When we talk about Unconscious bias then this refers to a quick opinion about a situation or individual without being aware of such. Our brains form biases by using knowledge about social situations, attitudes, cultures, stereotypes and more.  We can pick up and learn these things from the media and through experiences throughout life.

We have to recognise that not all biases are bad, and also be aware that we cannot remove bias completely, but instead should learn to identify and mitigate through process change and by evolving our own thinking through various techniques.

By understanding how all of this can affect our judgement and candidate experience it becomes the first step on our journey to developing an inclusive recruitment process.  In this session Joanne Lockwood with take you on a journey to understand where our biases come from, how they manifest and how we as individuals can check our workings out, reconsider our perspectives, and privilege and be open to seeking out alternate truths beyond our first thought.

She will talk through some of the common cognitive biases that often occur during recruitment, how they can be minimised and mitigated through restructuring the process and being aware of the likely ways bias can creep in.

Key Take Away

• Awareness of where our biases are being introduced on a daily basis and how this impacts our perspectives and judgement
• How biases manifest and recognise when they can be at play
• Techniques for challenging and being challenged around our thoughts and decisions
• Steps to review the end-to-end recruitment process to mitigate and put steps in place to achieve equity of opportunity for candidates of all backgrounds and lived experiences.