Measurement is key to reducing unconscious bias. Without tracking the success of your DE&I efforts, it's difficult to know what's working well and what isn't.
Collecting applicant demographic data and information around how candidates fare at each stage of the hiring process provides valuable insight into where bias may be interfering. Additionally, measuring and tracking how candidates experience the hiring process is equally important. Collecting data around satisfaction, feelings of inclusion, and perceptions of whether diversity is valued offers insight into how candidates of different backgrounds experience the hiring process.
Regularly collecting and monitoring these types of data will enable you to spot disparities and inconsistencies, such as giving preferential treatment to candidates from top schools, which are overrepresented by White students,1 or to referrals, which tend to perpetuate homogeneity.2
Strategies and tools
Greenhouse Recruiting's DE&I feature set allows you to create custom demographic questions that will be posed to candidates when they submit an application. Additionally, you can also include DE&I questions in your organization's Candidate Survey. By tracking candidate responses to these questions in reports such as the pipeline by demographic report, your organization can evaluate the steps you are taking to encourage DE&I.
Note:
EEOC survey and reporting functionality are intended to be used by Greenhouse customers who are government contractors or federal entities. We recommend you only utilize these features only if your organization fits that criteria.
If you do not fit these criteria and are using the EEOC report to gather demographic data without the appropriate level of DE&I reporting, it could represent a risk to your organization. Speak with your legal counsel to better understand the benefits and risks of accessing and reviewing this type of information.
If you'd still like to collect and review recruiting data with appropriate DE&I reports, Greenhouse Recruiting offers custom demographic questions and DE&I reports with Expert subscription tiers.
For more information on collecting and reporting on demographic questions, check out the links below:
1. Lam, A. (2017, January 30). White Students' Unfair Advantage in Admissions. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/white-students-unfair-advantage-in-admissions.html
2. McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks. Annual Review of Sociology,27, 415-444. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415; Ingraham, C. (2014, August 25). Three quarters of whites don’t have any non-white friends. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/25/three-quarters-of-whites-dont-have-any-non-white-friends/?utm_term=.5f826e28025b