Overcoming unconscious bias within Local Government: A City of Banyule Case Study
Whether we like it or not, Unconscious Bias underlies almost every decision we make.
It serves the function of helping humans make snap decisions. But for an organisation which takes inclusivity seriously, it can be a challenge to address and overcome. Particularly when it comes to the hiring of new talent.
The North-eastern City of Banyule is comprised of 18 culturally and socially diverse suburbs. The Banyule City Council is committed to access, equity, participation, and rights for everyone. Principles that empower, foster harmony and increase the wellbeing of an inclusive community.
To further embed this ethos into their workplace practices, Banyule City Council Leaders undertook a training session with the Managing Director of Frazer Tremble Executive, Laura Frazer.
To address the topic of psychological safety at work, Laura conducted a session on “Unconscious Bias – Success is a Combination of Talent & Mindset”.
Why reducing bias was important to the City of Banyule
“Biases are the stories we make up about people before we know who they actually are.”
Verna Myers - Diversity Advocate
For a LGA as diverse as the city of Banyule, overcoming Unconscious Bias can be incredibly beneficial. Not only is it important to create a work environment which reflects the various backgrounds and cultures of the employees within the council. It is also crucial to reflect the wider community of constituents.
There are 120 different languages spoken at home in the City of Banyule. 23% of the population were born overseas (Banyule and Precincts profile 2022).
It’s a truly diverse LGA. However one of the challenges of unconscious bias can be the tendency to have hidden preferences for hiring people like ourselves. This can lead to unfair, inaccurate judgements, overlooked talents and even discrimination.
This type of bias is called Affinity Bias. It describes the hiring of the most liked candidate rather than the most suitable candidate.
Laura described Affinity Bias as the hiring of a candidate whom the hiring team would want to have a beer with.
Hire a team you want to do a pub quiz with rather than just going to the pub.”
Workshop activities to reduce Unconscious Bias
Over the course of the training session Laura went in depth into the seven most common types of biases in recruitment. She outlined ways to prevent them from influencing the hiring process to ensure the creation of an inclusive and diverse team.
Banyule city council leaders were informed of Confirmation Bias, Conformity Bias, The Halo Effect, The Horns Effect, Gender Bias, Name Bias and the aforementioned Affinity bias.
You can read in depth about the symptoms and solutions for each of these forms of bias in our blog post: The 7 most common types of unconscious bias. Or you can download our white paper on Unconscious Bias here.
Throughout the training session Laura challenged the audience to address their own biases. She posed self-reflective questions as well as workshop activities such as the circle of trust and the Implicit Association Test. A quiz developed by Harvard University designed to highlight hidden biases.
The purpose of these activities was to create a greater sense of self-awareness within the leaders at Banyule City Council. Bringing attention to any of their own biases which they may have.
The overarching message throughout the session was that we all have biases. Becoming aware of how they influence our decision making is an important step towards reducing their negative influence upon the workplace.
Busting Recruitment Myths
The training session also tackled some big misconceptions and commonly held views about the traditional hiring process.
Laura lifted the lid on phrases such as “a culture fit” and “Gut feelings”. This highlighted the ways in which they contribute to unconscious bias within the hiring process.
“If you’ve ever used “culture fit” when deciding who to hire, you’ve likely fallen prey to affinity bias.”
The Leaders at Banyule City Council were instead advised to look for a ‘culture add’ rather than a ‘culture fit’.
To avoid the effects of affinity bias, the hiring team at Banyule city council were suggested to make a list of traits which they share with the candidate.
By bringing their similarities to their attention, they are better able to differentiate between the attributes that may cloud judgement and the concrete skills of the candidates.
A ‘gut feeling’ can have a powerful impact upon a candidate’s chances of being hired. It can be a positive or negative association for the candidate.
Generally it is triggered by superficial or insignificant details which won’t impact their ability to do the job.
These positive and negative ‘gut feelings’ are also known in official terminology as the “Horns and Halo effect”.
As you’ve probably already assumed a halo effect is where details such as the candidate’s looks, school education or affluence give them a positive aura in the eyes of the hirer.
On the other end of the spectrum, the horns effect (triggered by below average looks, weird smells, style of dress etc.) can negatively impact the candidate’s disposition to the hirer.
How Frazer Tremble breaks the cycle of unconscious bias in recruitment.
Frazer tremble is a full-service talent consultancy. Its recruitment processes have been built around the cutting edge of recruitment technology, with a major focus on reducing unconscious bias throughout the hiring process while securing the talent which businesses need to take them to the next level.
There are several techniques which FT executive utilises to achieve this.
Ft Executive reduces the influence of the Halo effect by not asking for degrees or years of experience in their Job Ads.
Video technology is used throughout the interview process, allowing multiple stakeholders to give feedback on candidates independently. Reducing the effects of conformity bias during the feedback stage.
Candidates are also anonymised using a CV formatting tool. Allowing us to find the right person for the job based on concrete skills and experience.
Moving into the Future with The City of Banyule
Following the training session, the city of Banyule continues its commitment to access equity, participation and rights for everyone within their diverse community.
With the information from the Unconscious Bias Seminar, Leaders from the City of Banyule will be able to conduct their hiring process with greater confidence that they are building an inclusive team which can benefit the whole community.