Mitigating Unconscious Bias in Interviews
Updated
by
Amy Thomas
Interviews are one of the most common methods for evaluating job candidates. For many employers, the job interview plays an extremely pivotal role in deciding who to hire. However, unconscious bias can lead to less predictive hiring decisions and less successful outcomes.
Mitigating unconscious bias is one of the most important components of a good structured interview. Follow the tips below to reduce the likelihood of a biased evaluation.
✅ When conducting remote interviews, disregard non-job-relevant factors such as video quality and the background setting.
✅ Remember that speech patterns or accents have no bearing on ability.
✅ De-emphasize superficial variables – e.g., physical/facial appearance, hobbies, birthplace, interests, sports teams, colleges, etc.
✅ If using multiple interviewers, collect feedback from each individual before they discuss the results with others.
For more tips on conducting structured interviews, check out our quick guide here.
The Criteria platform includes some tools to assist you.
- When setting up a video interview, you can opt to hide your candidates' videos, their personal details or any feedback messages they add. You can also disguise your candidates' voices. Enabling one or more of these can help evaluators focus on what your candidates are saying. The steps for selecting these options can be found here.
- You can configure the interview (video or live) to only display the ratings and comments your evaluators have made, once everyone has reviewed the candidates' interview responses. This reduces the risk of evaluators being influenced by the opinions of other reviewers. You can learn more about adding an interview step to your job here.
