CATALYST Issue 4 | Page 62

D Diversity | Catalyst discriminate, stressing that diversity refers to personality types as well as protected characteristics. “At second round, things like group discussions tend to favour extroverts. There’s a danger that candidates who are more thoughtful, reflective and supportive, who you need in an organisation might be excluded.” Unconscious bias Overall, Clavijo believes that “organisations are doing quite well in terms of their job descriptions and screening processes”, but tend to fall down during the interview process. “That’s when a lot of bias and stereotyping comes in,” she says. This is something that Allen & Overy has worked to address. “We are deliberate and thoughtful about who we have candidates meet,” explains Dawas. “We’ve widened our interviewer pool to ensure we have a broad range of people who are diverse not just in the way they look, but in their background and other aspects. “The most compelling evidence has been not so much around anonymised CVs, but the quality of the interviewers and the training they receive to improve their ability to conduct a robust, objective and fair interview. Our interviewers do see applicants’ details, but we have now trained 400 people around the world in interviewing; by the end of 2020 it will be 500-600 people.” Of course, even with training, bias remains, a truth that is driving the use of more consistent, structured interview formats, standardised scoring systems and collaborative decision making, to prevent a skewed decision made by a single interviewer. Accepting that we have bias is the key to overcoming it. “Training creates awareness, holding a mirror up to ourselves; what it doesn’t do is fix it,” sums up Modley. alexandermannsolutions.com 62 “Anything that can be seen to make an assessment feel less like a gruelling test benefits everyone” Clavijo references NEOMA’s ‘discrimination, diversity & inclusion’ course, designed to give students strong examples from everyday life, and to explain the importance of becoming conscious “of all the biases in front of us all the time”. Within organisations, training must be provided regularly, and frequently updated to reflect evolving issues, adds Dr Sun Young Lee, associate professor at UCL’s School of Management. She highlights age discrimination as a problem coming to the fore. “Given many countries’ ageing populations, organisations will need to put more effort into bringing in and supporting older employees,” she says. Bias around age is currently a notable (and topical) issue in France, Clavijo reports. “We’ve had recent strikes around the retirement age. We want people to retire later in France, but if you lose your job at 45 or 50 it’s really hard to find another one.” She also highlights discrimination around