Unconscious Bias Training in the Workplace

Online Training

Unconscious Bias

Unconscious or implicit bias training is one of the positive steps that organizations can take to help employees, at every level, recognize, understand and manage hidden biases that can lead to poor decision making and undermine DEI initiatives and goals. Some common examples of unconscious bias are believing that male employees are better at physical work, or that women will leave the workforce after becoming a parent, or assuming that individuals or certain groups have a particular skill because of their race.

Unconscious Bias Training consists of three bite-sized episodes.

Understanding Bias:

This episode explores the concept of workplace bias — both conscious and unconscious — and how hidden biases can interfere with decisions at work and life in general. It also covers risk factors that make individuals more susceptible to the influence of unconscious biases.

Recognizing Bias:

This episode covers some of the most common types of biases and how they can affect people at work. These include confirmation bias, affinity bias, height bias, attribution bias, beauty bias, gender bias, ageism, the halo effect and many others.

Addressing Bias:

Although biases are part of the human condition, they can be managed to reduce their negative impact. This episode explores some of the practices, processes and strategies to counteract workplace biases. It also addresses what individuals can do if they witness, experience or are accused of bias.

Research confirms that everyone has unconscious or implicit biases – it’s the way the human brain processes a constant flow of information and makes sense of a complex world. However, when people aren’t aware of their biases they can’t manage them, which can lead to discriminatory practices and decisions. As part of a holistic approach to improving diversity and inclusion, unconscious bias training can help individuals recognize and manage their own biases, avoid discriminatory practices and make better decisions that benefit the entire organization.

Addressing and Managing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

Unconscious bias can have a significant influence on any workplace decision — including hiring, recruiting, promotions, performance reviews and discipline. Unconscious bias can also affect interactions with people outside of the organization, such as customers, vendors, partners and association members. There are many different types of biases — based on a wide range of characteristics and assumptions — and all of them can result in poor decisions or discriminatory behavior. For example, dismissing a qualified candidate because they aren’t a good ‘cultural fit’ or have a ‘foreign sounding name.’

Increasing awareness and understanding of unconscious bias is an ongoing process. Monitoring hiring policies and promotion criteria and including a diverse team to weigh in on key decisions are some of the effective ways to reduce the risk of implicit bias. Implementing a system for anonymously reporting incidents and conducting regular surveys to uncover unconscious bias are effective steps, too. In addition, facilitating regular discussions and conversations between different groups and departments, promoting mentoring and allyship and creating a sense of belonging are actions that contribute to reducing unconscious bias and its impact on workplace culture.

Counteracting Biases

There are a number of things that people can do to help counteract biases. For example, reading articles and books on the subject of bias, being aware of stereotypes that are reinforced in the media, and inviting more people from different backgrounds and perspectives into their circle. Supervisors and other leaders in the organization can reduce the damaging influence of biases by seeking out opinions and ideas from everyone, not just the usual group, and establishing well-defined criteria for making decisions around hiring, promotions and work assignments. And, importantly, managers should be aware of making snap judgments, and instead be intentional about taking time to think through decisions. Research shows that decisions are more likely to be influenced by unconscious biases when they are made quickly or under stress.