Relying on - sometimes flawed - judgement of hiring teams is unavoidable, but it’s our job as talent acquisition leaders to ensure we have the right systems in place to avoid systemic issues. 

Bias is one of the most widespread systemic issues in hiring, and can affect the performance of teams, your ability to attract future talent, and even place your organization in the line of site of regulatory or legal action. 

At Humanly, we help leading high-volume hiring teams to minimize bias using tools like our AI hiring co-pilot. But it’s also important that you pay attention to some of the most fundamental components of hiring and how they can contribute to avoiding bias. In this case, the questions you ask in standardized interviews. In this guide we’ll work you through some of the best standardized interview questions to minimize bias in hiring. 

The best part? 

These are tweaks to your existing interviews you can begin implementing today.

How Prominent is Bias in Hiring?

In many organizations, hiring systems have historically been built to identify individuals who performed well in the past, then to attract and move similar individuals down the hiring funnel. This can be problematic when past high performers are all carbon copies of one another. 

It’s also more prevalent than you might think.

• A study by researchers at Harvard and Princeton found that blind auditions increased the chances of women being hired by 25-46%.
• A study by researchers at MIT and the University of Chicago found that “white-sounding” names were 50% more likely to recieve a callback than “black-sounding” names.
• What’s more, 48% of HR managers are aware that hiring decisions are biased.

Now that we’ve touched on exactly how widespread this issue is, let’s jump into what you can start to do. 

Common Types of Bias in Hiring

To begin, we need to note that not all bias is bad. Bias often surfaces as a sort of “mental shortcut” utilized when we quickly make decisions. On one level it’s a form of pattern recognition. You may be “biased” towards greens over red meat. But in some matters, “personal preference” just isn’t going to cut it. 

There are many documented forms of bias that are simply examples of poor decision making and judgement. 

Examples of interview bias

Here are some common biases that can show up in interviews:

The Halo Effect

• Definition: This bias occurs when an interviewer allows one outstanding trait or accomplishment of a candidate to positively overshadow all other aspects and traits of the candidate.
• Example: If a candidate has graduated from a prestigious university, an interviewer might overlook their lack of relevant experience or poor fit for the company culture, assuming that their educational background alone makes them a superior candidate.
• Impact: Can lead to overlooking potential weaknesses, resulting in a hire that might not meet all job requirements or fit well with the team.

The Horns Effect

• Definition: The direct opposite of the Halo Effect, this bias leads an interviewer to focus on one negative aspect of a candidate, allowing it to tarnish all other attributes or skills the candidate may possess.
• Example: If a candidate stumbles over an answer early in the interview, the interviewer might label them as unprepared or incompetent, ignoring subsequent correct and thoughtful responses.
• Impact: Potential good hires may be overlooked due to minor flaws or nervous mistakes, leading to a loss of potentially valuable employees.

Confirmation Bias

• Definition: This occurs when an interviewer seeks out information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses while ignoring information that contradicts them.
• Example: If an interviewer has a bias against younger candidates, they might focus on any signs of immaturity or inexperience while disregarding evidence of competence or maturity.
• Impact: Leads to a skewed evaluation based on the interviewer's preconceptions rather than the candidate's actual qualifications and abilities.

The Primacy Effect

• Definition: This bias is the tendency to remember and give more weight to information that is presented first during an encounter.
• Example: If the first impression of a candidate is extremely positive, subsequent mistakes or less impressive answers may be overlooked or undervalued.
• Impact: Early information disproportionately influences the interviewer’s overall impression, which can lead to an inaccurate assessment of the candidate's suitability.

The Recency Effect

• Definition: In contrast to the Primacy Effect, this is the tendency to remember and give more weight to information that is received last.
• Example: A candidate who performs moderately throughout the interview but ends with a strong closing statement might be rated higher than warranted.
• Impact: The interviewer’s final impression can overshadow the candidate's overall performance, leading to a biased evaluation.

The Availability Heuristic

• Definition: This bias occurs when people make judgments about the probability of events based on how easy it is to think of examples.
• Example: If an interviewer recently had a negative experience with an employee from a certain educational background, they might irrationally assume a new candidate with the same background will also be problematic.
• Impact: Decisions are influenced more by recent or memorable information rather than objective data, potentially leading to unfair assessments.

