Busting Bias in the Workplace
We are all biased, full stop. We need our biases to keep us safe, it's that fight or flight mode, which stops us from stepping out into a road, it gives us the ability to make decisions, and shapes our personalities…. All in all, they are pretty essential.
What we need to be aware of, however, are our unconscious biases. Particularly when we are making decisions about people. As human beings, we have preferences, often towards people who look and sound like us.
When people believe they have been treated unfairly, and are on the receiving end of biases, it impacts on their behavior, performance, and workplace engagement. A recent study showed:
- 34% withheld ideas
- 75% were not proud to work at their company
- 31% plan to leave
Not good when we want all talent to thrive and grow. Sadly, people in minority groups such as people with disabilities, people of color, and women in leadership roles, are on the receiving end of unconscious biases in the workplace. For example, when it comes to selecting promotions, who to send to a conference, or who gets access to senior leadership.
Break the bias in your organization with our fun, interactive and memorable unconscious bias training course.
Participants will leave with the skills, understanding, and practical examples of how to mitigate bias in the workplace through the three-step approach of:
- ACCEPT
- LABEL
- MITIGATE
We use a number of visual and physical exercises (applicable for in-person and virtual training) to demonstrate how we are all biased.
We explore 6 of the most common workplace biases: Affinity, Halo & Horns, Confirmation, Hierarchy, Priming, and Stereotype bias, to upskill participants to have the confidence and language to call out, and call in bias and then mitigate future bias. We do this through a range of audible, visual, and behavioral interrupters.
We focus on your organization, using insights on where potential biases are, the workplace unwritten rules e.g. work allocation, career progression opportunities, and premeditated success criteria; using as case studies through the training to ensure participants leave with a toolkit of solutions to utilize in their daily working interactions. I recently held a seminar on unconscious bias. Through audience participation, we learned that 67% of people experienced affinity bias in the recruitment process and 58% had witnessed the Halo/Horns bias in the performance management process. A broad understanding of the types of biases in play is key to raising awareness and action.
Click here to request a discussion on your training needs, get in touch with us here, or your local Odgers Berndtson contact.
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