Are you unconsciously biased? Understanding the role that factors such as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion play in creating a safe and inclusive workplace culture is now central to the position of most managers and team leaders. Many of us have a pretty good idea of what kinds of language and behaviour are acceptable – both at work and home – and how to deal with employees who are not treating their colleagues with the respect or common courtesy that they deserve.

However, despite having an understanding of right and wrong, what many of us may not realise is that we could be unconsciously biased and this can have a significant effect on how we treat our peers, without even realising what we are doing.

But how do you stop yourself from doing something when you don’t even realise that you are doing it?

What is unconscious bias?

Nobody is perfect! Unconscious bias (also sometimes referred to as implicit bias) is something that affects everybody. The term describes the associations that we may we hold beyond our conscious awareness and control. These pre-conceptions are ingrained in our psyche and prompt us to behave in certain ways, so much so that we don’t realise we are doing it, even when it makes no sense!

Our brain makes hundreds of quick judgements and assessments in every situation, without necessarily stopping to weigh everything up or make sound judgements. These snap decisions are influenced by our previous experiences. Things that have happened to us, societal stereotypes and cultural context.

You may be shocked to discover that you are unconsciously judging people because of their gender, ethnicity, height, weight, body shape etc and this can make you biased towards them – both favourably and unfavourably. For example, you may not give an applicant a job because they remind you of an ex-colleague rather than judging them on the merits of their application and answers at the interview, without even realising you are doing it.

Unconscious bias can have a significant influence on our behaviour and attitude, particularly towards other people. It can affect some of the important decisions that we make in the workplace and can have a major impact on the way we treat our employees or co-workers. The amount of pre-conditioned unconscious bias you bring to each task can also influence key decisions and contribute to inequality during processes such as staff appraisals or employee promotion.

Reducing unconscious bias in the workplace

What can we do to reduce unconscious bias in the workplace? Being aware of it is the first step! There are a lot of excellent training options regarding unconscious bias, which can be used to develop the awareness and understanding of your whole team. Following the training and embedding the knowledge into everyday practices is the next step.

We all know consciously what is right or wrong when it comes to creating a safe and inclusive workplace, but sometimes it can take a while for the little voice inside your head to catch up. It is important to be honest with yourself, even if you don’t like to hear what might be going on in your head. You need to be able to recognise and understand what kind of biases you may have so that you can begin to address them.

As we said in the previous section, our brain can be quick to judge, so if you have a big decision to make, slow down, take your time and perhaps even write down the reasons for your decision – you might be quite surprised at what emerges! Where possible, try and make decisions with the input of other staff members as this can help to mitigate the unconscious biases of one individual. Be prepared for people to challenge any decisions you make that could be biased and be open to conversations that could help you to understand what is happening and any potential issues that may arise.

Different types of unconscious bias

As you become more aware of unconscious bias in the workplace you may want to read as much as you can in totter understand the concepts involved. Some of the literature on this topic describes 3 primary types of bias:

The Halo Effect

The Halo Effect is a form of positive discrimination. This is used to describe a situation where someone has a positive feature or trait which makes us perceive that everything about that person is just as positive. In other words, we are giving them a metaphorical ‘halo’ like an angel, which can lead us to ignore anything negative about this person and act as if they are perfect. This can often happen in new relationships where all the red flags are there from the start, but we are so smitten we choose to ignore them. ‘The Horn Effect’ is used to describe the opposite of the Halo Effect – i.e. if someone has a negative feature or trait or has done a bad thing then we perceive everything about them to be bad like a horned devil!) and won’t give them a chance to prove themselves.

The Halo Effect in the Workplace

The Halo Effect can cause serious problems in the workplace. If a manager appears to be consistently favouring one team member, it can build up resentment amongst their colleagues particularly if they are not as ‘blinkered’ as the manager and can see this person has faults. We are all human and we all make mistakes, and although it is positive to reward or recognise good work or effort, it is not a good idea to treat some people more favourably than others without good reason.

Affinity or Similarity Bias

Sometimes we can be unconsciously biased to favour people who remind us of ourselves in some way. If we are recruiting a new member of staff, we may unconsciously favour candidates who are similar to us or seem familiar in some way without considering whether they are a good fit for our team.

Affinity or Similarity Bias in the Workplace

As we talked about in our blog on becoming an accidental manager, diverse teams are more productive and perform better. They are also less predisposed to cultures of pre-determined logic or ‘groupthink’ as the team members will be coming in with fresh perspectives and opportunities for creative breakthroughs and brand-new ideas.

Author, coach and entrepreneur Denise Duffield-Thomas gives a great example in her book, Chill and Prosper of how she made a huge mistake in hiring people that were just like her to do the boring admin work in her business that she didn’t want to do.

She wrote an exciting job description and recruited people who reminded her of herself and whom she thought would be fun to work with. Unfortunately, they treated the onboarding process like a free coaching session and found it so inspiring that they all quit, to follow their dreams. The second time around she learned from her mistake and wrote a boring job description that sounded like no fun at all. She recruited people who liked the job description and did not find the work boring. They were much better suited to the role, which demonstrates the importance of having a diverse team.  We all have different strengths and weaknesses and these can be used to develop an excellent team toolkit. No one wants to work with an army of clones unless, of course, you’re perfect!

Confirmation Bias

Sometimes when you make a decision or form an opinion, you may find yourself looking for and valuing any kind of information you can find to support your idea. Unfortunately, people tend not to do this in an impartial or unbiased way. Another way to think of confirmation bias is that it is wishful thinking (not founded in fact) or cherry picking, i.e. just using the facts to support your theories or decisions and ignoring everything else.

Confirmation bias in the workplace

Confirmation bias in the workplace can cause problems if it means you are ignoring the facts, failing to notice issues or misjudging people or situations.

If you would like a conversation about our Unconscious Bias training, please get in touch.  It can be delivered face-to-face in the workplace or online.  It is also possible to book a lunch and learn session for our Unconscious Bias course. Email hello@develerate.com for more details.