Understanding these biases and how they manifest in interviews can help interviewers take steps to mitigate their effects, leading to more fair and effective hiring practices.

Next, let’s look at how these common biases could show up in interview questions.

Examples Of Unconscious Bias Interview Questions

But you need to be aware of them and why they can be problematic.

Here are some examples of how unconscious bias can play out from seemingly unbiased interview scenarios.

"What are your greatest achievements?"

• Halo Effect: This question can unintentionally prompt the interviewer to focus solely on the candidate's past successes. For example, if a candidate describes a significant achievement, such as leading a project that resulted in substantial revenue growth, the interviewer might subconsciously ignore any of the candidate's shortcomings or areas where they are not as strong. This can lead to an overly positive evaluation based on a single attribute or event.
• Mitigation Strategy: Balance this question with inquiries that explore different aspects of the candidate's professional experience, including challenges and areas of improvement.

"What is your biggest failure?"

• Horns Effect: When a candidate shares a past failure, there's a risk that this single negative aspect will cloud the interviewer's overall perception of the candidate. If the failure is particularly striking or resonates with a fear or negative experience of the interviewer, it could disproportionately influence the assessment, leading the interviewer to overlook the candidate's positive attributes and learning experiences from that failure.
• Mitigation Strategy: Follow up with questions about what the candidate learned from the experience and how they have applied these lessons in subsequent situations.

"How do you handle prospects who are unresponsive?"

• Confirmation Bias: If the interviewer has preconceived notions about salespeople being aggressive, they might interpret the candidate's response through this lens, seeking confirmation for their bias. For instance, if the candidate discusses persistence and follow-up strategies, the interviewer might see this as confirmation of aggressiveness, rather than effective sales tactics.
• Mitigation Strategy: Ensure that the question is open-ended and evaluate the response in the context of industry standards and the specific job requirements.

"Why did you leave your last company?"

• Availability Heuristic: This question might lead the interviewer to make assumptions based on anecdotal evidence or isolated incidents they've heard about the candidate's previous employer. If the interviewer knows someone who had a negative experience at that company, they might unfairly project this onto the candidate, assuming their reasons for leaving were due to negative behavior or poor performance.
• Mitigation Strategy: Focus on understanding the candidate's career goals and motivations rather than dwelling on the negatives of their previous employment.

"Tell me about yourself."

• Primacy Effect: This open-ended question typically comes at the beginning of an interview and can set the tone for the entire conversation. If the candidate starts with a strong narrative or impressive accomplishments, the interviewer might give these undue weight, overshadowing less impressive but relevant details shared later.
• Mitigation Strategy: Take comprehensive notes and weigh all parts of the candidate's responses equally, ensuring a balanced view throughout the interview.

"Let's wrap up. Anything else you want to share about why you're a good fit?"

• Recency Effect: This question, usually asked at the end of an interview, can disproportionately influence the interviewer's final impression. If the candidate ends on a particularly strong note, it may overshadow any previous concerns or issues raised during the interview. Conversely, if the candidate ends weakly or says something off-putting, this negative impression may be what the interviewer remembers most vividly.
• Mitigation Strategy: Review notes from the entire interview when evaluating the candidate, rather than relying solely on the final impression.

By understanding how these biases can influence the interpretation of answers to common interview questions, interviewers can take steps to mitigate their effects, leading to a more fair and objective hiring process.

Next, let’s take a look at what some alternatives are. 

How To Structure Interviews To Remove Bias

The single best way of reducing the impact of unconscious bias is to standardize interview questions. It's that simple. Select the same questions, in the same order, across all candidates for a given role. 

This will help hiring managers make decisions based on skills and qualifications rather than personal biases. We simply call this structuring the interview. And you can start today. But before you do, let’s jump into a bit more nuance. 

The Benefits of Structured Interviews

Structuring your interview process by standardizing the questions used will help you not only streamline the process, but also take the burden off interviewers to research or come up with questions.

While those more experienced with interviewing may not find coming up with questions very challenging, this task could be difficult for recruiters or employees who are not well-versed with interviewing.

It also helps remove any legal risks that could be related to unfair hiring practices (we’re looking at you unconscious biases) or inappropriate conduct such as inappropriate questions.

The benefit for candidates is that they feel like they’re being judged for their skills and experiences rather than who they are as a person.

