McKinsey’s long-running Women in the Workplace research shines a spotlight on the ongoing lack of gender diversity in corporate America. The 2022 report indicates that though women hold 48% of entry level roles, women continue to be dramatically underrepresented in leadership in first-level management positions right on up to the C-suite. That representation has changed very little in the last five years.
Gender bias hurts women in the workplace, and it hurts companies, too. Companies with strong female representation are 25% more likely to outperform their less diverse counterparts, says McKinsey. To their credit, many organizations are undertaking diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to drive lasting change in workplace culture and reduce bias that can lead to underrepresentation of women and people of color. For more immediate change, they can reduce bias in hiring with an intelligent hiring platform.
3 tools for reducing gender bias in hiring
The fact is many roles are still male-dominated. Despite women performing well and even outperforming in these roles, their success still catches some by surprise. While DEI strategies can help change stereotypes about these roles, so can getting more women candidates who are qualified for a role into that role. Every aspect of Modern Hire’s intelligent hiring platform contributes to a fairer, more objective hiring process. Three Modern Hire tools in particular, described below, help hiring teams identify the best candidates for the role efficiently, effectively and ethically.
Science-based pre-hire assessments
Modern Hire’s Virtual Job Tryouts® are proprietary, award-winning pre-hire assessments that measure candidates on core competencies proven to drive success in specific roles in the modern workplace. With the VJT, hiring teams evaluate candidates based on objective, job-relevant data and demonstrated abilities using multi-method measures, while candidates engage in simulated tasks, job-relevant exercises, and a realistic job preview. They can select best-fit candidates based on science and predictive analytics, which checks a lot of gender bias at the door.
When the VJT helped a biotech company identify best-fit candidates for supervisory/managerial roles, hiring of women candidates for these roles increased by 26%.
Intelligent interviewing
The interview is at the core of hiring. It’s also an opportunity to reduce gender bias. Hiring managers and recruiters know that unconscious bias can sneak in with interviews; Modern Hire reduces that possibility with proven, ethical AI. Automated Interview Scoring is assistive AI technology that analyzes candidate interview responses and recommends scores based on job-relevant data and competencies linked to job success. With AIS, hiring teams find best-fit candidates with interviewing that is quick, consistent, and fair. AIS helps reduce bias in interviewing and control adverse impact.
Automated Interview Scoring is proven to be 3x fairer than interview scoring by humans.
Hiring for potential
Find My Fit™ is a Modern Hire scientific assessment tool that directs applicants to jobs for which they are qualified but may not have considered. Find My Fit quickly assesses job seekers’ interests, background, style and aspirations to serve up job recommendations. The recommendations contain links directing job seekers to apply for those jobs at the organization.
Find My Fit has been shown to increase candidate pool diversity by enhancing the variety of jobs that candidates are willing to explore. In 2022, Modern Hire client Spectrum won a prestigious TIARA Talent for the automation and personalized candidate experience Spectrum achieved with Find My Fit.
More than 50% of applicants who took Find My Fit for a Field Service Technician role were women, compared to only around 30% for those not using Find My Fit, helping to equalize the workforce for this traditionally male role.
Hire a diverse workforce
Modern Hire’s trusted science and proven technology are essential for companies aiming to make measurable progress in workforce diversity efforts. A recent review of data from four long-term Modern Hire clients demonstrated that on average, clients saw an increase of more than 40% in ethnic diversity and 26% in gender diversity with the Virtual Job Tryout. Find out more about how Modern Hire leads the market in reducing bias in hiring.