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Sriya Joshi MBA, 2022-24

Beauty pays!

Beauty bias is known as favouring those who are viewed as more attractive than others. In jobs that involve interacting with customers, like sales, hospitality, banking, etc , this is particularly more obvious

According to Maestripieri D, Henry A, and Nickels N (2017), “Physically attractive individuals are more likely to be interviewed for jobs and hired, they are more likely to advance rapidly in their careers through frequent promotions, and they earn higher wages than unattractive individuals” In the Indian context, this can manifest as colourism, sizeism, and judgment based on clothing preferences

What's in a name?

It turns out quite a lot.

Name bias is a form of discrimination characterized by a negative evaluation or preference for a person's name. The name of an applicant influences the hiring process through either conscious or unconscious stereotyping.

Full Disclaimer: I use "name bias" as an umbrella term to refer to the religious, regional, and caste bias pervasive in Indian society and which extends to our workplaces. The prejudice against religion and caste is among the oldest and most blatant.

n guess a person's religion, caste, and the state elong to based on their names and make tions based on stereotypes we associate with oup. To put this to the test, let me ask you the g questions: areer path is a Gujarati most likely to follow? you hire a North Indian or a South Indian for a nalytical role? What about a more peopled role? While your recent enlightenment on pes makes you say, "It depends on their ation or skills," there is a particular answer that pring to your mind.

Women belong in the kitchen!

Gender bias is a bias that causes you to favor one gender over another. How often have you heard phrases that begin with "It is a man's job to..." or "Women can't be or do..."? According to the Pew Research Center, although Indians appear to have an egalitarian view of women's status in society, they usually agree that men should have greater rights to a job than women when there are few employment opportunities available (80%).

So, how can a company deal with the problem of unconscious biases, you ask? Here are a few tips that can help:

Tip #1: Awareness is key

Recognizing and accepting our biases is the first step in our rewiring process. By taking a test, such as Harvard's well-known Implicit Association Test, find out which of your perceptions are likely to be influenced by unconscious biases.

Tip #2: Evaluate your company's bias risk

Conduct an internal analysis of the touch points across the employment lifecycle to identify where employees may be more susceptible to prejudice from their peers

Tip #3: Train staff to recognize and fight bias

Training programs help coordinate corporate initiatives to foster an inclusive workplace while enabling individuals to lessen bias in their regular job For example, AV Birla Group runs sensitization programs for its employees

Tip #4: Recondition your hiring process

You should make significant adjustments to ensure that unconscious biases don't negatively affect hiring decisions. These include reworking job descriptions to be more inclusive, incorporating Artificial Intelligence in the hiring process, and standardizing the interview process.

Tip #5: Set goals for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Unconscious bias affects everyone, but many coworkers are more susceptible to mistreatment when those biases manifest in discriminatory behaviour. Therefore, it becomes crucial that we set attainable goals and implement them to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are genuinely part of the organization's culture rather than just being flowery terms on the company's homepage

While no person is free of biases, the responsibility to better ourselves for the sake of creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace falls on each one of us The first step in our rehabilitation journey is to identify and acknowledge the biases within us and to actively seek ways to deal with them in a healthier way