How blind hiring can improve workplace diversity

How blind hiring can improve workplace diversityTheres a growing trend across industries when it comes to hiringand in the age of information, you may be surprised to learn that involves having access to less information instead of more, in an effort to enhance ethical hiring practices and improve workplace diversity. If your company isnt utilizing blind hiring practices yet, it might not be long before it jumps on this progressive new hiring bandwagon. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1518041901437-0) ) What is blind hiring?This bold new hiring practice is referred to as blind hiring, and according to a recent article by Analytics in HR (AIHR), Blind hiring is any technique that anonymizes or blinds personal information about a candidate from the recruiter or hiring manager that can lead to unconscious (or conscious) bias about the candidate. This bias tends to be unfair and discriminatory because much of the personal information that is presented is gener ally unrelated to his or her on-the-job performance.How blind hiring can improve your companys hiring practicesAs an HR professional, not having access to personal candidate information that tends to lead to bias allows for increased objectivity when evaluating potential hires. As a result, decisions will be based on a candidates skills, knowledge, and potential to succeed, and things like a candidates race, gender, age, and education level are ignoredand when ability is the primary driving factor for hiring, it results in a more qualified and talented workstaff. Increased hiring objectivity also leads to a more diverse workforce, which benefits both employers and employees.How are companiesand the HR world at largewarming up to the idea of blind hiring According to AIHR, Blind hiring is gaining more acceptance as parte of a larger movement to remove faulty menschlich judgment element that interferes with hiring people that were truly the best candidates in first place. Research fea tured in the Harvard Business Review found that candidates who were hired based on an algorithm were50% more likely to be successfulon the job than candidates picked based on recruiters human judgment.How companies are implementing blind hiring practicesCurrently, the most common methods for doing so are occurring during the resume review process and through the use of anonymized pre-hire tests and assessments. AIHR reports that significant human bias exists during the resume review process Resumes with White-sounding names receive30 percent more interviewsthan identical resumes with African American names. Resumes with old-sounding names were rated asless suitable for the jobcompared to identical resumes with modern-sounding names. Removing all superfluous personal candidate info from their applications, resumes, and online profiles is designed to eliminate this bias. Pre-hire tests and personality assessmentsusing anonymous candidate IDsare also being used more frequently to asses s a candidates abilities and potential fit when making hiring decisions. Both of these tools are reported to increase hiring objectivity and workplace diversity, which can be gauged and tracked through your HR departments recruitment metrics.

When Should You Create Your Maternity Leave Policy

When Should You Create Your Maternity Leave Policy Katzu sichine Prime welches one year into her tenure as SVP Operations at Spring Inc., a digital shopping startup, when she was approached by a key employee from her team who told her she was pregnant. What is our maternity leave policy? the employee wanted to know. Katherines challenge? The company didnt have one. The topic had never come up before because during Springs short life span, no employee had ever become pregnant before.Katherine realized that she needed to tackle this issue immediately -- not just to get this one employee an answer to her very reasonable question, but also to establish the maternity leave as an important parte of Springs talent retention and acquisition strategy.Katherine undertook a great deal of research, and determined that in the world of parental leave policies, standard is really poor -- meaning most companies adhere to some basic standard of 6 weeks paid, and that really doesnt feel like enough fo r a mother to recover and bond with her newborn. Katherine asked friends, associates and even lawyers to weigh in on what kind of policy Spring should implement. With strong rckendeckung from her boss, the companys co-founder, Katherine proposed and successfully implemented a paid maternity leave policy of four months. She views this accomplishment as one of her most significant in her time at Spring. Our generous leave policy builds a deeper loyalty. It also sends a strong homilie that having a child while working at Spring is not going to set you back. Katherine wanted to send a strong signal that Spring was truly an employer that respects families. And, to build on the successful implementation of the maternity leave policy (which applies to all primary caregivers), Katherine is working on a paternity policy to implement soon.Katherines journey is not unusual, since for many companies wait until an employee is pregnant to create a leave policy. So what does this mean for your bus iness?1.Figure out your parental leave policy before someone gets pregnant.As Katherine tells us, its critical to think about your leave policy before theres a specific individual in question. Otherwise, when youre trying to garner support for your proposed policy, its possible that some bias may creep in - albeit unintentionally. So the takeaway here is that its never too soon to start thinking about your leave policy. And if you wait until one of your employees is pregnant, youve waited too long.2. Do your research, and ground your recommendation in data.One of the reasons we founded Fairygodboss is because we found an extraordinary lack of publicly available data about companies maternity leave policies. Historically, it has been a huge black box. Fortunately, thanks to thousands of tips weve received from women all over the US, we now have a complete database of maternity leave policies at over 1500 US companies. Who has the most generous? Learn more here.3. Making your policy m ore generous really does have an impact.Data that weve collected at Fairygodboss shows a direct correlation between the amount of maternity leave taken by women at work their overall job satisfaction. And, its a step function. Women who take more than 13 weeks are more satisfied overall than those who took 12.So its not just about instinct or doing the right thing. If your aim is to help retain and promote your best female talent, they will be much more loyal, satisfied and productive if they have the opportunity to take more leave.4. Focus on the benefits.An industry-leading leave policy is a great recruiting mechanism, Katherine told us. When youre thinking about implementing a policy for your business, think about what outcomes youre trying to achieve. If you choose to implement a top-notch parental leave policy, youll show current and future employees that you are truly a family-friendly employer, where they can build a career long term. 5. Make sure there is support from senior management - both for the policy and the practice.Mark Zuckerberg made news brde year when he took 2 months paternity leave from his role as CEO of Facebook. Great parental leave policies work only when senior management works by example. Managers should take leave, and should show strong support of others who do as well.Many times, people worry about lost productivity while employees are out on leave, but I can tell you from personal experience that it is much easier to miss the contributions of a talented employee for several months than it is to lose her or him altogether. In my view, churn is one of the most underestimated costs a company faces.On the flipside, if you can distinguish your company as one that is genuinely respectful of the family lives of its employees, the loyalty you build will take you far.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer