Oops! I'm Biased

A 4-day work week, working abroad, mental health care, flexible working hours - these are all benefits that companies offer to attract and retain talent in the face of the ongoing talent shortage. For Rita Wittek-Verbeek, Head of People and Culture at Homerun, it is not about checking boxes, but about what her customers (the Homerun employees) need from her product (the employee experience). But h...

Interviews are part of the standard recruitment process to gather more information about the candidates. But what if just one piece of information rules a viable candidate out? Organisational psychologist Mari Järvinen joins Charlotte Melkert again on the podcast to discuss the coffee cup test, what interviewer bias is, why interviewer bias is so difficult to minimise, and how you can limit the in...

Why do professionals who add ex-McKinsey to their LinkedIn tagline get hired more? And why does physical attractiveness influence the likelihood of being hired? It all comes down to the Halo & Horns effect. In this episode Charlotte Melkert (CEO at Equalture) talks to Leonie Grandpierre (Head of Science at Equalture) about what the halo & horns effect is, how they are connected, why it has...

Everyone needs inclusion, but everyone has different needs. This is one of five paradox that Brooke Gazdag, Ph. D and assistant professor for leadership and negotiation at University of Amsterdam has identified. Inclusive practices in organisational contexts are not black and white, inclusion is never achieved, she says. Charlotte Melkert (CEO at Equalture) and Brooke Gazdag take a close look at w...

Setting objective and unbiased hiring criteria is an overlooked step in unbiased hiring. What’s more, talent acquisition and hiring managers agreeing on criteria for an open position can cause some tension. So how can you set objective criteria that your hiring managers and recruiters stick to until a hiring decision is made and beyond? Charlotte Melkert (CEO at Equalture) talks to Florian Meister...

ADHD remains an obscure condition despite growing discourse around it in professional networks. Not only do many individuals go undiagnosed, but it comes with its misconceptions about how people with ADHD perform in the workplace. And this is why Tori Graham, Talent Partner at Bother, became an advocate for herself and the community of (recruitment) professionals with ADHD. Charlotte Melkert talks...

What if the results on your candidates’ MBTI or 16 Personalities test specifically reflect their personality? Or maybe it’s just the Barnum Effect? In this episode, Charlotte talks to neuroscientist Marcia Goddard, about a bias that makes us interpret general personality statements as specifically applicable to the test-taker. How does this affect pre-employment tests? They also cover why personal...

Is blind recruitment effective when increasing the diversity of your talent pool? In part 2 of “Blind Recruitment”, Charlotte talks to DE&I consultant and founder of Ardent, Ella McCann-Tomlin about what lies beyond the anonymised CV. They discuss what actions can be taken to diversify your talent pool with active sourcing and how to extend the effect of blind recruitment to later stages in th...

Is blind recruitment effective when increasing the diversity of your talent pool? This is part 1 of “Blind Recruitment”. In this episode, Charlotte talks to DE&I consultant and founder of Ardent, Ella McCann-Tomlin about what blind recruitment is, the positive and negative impact blind recruitment can have on the hiring process, and why blind recruitment sometimes just delays discrimination. C...

What is stereotyping bias and how does it affect hiring decisions? Organizational psychologist, Mari Järvinen, and Charlotte scope this very prevalent bias. They explore stereotyping in general and why it is prominent, what a stereotype is, whether stereotyping bias happens consciously or unconsciously, how it can affect hiring, what parts of the hiring funnel are most sensitive to stereotyping bi...

78% of autistic people in the UK and 55% in the Netherlands are unemployed, yet can be 140% more productive than neurotypical employees. This is what Ludmila Praslova calls the autistic unemployment paradox. What does neurodiversity mean today, how does it relate to the autistic community and cognitive diversity and why is it important to consider in the workplace and in hiring? Ludmila Praslova,...

For this episode, Charlotte invited Leonie Grandpierre, Equalture's Head of Science back to cover Social Desirability. Social desirability is the effect of adjusting our behaviour to what we think is more socially acceptable in order to avoid negative judgement. Behaving in socially desirable ways can apply to adhering to political correctness, to how we act on social media, and to hiring situ...

In this episode Charlotte talks to organisational psychologist, leadership coach and professor for leadership and negotiation at the University of Amsterdam, Brooke Gazdag about the I in DE&I. Brooke has dedicated much of her research efforts to diversity, equity and inclusion and regularly weaves the topic into her courses. With her colleagues, she has been developing a framework for inclusio...

In this episode, Charlotte talks to Pauline Komp, HR assistant at Oterra, about diversity beyond demographics. Pauline is currently finishing up her MSc in Diversity and Change Management at Copenhagen Business School and is part of the People and Culture team at Oterra, who recently became a customer of Equalture. Diversity has become a prominent topic for organisations, but many companies still...

In this episode Charlotte talks to DE&I consultant, Ella McCann-Tomlin about diversity, equity and inclusion in the boardroom. Prior to starting her own consultancy, where she now works with companies who want to do more and do better with their DE&I strategy, Ella spent almost a decade in commercial leadership roles. In these positions, she did a lot of HR work, shaping the hiring process...

In this episode, Charlotte is joined by her twin sister and co-founder, Fleur, in honour of Pride Month. On the one hand, Pride Month is an important occasion, since it celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community and highlights the still-ongoing discrimination. On the other hand, the need for it raises questions. Why do we still have to raise awareness around queer inclusion and stand up against discriminat...

In this episode, we talk with Equalture's very own Head of Customer Success, Jesper, who also has a master's degree in Sports & Performance Psychology, about Contrast Effect:  What is this, and how does this bias impact whether we perceive a candidate as good or bad. Have questions for our speakers or would like to contribute to the podcast? Please contact us at: hello@equalture.com

In this episode, we welcome Equalture's very own neuroscientist, Leonie Grandpierre, and dive deeper into the concept of cognitive bias. What are cognitive biases, how do they arise, and why we as humans can't function without biases. But of course, most importantly, how does it affect hiring? Have questions for our speakers or would like to contribute to the podcast? Please contact us at: hello@e...

In this episode, we talk with Neuroscientist and DEI & culture expert Dr. Marcia Goddard about In-Group bias. Why do we have in-group bias, why is it inherently linked to the evolution of human beings but most importantly, how does it affect hiring and what can we do about it? Have questions for our speakers or would like to contribute to the podcast? Please contact us at: hello@equalture.com

In this episode, we talk with Organizational Psychologist Mari Järvinen about Confirmation Bias and how this bias impacts the way we conduct interviews and value assessments. Confirmation Bias is one of the most prevalent biases when it comes to the hiring process. It describes the process of casting quick judgement on the basis of a first impression and instead of objectively inquiring about the...