Finding examples of racial or gender bias in hiring or job evaluations is not hard. The latest comes from a survey of lawyers. My sense is that the results did not come from a random sample of attorneys, so I would not quote the group differences as gospel. The authors recommended some specific ways that law firms and companies that hire lawyers can correct the bias in their HR processes. There were two things I took from the study:
- Many, but not all, of the recommendations came from a solid research base. It was good to see that their hiring suggestions included behaviorally based interviews, skills based assessments, and using behavioral definitions of culture. Each of these suggestions introduces objectively and structure into the hiring process.
- Given that attorneys have either brought employment lawsuits or have had to defend companies against them since 1964, did it really take this long to come up with some hiring process recommendations?
My consulting experience tells me that people who hire for professional jobs seem to think there is more magic and intuition in selection than those who staff for other types of positions. This is especially true when hiring for a job they used to have. They could not be more wrong. Every job has a set of critical skills and abilities required to do it well. It is possible to objectively measure these in candidates. Doing so will likely reduce bias.