Remember the peer pressure that your teachers warned you about on the playground? Well, conformity bias is the same thing but in the workplace. This allows the value of the experience and know-how of the older employees to be observed by the younger employees. How to Avoid: Management can combat ageism by including younger and older employees together in a group to have them interact and form positive relationships. Women and minority groups are particularly affected as they already face multiple biases against them. While ageism affects everyone since everyone grows older by the day, there are certain groups that are affected more than others. The bias tends to favor young driven employees. This idea could be a result of a person's belief that a person's age is related to their work abilities, knowledge, or skill. 1 - AgeismĪge discrimination is based on the belief that older employees aren't as competent or capable of performing a job as younger employees. Now that we understand what an unconscious bias is and why they are not wanted in the workplace, let's take a look at different examples and how you can tackle unconscious bias in the workplace. 10 Examples of Unconscious Biases in the Workplace Rather than considering a person's work performance or contribution to a team, a manager can base a promotion off of a bias that they may have about certain people. When considering people for promotions, managers can be affected by an unconscious bias. This can affect whether the managers decided to hire the candidates or not based on the manager's subconscious attitude towards that person during the interview. In the hiring process, when managers conduct an interview, they can unknowingly fall victim to a bias that they may have. However, there are two common times when unconscious biases happen frequently. It can influence a person at any point without the person realizing it. Unconscious biases can take place at any time. It is important to remember that all people are different and different minds offer unique and fresh perspectives in a productive work environment. Unconscious biases influence people's actions which can prevent diverse cultures from entering the workplace. Part of the development of a healthy workplace is including diversity and culture. Leaders of the business are in charge of creating a healthy, productive workplace. Biases Prevent Diversity and Culture in the Workplace This can hurt team morale and push employees away from the business. The downside to this is that certain employees will receive this unfair treatment despite not having any of their work performance taken into consideration. For example, if leadership is affected by an unchecked unconscious bias, then they can create unfair advantages or disadvantages for employees affected by that bias. Unconscious biases can have a negative effect on a team. Unconscious Biases Can Create Unfair Disadvantages Therefore, it is easier to recognize and address if a person is treating others unfairly with bad intentions. This means that we are aware of our decision-making. On the other hand, employment discrimination happens in our conscious state. Unconscious biases happen without us being aware of it, and so our actions are sometimes not ill-intended. Is Unconscious Bias in the Workplace Illegal?Īs stated above, unconscious bias is different from employment discrimination, which is against the law. But why is it important? Below, let's take a look at why a business should acknowledge that unconscious bias should be avoided in the workplace. Recognizing unconscious bias in the workplace is important. By understanding the various unconscious biases, a company manager can raise awareness in the workplace to be more inclusive of members to create a more diverse work environment. Implicit bias can be hard to address because they happen without you realizing it, hence the name "unconscious" bias. For leaders in management positions, this could pose as a big problem since companies are prohibited from discriminating during the recruitment process or when considering an employee for a promotion. This could lead to a human discriminating or treating other people unfairly without them realizing it. Misinformation and stereotypes can have a negative effect on our attitudes. However, sometimes in our conscious state, our brains are exposed to misinformation and stereotypes. Typically, this is meant to help us familiarize ourselves with things that are either good, bad or just patterns of behavior. Human brains create a prejudice that affects our decision-making. These biases are based on common facts or your past experiences that may affect how you think of things now. Unconscious bias, also known as implicit bias, refers to a person's attitude or beliefs about others that happen without the person being aware of it.
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