Decision making in the recruitment process: How can one avoid biases and subjectivity?

Thèmes abordés

Bias - Decision Making process - Recruitment - Discrimination - Staffing

Résumé du document

The way managers deal with staffing process is decisive: they have to be aware of the company's needs, and the different variables that they will have to consider during the process. All those data are going to influence their decision, the way they will chose which applicant to recruit.

But as in any decision making process, some elements may alter the manager's decision concerning recruitment. Actually, those elements, called cognitive bias, can be defined as a person's tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors (i.e., mental processes related to knowledge). For instance, those cognitive biases can concern errors in social attribution or memory. Such biases drastically skew the reliability of any evidence and alter the decision maker's objectivity. In this report, we will consequently study the different types of biases occurring throughout the recruitment process in order to shape solutions to avoid them. We will also study the concept of limited rationality developed by Herbert Simon to understand why rational decisions are not easy to make. Finally, we will compare this theoretical background with real-life examples through the experience of two managers who often have to face those issues. At the end, some recommendations will be shaped to help managers be more objective throughout their decision making process in recruitment.

Extraits

[...] In order to cope with this issue, each French company employing more than 50 workers had to sign an agreement with trade unions before January 2010. This agreement was supposed to feature an action plan to promote senior workers' access to employment. Companies not complying with this regulation were entitled to pay a monthly fine amounting to of the total wages as long as the agreement is not signed7. In those agreements, companies have to fox objectives related to recruitment of people aged of 50 or more and to work retention concerning people aged of 55 or more. [...]

[...] Consequently, the way managers deal with this staffing process is decisive: they have to be aware of the stake, of the company's needs, and of the different variables which they will have to consider during the process. All those data are going to influence their decision, the way they will chose which applicant to recruit. But as in any decision making process, some elements may alter the manager's decision concerning recruitment. Actually, those elements, called cognitive bias, can be defined as a person's tendency to make errors in judgment based on cognitive factors (that is to say mental processes related to knowledge). [...]

[...] According to INSEE/EUROSTAT, unemployment rate for women amounts to 11% whereas it only amounts to for men. According to the same study of non-qualified jobs are held by women.3 In order to ensure men and women's equal access to employment, companies signed a professional agreement with trade unions in 2004. This agreements promotes equal recruitment, equal access to training, equal wages and equal career evolutions for men and women Equal access to employment for handicapped applicants In France of handicapped job seekers able to work are unemployed4. [...]

[...] All those measures are dedicated to valuing seniors' experience and to improve the consideration of recruiting seniors. If their presence within the organization is valued, biases concerning age are likely to decrease Working on managers' biases awareness Apart from those legal measures, managers also have to work on their own biases. Being aware of oneself limited rationality enables to work on objective processes in order to restrict the influence of many biases. Each and every manager has a bias at some level, whether it is conscious or subconscious. The key is to explore those biases. [...]

[...] Does he share the manager's vision of the way the company should function? Consequently, expecting the applicant to comply with manager's own professional inking consists in one of the most common biases in recruitment process. This bias can also be called “mini-me syndrome”, to describe the phenomena where decision makers choose employees who are similar to themselves regarding data such as gender, race, age, but also experience, background or way of thinking. The reasoning is that if the decision maker thinks he is doing a great job, why bothering changing of profile? [...]