You are preparing for an interview with a candidate, and on their resume, you notice that they used to go to the same college as you.
You get excited and think, “I went to that college, and I’m good at what I do, so they’ll be good too.”
Now take a moment to think about the implications of that assumption… Sounds a bit biased, doesn’t it?
Even if our assumptions paint someone in a positive light, that doesn’t make them less biased. And it can lead to false conclusions about people around us and within the workplace.
Bias in the workplace can be harmful to both the people and the company. It has the ability to hinder diversity, productivity, and innovation—all important aspects of sustainable business growth.
Therefore, it’s essential to be able to identify bias in the workplace, its possible manifestations, and how to rectify it.
What you’ll find in this article:
What is bias in the workplace?
Bias occurs when we make snap judgments based on what we’ve seen or done before. It’s a natural process in which our brain tries to assess a situation quickly and simplify information.
Bias in the workplace translates to either discriminating against or showing special treatment to a certain individual or group. It may manifest in different forms—from subtle comments to more obvious injustices. However, one thing is clear. Bias in the workplace can hurt your team’s productivity, progress, and most importantly, their mental health.
Having said that, bias isn’t inherently wrong. Everyone has biases depending on the sociocultural influences they grew up with. Acting on these biases and perpetuating them without making a conscious effort to reflect on them is wrong.
Conscious bias and unconscious bias
Biases come in many forms. Generally, they all fall under two categories: conscious biases and unconscious biases.
So what are the differences?
Conscious bias
Conscious bias (a.k.a., explicit bias) refers to the discriminatory beliefs someone holds that translate to specific behaviors and attitudes against an individual or a group. This type of bias is usually easier to recognize and tackle compared to unconscious biases because it usually happens more overtly.
Instances of conscious bias in the workplace include:
- Refusing to hire or promote someone solely based on their gender or race.
- Making remarks or jokes regarding an individual’s ethnicity or religion.
- Excluding specific individuals from meetings or projects due to prejudice.
Unconscious bias
Unconscious bias (a.k.a. implicit bias), is when we make automatic assumptions or develop stereotypes about an individual or group without being consciously aware of it.
What’s interesting about unconscious bias is that it can conflict with our conscious beliefs.
Instances of unconscious bias in the workplace:
- Favoring a candidate because they graduated from the same college as you.
- Not inviting someone out for after-work drinks because you assume they won’t be interested.
- Avoiding questioning your manager because you assume they’re always right.
Unconscious bias occurs as a result of the human condition. We’re inclined to make assumptions based on things we already know to make better sense of the world around us.
And even though we don’t do it intentionally, being unaware of unconscious biases can lead to making decisions based on false assumptions and prejudices.
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How does unconscious bias affect the workplace?
Unconscious biases at work can impact an entire business ecosystem.
Studies have shown that resumes with traditionally white-sounding names receive more callbacks than those with traditionally Black or Asian names—despite having similar qualifications. Discrimination like this causes businesses to lose out on potential recruits and risk getting a bad reputation or facing legal charges.
Unconscious workplace bias can impact how a company operates and lead to the development of unfair processes. If leaders and decision-makers hold unconscious biases, their decisions may mistakenly favor certain groups over others.
Unconscious bias can result in the creation of unfair processes. If leaders and decision-makers have unconscious biases, their decisions might lean more toward certain groups.
Unconscious bias can also influence the performance management process, resulting in less-than-ideal results. A manager might overlook their best performers, which would hurt the organization’s growth.
Research and surveys have shown that unconscious biases are a common issue in the workplace:
- One study found that most participants held unconscious biases related to race, gender, and age.
- Another study revealed that 61% of employees had experienced or witnessed workplace discrimination.
The importance of recognizing bias in the workplace
Bias in the workplace can have far-reaching negative consequences if left unchecked, such as:
- Unfair treatment of employees leads them to miss promotions, not get paid fairly, and feel left out at work.
- If certain groups feel unwelcome or face discrimination, top performers from those groups will simply look elsewhere for employment leading to higher turnover.
- Discriminatory actions can open a company up to costly lawsuits and fines under laws like the Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Americans with Disabilities Act. Even unintentional bias can lead to compliance violations.
