Unconscious Bias in Talent Management Course

An understanding of “unconscious bias” is an invitation to a new level of engagement about diversity and inclusion issues as they impact the many talent management decisions made in organizations every day. This special Diversity Australia session is specifically-tailored for people managers and thoughtful leaders and it will explore the impact of unconscious bias on hiring, promotion, performance management, and succession management, and delves deeper into the impact of these phenomena upon your employees, workplace, and marketplace standing. Through individual exploration and group interaction, your managers will learn how to examine existing processes, identify where bias may exist, and through scenarios practice more inclusive talent management decisions.

This powerful session explores the impact unconscious patterns can have on the complex task of recruiting and retaining the best talent in your organization. This class is specifically designed to help move people managers out of their old ways of thinking in order to successfully recruit, develop and retain the very best talent for your organization. Your people managers will walk away from this class more empowered to help create more inclusive teams with their diverse colleagues who are motivated and inspired by different values or communication styles.

Some of the most effective diversity and inclusion interventions take place in the intersectionality of unconscious bias and talent management. Assessing each structure and system, identifying where institutional biases exist, and where people make decisions can open the organization to talent it already has but is blocked by biases on who looks like a good performer, who is perceived to have potential, and who appears to be ready for the next level. As all humans, including people managers and leaders, are fundamentally self-referential,  we are deeply prone to look for our own traits and characteristics when we assess others. Those whose work and communication styles and have backgrounds similar to ours can tend to be assessed as having higher performance and potential than those who are more different. Cook Ross has worked extensively in both educating people managers, leaders and process owners on where talent management and bias intersect, as well as how to adjust existing structures and systems to be more open.

Patterns of Unconscious Bias in Talent Management is intended for talent management professionals who have completed the base Diversity Australia Unconscious Bias Programs.

The tutorial covers the six Patterns of Unconscious Bias:

  • diagnosis bias
  • pattern recognition
  • anchoring bias
  • confirmational bias
  • commitment validation, and
  • internalized bias

It additionally explores the impact of these biases on the domains of talent management, including sourcing, recruiting & interviewing, performance reviews, calibration, recognizing talent, and developing & promoting talent.