Cognitive and Unconscious Hiring Biases – how to avoid the dangers in your veterinary clinic

Diverse teams are strong teams

One of the “happening things” in the recruitment world in 2022 was the spotlight being shone on diversity.

I’m sure you don’t need me to explain why having a team full of people with different strengths makes for a stronger team and a more profitable clinic … so I’m not going to go into that here.

However, if this is something you’re not familiar with, please let me know and I’ll cover it in another episode.

Today, however, we’re going to look at five – of the 16 different unconscious biases I’ve identified we all have when it comes to interviewing – and how these can play out during the recruitment process and what you can do to mitigate these.

The end result of all of them is the same:  you may end up discounting and/or overlooking the best person for your clinic’s vacancy.

The danger of intuition when interviewing

You may be thinking you’ve got no unconscious biases and you can trust your intuition.

I respectfully challenge you on that.   I’m all for you ‘trusting your intuition’ as veterinary professionals – you have hundreds, and sometimes even, thousands of hours of training behind you to recognise when something isn’t ‘quite’ right – as a veterinarian or veterinary nurse or veterinary technician.

But please, I caution you to ignore any ‘intuitive feelings’ you might have when it comes to interviewing and recruiting.  Simply because you probably don’t have those same hundreds or thousands of hours of experience under your recruiting belt to trust the same way you can trust your intuition in surgery.

When it comes to recruitment you want to make your team stronger than it currently is or was before.  This means you need to make business decisions and business decisions aren’t so much about gut or intuitive feelings.

The reason we each have our own form of intuition is because it’s been built up over years and years of our own personal – conscious and – most importantly – unconscious biases.

If you’ve spent any time working remotely over the last 2-3 years – as some practice and HR managers have through our various lockdowns – then it’s quite possible your biases are stronger than before, or you may have developed a few more.

For example, whether your clinic had vaccine mandates in place – or didn’t – and/or any challenges that came about then – you may have developed a new bias because of, and from, those times.

The impact of Unconscious Biases remaining unchecked

How do you know whether your clinic has been historically affected from unconscious recruitment bias?

It doesn’t matter whether your clinic has set diversity goals, many clinics still unconsciously have and practice recruitment bias … especially because of the veterinary professional shortage we’re in right now.

Even though clinics tell themselves that good fit is what’s important, sometimes they’ll overlook not-so-good-fits – through an unconscious bias – in order to have someone extra on the team.

You’ve probably heard of the pale, stale, male syndrome – now, it’s highly likely this isn’t the case with veterinary professionals given around 75% – 80% of veterinary professionals are female, but it’s definitely something to be aware of – especially because of the tight professional market we’re in right now.

How recruiting biases are perpetuated

We all have our own unconscious biases – hiring managers – practice, HR, lead vets, and head nurses, everyone has their own unconscious biases.

Because they’re unconscious it means we don’t always recognise them ourselves.

Recruitment biases are perpetuated in clinic when someone resigns because straight away – especially if the person resigning is considered “ideal”- then everyone looks to replace that ideal person.

The mental picture has already been formed.

This is when using an external recruitment agency becomes an investment.   Why?   Because we’re able to challenge the “ideal candidate” bias.

There are many ways “ideal team member” plays out in unconscious biases and we’ll cover those – I think you may be surprised at how “ideal” manifests itself.

Now, apart from the fact that NZs Human Rights Act makes it unlawful to discriminate – which is, mildly, what an unconscious bias is, it also compromises your clinic’s ability to be the best it could possibly be.

At this point you’re probably saying “but Julie – I just need vets and nurses to be able to keep my clinic open!” – I hear you.   I absolutely hear you.

And, even with that, I want you to still consider how unconscious bias might play out.

I’m sure you don’t need me to remind you that diverse teams – and therefore clinics – are more successful.  BUT much depends and relies on the attitude of lead vets, head nurses, practice and HR managers when hiring and recruiting.

Diversity training is one way to help overcome personal biases.  Another way is when you’re recruiting.

The more people who can be involved in the recruitment process, the more likely it is – hopefully – that personal biases will be reduced and/or at least challenged.

First up is having the open mindedness to consider, and then accept, that you might be even the teeny-tiny-insy-weensy bit unconsciously biased.

Without that open mindedness you’re doomed.

