gender-neutral language in your job descriptions.
Be specific about the skills and experience required for the position. A focus on pedigree (e.g. degrees from prestigious institutions) rather than skillset can reduce the number of qualified candidates. Look at your role requirements and be realistic about what is needed to do the job.
Complete “stay” interviews with your team. Find out what your team likes and what they would change about the organization. Use this feedback as a roadmap on how to improve the workplace culture for new candidates.
Pay attention to indicators of problems. Review exit interview data for useful feedback to improve your organization’s culture. Though feedback may be hard to hear and receive it is an important part of changing what does not work and may even be causing harm.
Post salaries on job postings. This is one step in reducing bias (particularly gender and racial bias) by transparently offering the same salary to candidates based on their skills.

Additional Resources:

On the Managing Well podcast, host Tonya Ladipo talks wellness in the workplace with people leaders, mental health professionals, HR experts, and more. Click the link to subscribe to the podcast a