Cognitive and Unconscious Biases - vet clinic interview blind spot dangers - pt 2 - 115

Continuing on from last week's 1-5 of Unconscious Biases:6. Overconfidence biasPlays out when the recruiter is soooo confident in their own abilities to either pick a good candidate, or to eliminate the supposed bad ones, that they allow confirmation bias to creep in. 7. Similarity attraction biasSometimes, the similarity attraction bias plays out and replicas of people are hired – because of likeness / similarity – but they incompetent!8. Illusory correlationThe illusory correlation is when a person believes a relationship exists between two variables when there is, in fact, no relationship there.9. Affinity biasOverweighted emphasis is placed on something intangible and/or irrelevant to the hiring decision.10. Beauty biasBeware of hiring someone simply because they have a similar appearance to others in your clinic and/or the departing employee you’re looking to replace.11. Conformity biasConformity bias is a group thinking bias.  12. IntuitionYou owe it to every applicant, your colleagues, your clinic and yourself, to always check all the facts.13. Contrast effect / judgement biasWhen you’ve got a stack of CVs to go through, rather than allowing each resume to stand out on its own merit, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing the latest resume – or the one you’re currently reading - to the one you’ve just read.  #14 – bandwagon effectThis is when one person’s opinion dominates, and no one challenges their opinion.#15 – stereotypingThis is like affect heuristics because it’s when a decision is made on a superficial, non-relevant factor.For example, the applicant might be judged wanting because of their accent, body art or piercings, gender or name.#16 – proximity biasThis is when an applicant is judged positively or negatively in relation to how far or near, they live from a clinic.7 ways to counter unconscious bias1.     Do be aware of unconscious hiring biases that you and your team might have and look out for them.2.     Do ensure your hiring managers have received suitable interview training that covers common hiring biases – we’re happy to facilitate this for you, if you’d like.3.     Do make hiring decisions based on evidence rather than on subjective assumptions.4.     Do be consistent and transparent in your hiring process.5.     Do create a standardised interview guide and ensure you ask every candidate the same questions.6.     Do create a standardised reference checking guide and ensure you ask all referees the same questions.7.     Do involve other team members in the interview process and provide a safe psychological space for everyone’s opinions to be considered and, if necessary, challenged.Episode 114 - the first six cognitive interviewing biasesStruggling to get results from your job advertisements? If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic. The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs

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