If you’re unsure what having a growth – or open-minded – mindset looks like, then go back and listen to episode 11 of PCWN – how to grow your veterinary clinic – growth mindset vs fixed mindset 

It is possible to reduce cognitive bias – but it’s something you need to stay on top of.   Training is a good idea and accountability paramount.

Both of these, of course, won’t happen without having a reasonably high level of psychological safety with all team members in-clinic first.

Incidentally, recruiting for diversity starts with having a diverse recruitment team!  Having a recruitment team of one does not a diverse recruitment decision make.

In other words, you need to start with a collaborative recruitment process.

Blind Hiring

If you really want to go all out and truly put your diversity money where your mouth is, then blind hiring is the first step.

Blind hiring is better done through a neutral third party – like VetStaff – just saying 😉.

Blind hiring is where any and all information that could identify a job applicant is completely stripped from their CV.  For example:

• Age / experience – eg, jobs with start – finish dates showing. How many different jobs are truly relevant?
• Ethnicity – university / country of university – you just need to know that the applicant is eligible to be registered – either as a veterinarian or veterinary nurse.
• Ethnicity / gender – from someone’s name – research on racial and gender bias found:
  • White sounding names on CVs are 75% more likely to be invited to an interview than Asian sounding names;
  • White sounding names on CVs are 50% more likely to be invited for an interview than black-sounding names;
  • Masculine names are 40% more likely to be invited for an interview than feminine sounding names.
  • As an aside, there aren’t many blind hiring stats available as it’s a relatively new concept. However, a pilot project pioneered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1952 was what kicked off blind hiring.  Concerned by the low representation of women in their orchestras they had musicians audition behind a screen. This system spread across orchestras in the USA and saw an increase in female musicians appointed increase from less than 5% in the 1970s to more than 25% in the 1990s.

Another way to reduce bias is to ensure every candidate is asked the same interview questions and that the interview process is structured.  This ensures everyone is (hopefully!) measured to the same standard.

Writing unbiased job advertisements is also part of the procedure as well – but that’s a whole ‘nother skillset and topic in itself.

#6 – Over-Confidence Bias

Plays out when the recruiter is soooo confident in their own abilities to either pick a good candidate, or to eliminate the supposed bad ones, that they allow confirmation bias to creep in.

7. Similarity Attraction Bias

Sometimes, the similarity attraction bias plays out and replicas of people are hired – because of likeness / similarity – but they incompetent!

#8 – Illusory Correlation Bias

The illusory correlation bias is when a person believes a relationship exists between two variables when there is, in fact, no relationship there.

 #9 – Affinity Bias

Over-weighted emphasis is placed on something intangible and/or irrelevant to the hiring decision.

#10 – Beauty Bias

Beware of hiring someone simply because they have a similar appearance to others in your clinic and/or the departing employee you’re looking to replace.

#11 – Conformity Bias

Conformity bias is a group thinking bias.

#12 – Intuition Bias

You owe it to every applicant, your colleagues, your clinic and yourself, to always check all the facts.

#13 – Contrast Effect / Judgement Bias

When you’ve got a stack of CVs to go through, rather than allowing each resume to stand out on its own merit, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing the latest resume – or the one you’re currently reading – to the one you’ve just read.

#14 – Bandwagon Effect Bias

This is when one person’s opinion dominates, and no one challenges their opinion.

#15 – Stereotyping Bias

This is like affect heuristics because it’s when a decision is made on a superficial, non-relevant factor.

For example, the applicant might be judged wanting because of their accent, body art or piercings, gender or name.

#16 – Proximity Bias

This is when an applicant is judged positively or negatively in relation to how far or near, they live from a clinic.

7 Ways to Counter Unconscious Bias

1. Do be aware of unconscious hiring biases that you and your team might have and look out for them.
2. Do ensure your hiring managers have received suitable interview training that covers common hiring biases – we’re happy to facilitate this for you, if you’d like.
3. Do make hiring decisions based on evidence rather than on subjective assumptions.
4. Do be consistent and transparent in your hiring process.
5. Do create a standardised interview guide and ensure you ask every candidate the same questions.
6. Do create a standardised reference checking guide and ensure you ask all referees the same questions.
7. Do involve other team members in the interview process and provide a safe psychological space for everyone’s opinions to be considered and, if necessary, challenged.

Part 1 – Unconscious Bias when Interviewing

Unconscious Biases 1-6 from last week