Have you considered how diversity in hiring can impact your business? You should have, because industry experts agree that diversity, equity, and inclusion should be priorities for every business.
Diversity positively impacts business performance and leads to greater innovation and skill-sharing, as well as higher productivity and increased revenues. Diverse teams also make decisions that deliver 60% better results and make better business decisions in 87% of cases.
How Bias Can Affect Hiring
One of your top priorities is to recruit top candidates, so you write job descriptions, post jobs, and screen applicants. Then you create a shortlist and interview candidates who are best qualified. The best candidate wins, and you extend an offer. That’s how the process is supposed to work. Unfortunately, the best candidate does NOT always win because subjective bias compromises your hiring.
Bias means making snap judgments about people, and it can be overt or unconscious. An example of overt bias would be refusing to hire someone because of who they are or are not—like refusing to hire a woman to fill a CFO position simply because she is a woman, even though she is the best candidate. Unconscious bias means favoring a candidate because you share common traits and experiences with them, such as attending the same university or enjoying downhill skiing.
Both overt and unconscious bias lead to hiring decisions that are irrational and unfair. They also lead to lower employee morale and productivity. A Deloitte study showed that 68% of U.S. employees felt workplace bias hurt productivity, and 84% reported it harmed their mental health.
What Is Pre-Employment Testing, and How Does It Prevent Bias?
When we are asked, “What is pre-employment testing?”, we explain that it is one of the best ways to virtually eliminate unconscious bias in hiring. We show pre-employment test examples and explain the advantage of having all applicants complete the same test and answer the same questions in the same order. Then we show how easy it is to rank completed tests by score and identify top candidates.
The Importance of Using Validated Pre-Employment Tests
Using job descriptions with inaccurate and undefined job requirements leads to unfair hiring practices and leaves your company vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits. Hiring teams can only make good decisions if they understand the skills and competencies candidates must have. So, conducting a thorough job analysis and creating a validated pre-employment test is critical to reduce hiring bias and create a legally defensible hiring process.
Industry-leading pre-employment testing solutions like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM include a library of validated subject- and job-based skills assessments. You can use pre-prepared tests or customize them by adding and deleting questions. You can build custom pre-employment tests by choosing questions from multiple tests and adding your own questions.
How Video Response Questions Minimize Bias
Traditional, unstructured interviews are a major source of bias in hiring decisions, so many organizations use video response questions to conduct structured interviews.
During an unstructured interview, interviewers and candidates exchange pleasantries and engage in small talk. Then the interviewer asks questions such as, “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years?” This can lead to bias because the conversation can take multiple twists and turns.
Structured interviews virtually eliminate the risk of bias because candidates have no direct contact with hiring team members. They simply listen to the questions and record their answers. Hiring team members rate the answers using prescribed criteria, and scores and comments are recorded automatically. Some organizations even disable the video so hiring team members cannot see the candidates and can only listen to their answers.
The Advantage of Merit-Based Hiring
Some organizations use merit-based hiring or skills-based hiring. This means candidates are judged on their ability to do a job based on their pre-employment test results, regardless of how they obtained the knowledge and expertise.
Merit-based hiring differs from traditional hiring because it opens the door for applicants who might otherwise have been rejected. Job postings normally list absolute and preferred requirements, such as a college degree, specific skills, or work experience at the “right” companies. Candidates were not considered if they did not meet all or most of the requirements.
If you hire based on merit, you might find a top candidate without a college degree or applicants who acquired knowledge and skills independently. This means they are highly qualified despite lacking the experience and credentials you typically seek.
Get Started with Pre-Employment Testing
According to McKinsey, if you replaced 20% of the average talent on a project team with top talent, it would take less than two years to complete the project if they were 400% more productive and less than a year if they were 800% more productive. Furthermore, if a competitor hired talent that was 20% better than yours, that company would beat you to market even if it started work on the same project a year or two later.
Do you want to learn how pre-employment testing can help you remove bias from your hiring process? Contact us to see pre-employment test examples and request a demo.