Why do Susan and Simon have the exact same resume but different job search outcomes? This paper from Hays Recruiting shows how gender bias creeps into the talent management process and why we must add mechanisms to control it. The HR director at a firm that implemented controls illustrates the power of structural changes.
We all thought we were incredibly fair and then we tested our data against gender, age and full-time vs part-time. Simply instituting a process to test the data has been enough to get people to stop, think and test their decision-making. It has been a really cathartic process for people. We didn’t realize we could be making biased decisions.