On the flip side, recognizing and thoughtfully addressing bias unlocks immense benefits:
- It creates an equitable culture of respect where all employees feel valued.
- It helps companies to make objective, merit-based decisions to hire and promote the best people.
- It shields organizations from reputational damage and legal liabilities.
- It unlocks the potential for diverse teams, which boost innovation and creativity.
Types of bias in the workplace
Unfortunately, there are many different kinds of bias in the workplace.
Affinity bias
Affinity bias happens when you’re drawn to people similar to you, and in a way, it’s almost a cultural bias, except that it can apply to many other characteristics. People tend to form groups based on similar pursuits, life experiences, cultural roots, or even ethnicity. They do this naturally and without even realizing it.
This cognitive bias is one of the many mental shortcuts our brains ingeniously devise to assist us in our fast-moving society. Unfortunately, these shortcuts are often subconscious, and they can cause a lot of harm. It can cause people to feel excluded or isolated in the workplace.
Horns effect
The horn effect refers to a cognitive bias in which we attribute negative qualities to a person based on a single negative trait. It’s a momentary judgment that, like the halo effect, happens unconsciously.
An example would be not hiring a candidate because they were a few minutes late for the interview even though they performed the best in the tests.
Halo effect
The halo effect is the exact opposite of the horn effect. The halo effect occurs when we see someone very positively due to a single good trait while overlooking their negatives.
An example would be promoting someone because they are very organized but fail to realize that the quality of their work is low.
Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to favor information that confirms one’s existing beliefs.
At work, this bias can result in decisions being made with limited information, ignoring other options, and continuing to make assumptions.
Consider a boss who believes that working long hours equals higher productivity. They might only regard hours worked when doing performance reviews, ignoring efficiency and quality.
A hiring manager might also unknowingly lean towards candidates who match their assumptions without checking for qualifications.
Gender and race bias
Gender and race biases label entire racial or gender groups as unsuitable. Not only is this against the law, it also prevents an objective assessment of a person’s skills.
Examples of gender and race bias can include:
- Not giving enough credit to women in male-dominated fields.
- Assuming that certain roles or responsibilities are more suitable for one race over another.
- Continuing to believe stereotypes about leadership abilities or communication styles.
Beauty bias
Attractive individuals are often perceived as more capable, successful, and hireable, even if they are not. People are more likely to believe that conventionally attractive individuals are also smarter and more trustworthy.
Studies show good-looking people may get paid more and have better chances at leadership positions.
Sadly, those regarded as less attractive face an uphill battle. People might think they’re not as smart, not as friendly, and not as reliable, even though it’s not their fault.
Overweight people, especially women, frequently face stigma and microaggressions because of this bias.
Conformity bias
Conformity bias is when you go along with the majority, even if it means ignoring your own beliefs and better judgment. It is born from our innate desire to fit in and be accepted by the group.
In a workplace, conformity bias can cause groupthink, where differing opinions are suppressed.
One way conformity bias shows up is when an employee goes along with a manager’s idea, even if they don’t really agree, just to avoid rocking the boat. It’s like in meetings when people just nod along with what everyone else is saying instead of speaking up with their own thoughts.
Attribution bias
Attribution bias happens when people assume the wrong reasons for another person’s behavior or results.
For example, when a colleague misses a crucial deadline, we might think they’re lazy or incompetent without considering things like a heavy workload or a family emergency.
But if a coworker does a great job at something, we might think it’s just luck or an easy task rather than recognizing their effort and skill.
On the other hand, when we succeed, we often credit our skills and hard work, but blame external factors for our failures, a phenomenon known as the self-serving bias.
Ageism (age bias)
Ageism is when people are treated differently or unfairly because of their age.
For younger workers, ageism often takes the form of assumptions about their lack of experience or maturity. Sometimes, they might get overlooked for promotions or leadership positions because others think they’re not “ready” or “seasoned enough” yet.
Similarly, older workers are stereotypes as not being as digitally inclined or that they are not as adaptable. They might be left out for training or new projects because people think things like “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.
Contrast effect
The contrast effect occurs when you compare people to each other. Contrast bias can happen during performance reviews or long interviews, when managers compare people one after another.
