How to Avoid the Perception of Bias at the Workplace
You don’t want to employees to view you as a biased leader. They might think that you don’t have their best interest at hand. This perceived by us might also affect how they think of your decisions. For instance, if you decided to promote one employee over another, your decision might be question. Once your employees no longer trust you, it’s challenging to be in a leadership post. Therefore, you have to consider these ways to reduce bias in the workplace.
Set clear standards when promoting employees
You have to make it clear to your employees how you decide to promote someone. There should be clear criteria for evaluating the candidates. You also have to open the possibility of getting promoted to everyone. If you already made your decision, everyone will respect it.
Be clear with your rules
When you set the rules for your employees, you have to be clear about them. You should also make the rules available for everyone to review. If someone violated the rules, there should be corresponding consequences. It doesn’t matter who did it. If you’re only punished one person while giving the other a free pass, you will lose people’s respect. They will also think that there’s no point in following these rules.
Train your leadership team
Even if you’re fair but your leadership team isn’t, it will still be reflective of you. It’s crucial that you train your leader ship team to be fair and making decisions. They have direct contact with the employees, and they should be fair in every aspect. You can hold an open dialogue with them to raise awareness about how to be fair. You can also consider mentoring programs to discuss the best practices.
Put forward the best practices
While you want your employees to be competitive and productive, you shouldn’t create a negative environment at work. You have to include practices like forming them or caring about their feelings. Yup also have to give them credit where it’s due and provide constructive feedback. If you managed to create that kind of culture, it’s easier to make everyone feel good.
Consider diversity in decision-making
Diversity and inclusion are important concepts to apply in the workplace. Make sure that you have a diverse group of people making decisions. They should have a voice in the process. You’re doing it not only because you want to look fair, but it helps in the outcomes. For instance, if you’re trying to advertise to a specific group of people, you need someone who is part of that demographic group. Otherwise, your marketing strategy will fail. It’s not representative of what the people want or what they’re expecting from the business.
You want everyone to respect you and your decisions. If you don’t show fairness, you can’t expect people to believe in you anymore. They will think that every decision you make is based on your personal biases.
Photo Attribution:
1st and featured image from https://blog.iii.ie/inside-track/5-ways-to-reduce-unconscious-bias-in-the-workplace
2nd image from https://talkingtalent.prosky.co/articles/setting-clear-expectations-for-employees
