VERCIDA Training Programme

An Introduction to Unconscious Bias

Programme Overview

This programme covers the fundamentals: why we have biases and how they impact our behaviours and decisions at work.
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As the global war on talent continues to hot up, so does the pressure on business to attract and retain the best possible talent. However, what business does and what science knows are too different things. Hiring managers globally continue to hire people who simply look and sound like them.

This introduction to unconscious bias workshop draws on the fields of social psychology and behaviourial science. The workshop provides participants with a framework for assessing bias decision-making, following our triple A learning process:

Awareness: Here we provide an overview of the psychology of bias, providing answers to questions such as what is unconscious bias and how does bias impact on individual and group behaviour and decision-making in a business environment? The awareness element covers:

  • An overview of key cognitive and social biases including affinity bias, confirmation bias, attribution error, gender benevolence as well as the halo and horns effect
  • The role and impact of mirco-behaviours (aggressions and affirmations) on individual and group performance
  • The impact of In-group and Out-group dynamics on team performance
  • Understanding the role of social networks and privilege at work

Application: Understanding the psychology of bias is not rocket-science. That’s why our programme moves swiftly from the theoretical to the practical. The application stage:

  • Uses business lead case studies which allow participants to explore the impact of bias decision-making across the talent life-cycle, including recruitment, work allocation, performance management, team relationships and customer insight
  • Uses a range of highly interactive learning techniques including video based drama scenarios
  • Encourages individual self-reflection and analysis using the Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Actions: Our programme focus on the ‘so what can we do?’ question. We provide our clients with research lead actions that are designed to mitigate bias. These actions cover individual behaviours as well as group decision-making. They are linked to the talent themes discussed above.

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