Who is REALLY Qualified? | Candidate Pool Bias | [Part One]

This is #IncreaseDiversity, a weekly newsletter series + Increase Diversity Toolbox sharing best practices for employers who want to learn how to….well, increase diversity. To see previous editions, visit JenniferTardy.com. | IG: @IncreaseDiversity 

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“The greatest challenge we face as recruiters and hiring managers is our biased perception of what someone should look like to demonstrate that they are qualified to do the job successfully. In other words, we have biased views on who is qualified.” - Jenn Tardy

As hiring leaders, here is how I want you to think about qualifications. Qualifications help to determine who is most capable of doing the work successfully. It is important that we are clear on the minimum qualifications for the role before we start recruiting; otherwise, our bias seeps in (again).

In today’s newsletter article edition, I am going to share a two-part series about qualifications by asking the very important question: Who Is Qualified? In part one, we will discuss how bias impacts who we consider qualified enough to be a part of our candidate pools. In part two, we will discuss how bias impacts who is considered qualified enough to be hired into our workplaces.

I’m sure that we can agree with the statement that recruiters are primarily accountable for the level of diversity within the candidate pool. But developing a candidate pool oftentimes is marred with its own biased practices, three of which are usually influenced by hiring manager preferences. They include pedigree bias, industry competitor bias, and company bias. 

Pedigree Bias

The bias that impacts who is seen as qualified to join the candidate pool is pedigree bias. According to the Forbes article, “Why Companies Should Hire For Potential Over Pedigree: Q&A With Byron Auguste,” pedigree is determined by where someone went to school, what degrees they completed, what jobs they’ve had—in what order and in what time frame—and how those fit the algorithms that reflect who is likely to have the needed skills. 

Here is what I want you to know. It is okay to hold the perception that a person's school, degree, and job history can be an indication of being qualified. That is not the problem. The challenge is our perception that others who do NOT fit this algorithm are unqualified. In other words, yes, someone can be considered qualified with this pedigree, but this is not the ONLY way that one can be packaged to ALSO be just as (if not more) qualified to do the role successfully. So do not use pedigree as a way to limit your candidate pool. 

Competitor Bias

The second bias that impacts who we see as qualified enough to join the candidate pool is a term our team at JTC calls industry competitor bias. Too often, we think of qualified candidates as those who have only worked with our industry competition. It is easy for us as recruiters to only recruit from industry competitors - which ultimately limits the candidate pool. In addition, if there is underrepresentation within your industry, increasing diversity will not be possible unless you are free to broaden your recruitment search beyond industry competitors. Beyond industry competitors, I want you to consider talented competitors. And remember this. Your talented competitors may not be companies found within your industry. Qualified job seekers migrate inside and outside of industry sectors and have broad ranges of job titles and direct and transferable job experiences. 

As a recruiter, it is important that you identify not just your industry competitors, but your talented competitors too. You should know about job titles from other industries that are viable, competitive, and feeders into your candidate pools. As a matter of fact, to begin creating your talent pool competitor list, I want you to try this quick exercise. Talk with the employees that directly report to you and learn about their career history. Start making notes of previous companies and job titles that may have the potential for recruiting in the future. You will be surprised at the number of individuals on your team who are high performers with a career path that started outside of your industry. 

Here is another exercise. When people join your company – where are they coming from and when they leave your company, where are they going? When people decline offers to work at your company, where are they going? It is likely that they are not all within your industry. And the more quickly you can learn about what other spaces (or industries) your talent is working, the more quickly you can tap into those spaces to broaden your sourcing strategies. 

Company Bias

The last bias that I don’t feel gets enough attention but also determines who we perceive as qualified enough to join our candidate pool is company bias. Company bias presents itself as the idea that candidates are not qualified to work on your team because they have worked for employers that you have labeled as inferior or subpar. In other words, candidates from specific workplaces are automatically disqualified because of the reputation of the company. You allow this company's reputation to supersede the knowledge, skills, and experiences of the actual candidate. Keep in mind that a candidate is more than the one company they’ve worked at, great candidates can work for bad employers too, and just because one person did not work out on your team from that company does not mean that all candidates from this company will not work out.  

Avoiding these three main biases can not only broaden your sources from which to recruit for your candidate pool, but it can also help you to increase diversity. Now that we have talked about this side of “who is qualified ''I look forward to dialoguing with you next week in part two of this two-part series, to talk about interview performance and defining standards of professionalism. 

Join us in the comments section and share what other types of bias you have observed in connection to who gets added to and who gets left out of our candidate pools.