A Structured Interview Framework

There are a number of different ways to develop standardized interview questions.

But here's a simple one.

This framework consists of a set of questions that are asked in the same order for all candidates.

The questions are designed to assess the same skills and qualifications, which reduces the chance of relying on personal biases.

Here’s an example framework for a sales interview:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer.

2. Describe a time when you went above and beyond for a sale.

3. What is your experience with XYZ software?

4. Tell me about a time when you had to manage a difficult project.

5. How do you handle conflict?

6. Tell me about a time when you had to give critical feedback.

The key is this: once you decide on the order of questions, stick with it.

And use them in that order every time.

Standardized Questions That Reduce Bias

Another approach is to develop standardized questions that are specifically designed to reduce bias.

These questions can be used alongside a structured interview framework or as part of an unstructured interview process.

Some example questions include:

• How do you handle difficult conversations?
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer or client?
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult coworker?

The key is to ensure that all questions are relevant to the position for which you are hiring and that they assess the same skills and qualifications.

How To Ask Unbiased Interview Questions

Have you ever sat through an interview that felt like you were answering a questionnaire instead of having a discussion?

You know, where the interviewer only asks yes/no questions? Yes, that happens too.

Start by creating a pool of open-ended questions and set up a question bank.

The question bank doesn’t have to be anything fancy —it could even just be a shared document that lives on your company’s internal storage or network.

A Quick Framework To Reduce Bias From Any Interview Question

Here's the key.

Come up with both behavioral questions (example: “Tell me about a time when …”) and situational questions (“What would do you if …”).

Having a combination of these two questions will allow you to access both someone’s real-life work experiences and also figure out their thinking process for various situations.

Examples of Bias-Reducing Interview Questions

Below are a few examples of interview questions you can start using for your question bank.

Behavioral interview questions that reduce bias

• Tell me about a time when you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that and what was the outcome?
• Tell me about a time you failed. How did you deal with the situation and what did you learn?
• Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully persuade someone to see things your way at work.
• Describe a time when you saw some problem and took the initiative to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

Situational interview questions that reduce bias

• What would you do if you made a mistake that no one else noticed? Would you address the error and risk slowing things down or ignore it to keep the project or task moving forward?
• What would you do if an important task was not up to standard, but the deadline to complete it had passed?
• You're working on a key project that you can't complete because you're waiting on work from a colleague. What do you do?
• What would you do if you were assigned to work with a difficult client?

Unconscious bias can easily slip into the interview process when interviewers are responsible for coming up with their own set of questions.

On the other hand, this can be mitigated when employers move to a structured interview process where questions are standardized and focus on skills and experience.

The Pitfall To Avoid

One challenge with standardizing interview questions is getting hiring managers on board.

Many managers feel that they should be able to ask whatever they want during an interview in order to get a better understanding of the candidate's qualifications.

However, by using structured or standardized questions, you can ensure that all candidates are evaluated against the same criteria.

How To Get Hiring Managers To Adopt Your Structure

The best way to get hiring managers on board with your structured interview process is by socializing the idea and getting their buy-in from the beginning.

Explain the benefits of using structured questions and how it can help reduce bias in hiring.

Make them a part of the process. Encourage hiring managers to contribute to the question bank and help them understand how to use the questions in an interview. 

Seed creative ideas on how to come up with their own structured interview questions.

But reserve your right to make the final call on the structure and expect hiring managers to follow, now that they've been a part of the creation process.

All of this will help hiring managers make more objective decisions based on skills and qualifications rather than personal biases.

You can start today, you can perfect tomorrow 

By using a structured interview process with standardized questions, you can help reduce bias in your hiring process.

This will not only help you build a more diverse and inclusive workforce, but it will also ensure that you're hiring the best candidates for the job.

And guess what? You're speeding up the process and saving time by doing this.

Structured questions allow you to focus on what really matters and offer great thank-you's to candidates who don't fit your open roles.

Keep in mind that there are systems to support bias identification and minimization as well. Humanly’s AI hiring co-pilot is one such example, which provides visibility into the topics and communication behaviors interviewers struggle with most. By tracking trends and address interview gaps before they occur, hiring teams can build on best practices like structured interview processes and increase quality and speed of hiring. 

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