IWD 2023: Unconscious bias - left unchecked, they diminish us! 

Vanessa Sampson, Head of People & Culture at Locale Group explores the need to address unconscious bias on
International Women’s Day 2023 

As human beings, we make sense of the world around us by categorising – consciously, and unconsciously. Nature and nurture combine to build in each of us a set of values and belief systems that directly influence the decisions we make. These belief systems are fed from the moment we are born; and whilst they are initially designed to protect us, over time, if left unchecked, they diminish us.

The most commonly held unconscious beliefs that damage a workplace or any community are those around gender, race, and sexual orientation; less widespread but equally present are those around body shape and size, language (accent and dialect), attractiveness, mental health and physical disability.
 
And so, today, on International Women’s Day, embracing equity also means addressing unconscious bias, as it can stop communities from being equitable, fair, and diverse, especially if they are influencing decisions in the workplace when it comes to recruitment, skill assessment, team planning, promotions and advancement. 
 
They can be less or more damaging, depending on their nature; but they will always be unreflective of reality. For example my long-standing experience may be that women are emotionally more intelligent and so I feel the better colleague to have; my hiring can be skewed towards women; given the societal situation that women are still more discriminated against than men, this could impact the market positively by pushing women ahead of men; however it is still bias, it still favours one over the other not based on objective parameters, but subjective stereotyping of personally-held experiences. 
 
Holding each other accountable
 
Addressing unconscious bias though is complex. Training alone has been found to be ineffective; studies in recent years have shown that workforces have become less diverse and equitable that in years prior. Traditional training programmes do little but offer definitions, companies that deploy them often do not track relevant metrics to be able to evaluate that they are becoming more diverse and inclusive, and many still offer the training on a voluntary basis – meaning only those already familiar with the concept and open to self-growth and change will embrace it. 
 
A more effective approach is whereby awareness is connected with reflective practice – practical group work will hold each other accountable, expose each other to the very things we are biased about, track and evaluate our work to make ourselves, and the teams we are a part of, constantly striving to be inclusive and diverse, demand equitable conditions at work, and behave accordingly. 
 
Too often, businesses hide behind training programmes and online assessments, which are often nothing more than tick box exercises. Simple collaboration across diverse groupings, safe and open discussion and respectful accountability is all that’s needed to start making real change. Engage and connect in the workforce with purpose to create space for embracing change; only then can equity truly flourish.