The way we perceive various positions within a company can also be influenced by the contrast effect. If you have a very skilled team in one department, you may not value the contributions of employees in other departments as much.
Availability bias
Availability bias is the tendency to accept information that is immediately available to us. Availability bias in the AI era is a whole new risk since it threatens to impact a person’s decision-making with false information.
Proximity bias
The rise of remote and hybrid work has led to a form of proximity bias.
Proximity bias means showing preferential treatment to individuals who are in-office compared to their remote counterparts. This may mean that a manager may recognize an in-office employee’s efforts more systematically compared to a remote employee’s. Or, social activities are being hosted for in-office employees while remotes are left feeling disconnected and excluded.
Ways that bias may show itself in the workplace
Bias at work can show up in many sneaky ways, often when and where we least expect it.
Unconscious biases may result in unfair hiring practices, as they can influence job descriptions, resumes, and interviews. Hiring managers might overlook applicants with ethnic-sounding names or from specific areas, even if they possess the necessary qualifications.
Performance reviews, promotions and career development opportunities can also be influenced by bias. An affinity bias may lead managers to favor employees who are similar to them. A horns effect bias may cause someone to be pigeonholed by a single perceived negative trait, limiting their career trajectory.
Unfair treatment like this is just plain wrong and will drive away skilled, hard-working people.
How to address bias in the workplace
The challenge with workplace bias is that it’s often unconscious and unintentional in nature. Employees may not realize they have biases like the halo or horns effect or that they are acting on affinity or attribution biases.
Awareness is how you can initially get the ball rolling against workplace bias. Employees and managers need to recognize their own biases and understand the points where workplace bias can enter. Being aware of how bias affects everyone isn’t enough. By the time a bias is noticed, it might already be too late.
The best solution? Prevention.
How to prevent bias in the workplace
Prevention is going to be the best defense against bias in the workplace.
Hold employees accountable
To prevent bias in the workplace, you should hold employees accountable for their actions and decisions.
Keeping people accountable can involve things like giving out formal punishments, considering inclusive behavior in performance evaluations, and linking pay raises or promotions to how much someone supports diversity and inclusion.
Identify entry points for bias
Bias in the workplace can creep into various stages of the employee lifecycle, from hiring and onboarding to performance evaluations, promotions, and even terminations. Look at these entry points and any signs of bias before it becomes a problem.
Make meetings inclusive
Meetings can be a hotbed for unconscious biases. At times, certain individuals may assert their dominance by consistently steering meetings toward their ideas or opinions. This can result in the viewpoints of other participants being disregarded or marginalized.
To tackle this, companies should set up inclusive meeting rules and regulations. A few practices to try to include:
- Actively seeking input from all participants
- Use anonymous feedback tools
- Rotate the meeting facilitator
- Model empathy and inclusivity
Offer bias training for managers and employees
Managers should be trained to understand their role in modeling active inclusion in the workplace. The training should give them the tools to handle the challenges of a multicultural team and make fair decisions.
Employee training should cover first understanding and addressing personal biases. Make sure it shows them how to communicate well with people who are different from them and how to treat others with respect and inclusion.
Train your teams to overcome and actively prevent workplace bias.
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Use data to inform performance and hiring processes
Accurate data is always unbiased. When you use data to fuel subjective evaluations and decision-making, you will remove workplace bias from the process.
In performance evaluations, data-driven approaches can take the form of setting clear, measurable goals and tracking quantifiable metrics related to an employee’s performance.
For the hiring process, organizations can use structured interviews and standardized assessments to remove bias.
Overcoming workplace bias
Overcoming (and preventing) bias in the workplace is something that all companies should strive for. Not only is it the ethical thing to do, but it will also benefit your company and employees in many unique and positive ways.
One really effective way to deal with workplace bias is through ongoing training programs. It’s not just about one-time events—it’s about making a continuous effort to be more self-aware and to grow. When employees receive regular bias training, they learn practical tools to identify and address their biases.
You can also embed bias training into your company culture to keep your workforce vigilant. Make it a part of onboarding and offer refresher courses throughout the year. Doing so keeps the conversation about diversity and inclusion alive, so employees are constantly maturing in their understanding and actions.
