4 BIASES THAT MAY BE JEOPARDISING YOUR HIRING EFFORTS

Unfortunately for a large number of recruiters, even the most effective direct sourcing technique may be undermined by personal prejudices that result in the support of individuals who are not a good fit for the position. The vast majority of individuals do not want to believe that they are biased in any manner, but unfortunately, it is often a part of human nature that people’s perceptions and beliefs do not always serve them well in circumstances that need a more objective appraisal. Even the most effective direct sourcing method may be undermined by personal prejudices that result in the support of individuals who are not a good fit for the position. We would like to draw your attention to four prejudices that are common in the hiring process and that you should keep an eye out for in the future while conducting recruitment. 1. incorrect or misleading inferences or extrapolations This phenomenon, which may also be referred to as the “halo/horn” bias, describes the phenomenon in which candidates might be judged to be excellent or poor on the basis of a simple “vibe” rather than any strong evidence. For instance, it may be regarded that an application who is both physically appealing and well-dressed is a good candidate based alone on those attributes, or it may be thought that an applicant who has an off-putting habit is not a strong prospect based solely on those characteristics. 2. the fallacy of confirmation This specific kind of bias refers to our subconcious tendency to give more weight to any piece of data that seems to validate our preconceived notions. For instance, you may already have entertained the idea that the ideal candidate for your next hiring position would be someone who has previous experience working in a certain industry or who attended a particular institution. Therefore, when someone submits a cv that seems to back up this belief, you may gravitate towards them, even if there are plenty of other candidates who might be more suitable and don’t necessarily have these traits. This is because this means that when someone backs up this belief with their cv, you are more likely to believe them. 3. prejudices in regard to the staff members you currently have You may have told yourself that “anyone might be better” than your most recent hiring… or you may be seeking a replacement for a cherished former colleague, only to believe that “nobody could replace them.” Either way, you may have had these thoughts at some point. In the first scenario, it’s quite likely that you won’t be able to be sufficiently critical in your evaluation of the fitness of any new applicant, but in the second scenario, it’s nearly guaranteed that you won’t be able to recruit anybody at all since you’ll be too critical of everyone. 4. prejudices based on current employment practices and trends This bias is frequently the result of thinking that the most recent few apprentices that you hired were brilliant, “so you may as well just recruit some more,” or that the most recent two people that you took on from a particular college did not work out, “so there’s no point concentrating on any more applicants from that institution.” It is essential to have a solid grasp of your recruiting habits in order to guarantee that you may draw wisdom from your prior placements and improve your choices going forward. The purpose of bringing attention to all of these biases is to raise the level of awareness within your recruiting teams about the prejudices that are susceptible to being introduced with relative ease. Additionally, it is strongly recommended that you take measures to decrease the effect of such prejudices, the most apparent of which is to include numerous persons in the recruitment agency ireland.