Reducing unconscious bias brings long-term benefits to your school
It may take some time to implement and embed the steps in this article into your recruitment process, but they'll help make your school inclusive, diverse and welcoming.
Reducing unconscious bias will:
- Create a more inclusive team
- Give pupils more diverse role models to look up to in your school
- Help you find the best candidate for each role
- Help you avoid being challenged by applicants who felt the process was prejudiced
It might not be possible to adopt all the steps below, so pick the ones that are most suitable and feasible for your school's context – even following some of them will reduce your unconscious bias.
Look at data from your previous recruitment rounds
Look at multiple recruitment rounds to find out whether there are any worrying recurring patterns, so you can focus on the most important areas of the process.
For example, if a wide demographic variety of candidates get shortlisted but only a narrow demographic group tend to be hired, start by looking at your processes during the interview stage.
Find out how to tackle unconscious bias at each stage of recruitment below.
Advertising roles
Post job adverts in a diverse range of places
Make your school website welcoming
Show your commitment to diversity
Shortlisting candidates
You may find that a wide variety of people apply for your positions, but only a narrow demographic group make it past the CV stage. If this is the case, consider using the approaches below, which are recommended practice in other industries.
Anonymise CVs
Use a scoring grid to ensure objectivity
Carrying out online checks of shortlisted candidates
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2024 recommends that schools "should consider" carrying out an online search of shortlisted candidates as part of due diligence (see paragraph 226).
But this can increase the chance of unconscious bias interfering with the hiring process, because you may learn additional personal information that's not relevant to the job.
To reduce this risk, ask someone neutral, who is not part of the interview panel, to carry out the search. They should only pass on relevant information to decision-makers – e.g. information that suggests the candidate:
- Is unqualified for the role
- Poses a potential safeguarding risk
- Risks damaging the reputation of your school/trust
Read more about carrying out an online search of shortlisted candidates for more support on how to do this fairly.