Improving the prospects of young people can be achieved through unbiased assessment says Alan Bourne, CEO at Sova Assessment.
For the class of 2020, the learning environment and jobs market are unlike any we’ve experienced before.
As well as the immediate challenges of isolation away from home and remote-based job hunting, fear that the Covid generation is facing a dark age of low social mobility is borne out by reduced employment prospects.
Reduced opportunity will affect the careers of young people and in particular, those from minority groups who are more at risk of discrimination.
The London School of Economics’ Covid-19 and Social Mobility report finds that since the pandemic “young people are even less likely to fulfil their potential regardless of their background”.
This is worrying, but it is something we can help to tackle as employers. We know that students and graduates will play a vital role in our organisations’ future so what steps can we take to help prevent these inequalities becoming entrenched in our businesses?
The entry point is recruitment. Therefore, it’s vital that potential employers assess candidates in a fair, objective and unbiased manner in recruitment and later, in development. This step is the basis of workforce diversity and therefore of supporting better social mobility.
Levelling the playing field
Objectivity needs to be instilled from the outset. Creating an unbiased assessment process requires a combination of techniques and analytics so that recruiters can continually monitor, diagnose, optimise, and refresh the assessment process in line with their diversity objectives.
As part of our new white paper ‘Levelling the Playing Field’, which is about improving diversity in hiring and career progression, the Sova Assessment team mapped out the building blocks of a fair assessment process.
4 steps to unbiased assessment
- Consider carefully and thoughtfully what good looks like for your organisation. This needs to be through a wide lens and with the scope of diversity in mind. Rather than addressing one aspect, think about what diverse talent means as a whole. Consider the way you describe what you’re looking for and how that could be exclusive if it’s framed without thought to diversity. For example, have a broad range of people provide feedback on a job advert.
- In designing your process think about which techniques are going to be fairest. Have an inclusive approach to design and gather insight about how your process design will be interpreted. Questions and assessment content need to be objective and not discriminate based on access to certain knowledge which is exclusive to some. Having input into the design from a diverse group is really important too so get different viewpoints on the assessment.
- Monitor the success of your assessment process thoroughly. Take the time and care to measure the easy metrics such as gender as well as the more difficult ones where it takes time to build up a picture such as promotion. To see the whole picture, you need sight of all the assessments in your process and across all groups. This data should be linked routinely and looked at regularly in real time, not only on an annual basis.
- Use analytics to work out which part of your journey, or which questions and content are working fairly, and which are not. Lay out the parts of your process shown to be generating unfair responses and consider whether to change them or remove them. For example, are certain questions excluding those without a university education? Are you excluding candidates based on language or numeracy skills that are not required for the job?
The Covid-19 pandemic has no doubt worsened economic and education inequality but it’s within our power as organisations to remove bias and unfairness from our own processes.
Creating a fair and objective hiring and development process will ensure that every student has career opportunity despite the challenges of 2020.
As someone deeply familiar with the realms of workforce development, organizational psychology, and the intricacies of recruitment processes, I can attest to the profound impact that unbiased assessment methods have on ensuring fairness, diversity, and efficiency within organizations.
Firstly, let's break down some of the key concepts and elements discussed in the article:
-
The Current Landscape for Young People: The article highlights the unique challenges faced by the class of 2020 due to the unprecedented circ*mstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has not only brought about health crises but has also disrupted educational and employment landscapes, creating isolation and remote-based job hunting challenges.
-
Social Mobility Concerns: The fear is that due to these challenges, especially for minority groups, there's a potential decline in social mobility. The London School of Economics' report underlines this concern, suggesting that young people, regardless of their background, may have decreased opportunities to realize their potential.
-
The Role of Employers: The article emphasizes that employers play a pivotal role in addressing these inequalities. Given that students and graduates are vital for an organization's future, it becomes crucial for businesses to adopt fair and unbiased recruitment and development processes.
-
Objective Assessment: The cornerstone of addressing these challenges is through unbiased assessment. By ensuring that assessment processes are fair, objective, and free from biases, organizations can promote diversity, inclusivity, and ultimately better social mobility.
-
'Levelling the Playing Field': This concept underscores the importance of ensuring fairness in hiring and career progression. The Sova Assessment team has outlined the essential components of a fair assessment process, offering a structured approach for organizations to follow.
-
Steps to Unbiased Assessment:
- Define What Good Looks Like: Organizations must have a clear understanding of what they seek in candidates, ensuring it's inclusive and diverse in nature.
- Design Fairly: This involves creating assessment methods that are inclusive and free from biases. It emphasizes collaboration and gathering diverse perspectives during the design phase.
- Monitor Success: Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the assessment process by analyzing various metrics. This includes not just gender but also other diverse attributes.
- Use Analytics: Employ data-driven approaches to identify any biases or areas of improvement in the assessment process. This could involve analyzing questions or processes that may inadvertently exclude certain groups.
-
Addressing the Pandemic's Impact: While the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated economic and educational inequalities, organizations have the agency to rectify internal biases. By creating fair hiring and development processes, companies can ensure that every individual, regardless of the challenges faced in 2020, has an equal opportunity.
In conclusion, the article underscores the pivotal role that organizations play in promoting social mobility and ensuring fairness for all candidates, especially in the wake of unprecedented challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. By adopting unbiased assessment methods and continuously monitoring and refining these processes, businesses can pave the way for a more inclusive and diverse workforce.
