Common Bias Examples In A Workplace

Workplace bias examples are seen in numerous forms and refers to the discriminatory treatment in an organization. This prejudicial treatment affects hiring, promotions, firing, job duties, training, salary, benefits, and layoffs based on gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, race, national roots, or disabilities. 

If not addressed appropriately, workplace biases can be costly and impair a business's reputation. So whether you have one employee or hundreds, employers need to know what workplace biases are and how to avoid them. 

Workplace bias: A brief overview 

Workplace biases, commonly known as implicit biases, are perspectives that influence the way people feel and believe about other people around them. These mindsets aren't necessarily coherent opinions, but they can remain ingrained. Many individuals in a workplace have biases ingrained in them for a long time, which they absorb by observing their familial, social, and institutional circumstances. In addition, these biases magnify people's emotional and logical reactions in day-to-day situations and influence their conduct. 

There are many kinds of workplace biases. Some of the most typical are prejudices in how people view their thought functions and analytical capabilities, such as concentrating on negative attributes of other people that align with one's existing perspectives. Other biases examples remain directly connected to how individuals may look. These prejudices tend to depend on stereotypes and can end in discriminative approaches.

What are some common bias examples in a workplace?

To help you understand and overcome prejudices in your workplace, here are some common biases prevalent in every organization. 

• Bandwagon Effect

In every organization, many individuals are conformers. It implies they agree to their coworker's views, perspectives, and opinions. Also, they are more likely to conform to things because everyone else in your company consents to that point. The bandwagon effect influences the organization since it makes logical decision-making more complicated. For example, consider a situation where the administrators must make a critical decision. 

The majority of the supervisors are in support of one alternative. While some individuals have genuine reservations about it, they might not speak up due to the collective opinion. This bandwagon impact creates negative feedback in which more individuals join the bandwagon as their decisions get readily controlled by others. 

• Decline Bias

Another bias example that you can frequently see at your workplace is the decline bias. It happens when individuals have a favorable opinion of the past and a cynical perspective of their present life. 

For instance, you may have heard seniors state that things were more promising when they were younger and that objectives, morals, and behaviors are declining. In addition, this bias could be owing to the human brain's prejudice for retaining good recollections over negative ones. 

• Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias is a heuristic approach where individuals judge others based on a confined amount of knowledge. The initial information people receive serves as an anchor to a specific conclusion. Their initial perceptions and opinions have far more significance than they deserve. This bias then holds an effect on all of our following judgments. 

The anchoring can be as easy as a colleague's recommendation. When people stereotype any person based on their accent, ethnicity, or origin, they have biases against that person. The anchoring bias is a dangerous understanding of the first impression as the last one.

• Beauty Bias 

Beauty bias is social conduct where individuals think that beautiful people are more competent, successful, and talented. While looks do not remain guarded by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it is a kind of bias most prominent in every organization. In addition, according to a recent study, traditionally beautiful individuals, both men, and women, make higher earnings, whereas less attractive individuals earn lower incomes. 

Another research found that good-looking people may face discrimination against for positions that are known to be beneath them. It might be because people think beautiful people are more happy, social, and prosperous.

• Nonverbal Bias

Nonverbal bias is prejudicial conduct where people analyze nonverbal interaction characteristics such as body language that influence a judgment or belief. When you meet a job applicant for an employment interview, nonverbal prejudice can sneak in. 

Whether it's a feeble handshake, difficulty maintaining eye contact, or folded arms, it is easy to take these cues as apathy, overconfidence, or an overall pessimistic attitude. Therefore, it is crucial to remember that the way an individual moves or behaves is not expressive of their true intentions or whether they will be a successful complement to your organization or not.

How to overcome biases in your workplace?

You can manage the workplace bias problems by raising your awareness of your implicit prejudices and by creating programs that make the most of the aptitudes and capabilities of your team members:

• Identify your personal prejudices

When planning to overcome workplace biases, you need to be honest about your prejudices and stereotypes that influence your decision. 

For instance, you may consciously believe that men and women are equally persuasive leaders, but as a male or female, you might think that people from other genders might not have the same skills or empathy level. This prejudice could impact your actions so that other gender candidates could remain excluded from specific roles or positions.

• Examine behaviors

It is crucial to look at the connection between bias and conduct. As workplace implicit bias is not something people remain aware of, it can be challenging to eradicate. Therefore, it is prudent to analyze how biases can be exemplified in your workplace when employing workers and assessing employee performance. Furthermore, if you understand how biases developed in your organization, it becomes effortless for you to overcome them. 

• Identify where biases are likely to impact your business

Biases tend to influence who gets employed, who gets raises, who gets promoted, and who gets what type of job, among other things. By understanding where prejudice is most likely to sneak in, you can take measures to ensure that biases never hamper your decision-making. 

• Bring diversity into your employing decisions

If your objective is to employ a diverse team, make sure that there remains diversity among the group of individuals entrusted with hiring new people. Otherwise, you may continue engaging the same types of homogenous employees — despite your best discretions.

• Expand exposure to biases

Once you identify the biases prevalent in your workplace, try exposing yourself to them more often. While it might sound vague, you must face your prejudices to overcome them. 

• Motivate team members to speak up about prejudices

The more individuals involved in decision-making and the more open the decision-making procedure is, the less likely a company will remain influenced by workplace biases. Therefore, to overcome prevalent biases, build an organizational culture that fosters open discussion. That way, when employees think a decision might have been affected by prejudices, they won't be scared to voice their opinions and set the record straight.

The bottom line 

In a nutshell, biases come in all shapes and types. There are prejudices against each generation, LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, working mothers —even an individual's height and weight can cause bias! Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that all prejudices hurt the success of companies, and administrators must exercise measures to overcome them. Furthermore, by building an environment for open communication and conducting regular bias prevention training, you can create a substantial effort to handle this problem.