Tag Archives: unconscious bias

An innovation in Diversity Recruiting!

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Raymahl Sutton, CEO & Founder of Applyable, Inc.

Since I facilitate the module on Best Practices in Diversity Recruiting for the National Diversity Council’s DiversityFIRST Certification Program, I am always on the lookout for innovations in this space. And last month at the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s first annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Conference, I found one; Raymahl Sutton, Founder of Applyable Inc., a panelist in one of the sessions I attended. His points were so compelling that I later I met him in some shared office space of a Raleigh Think Tank facility to discuss his venture to address implicit bias in hiring.

Stan: Raymahl, thank you for sharing your story at last month’s event. So was that the catalyst for forming this company?

Raymahl: Yes! After I graduated from NC State with my degree in Polymer & Color Chemistry, I circulated my resume with no bites for 9 months. A recruiter I scheduled a meeting with reviewed my resume and suggested I change my first name of Raymahl on the resume to Ray, and within 2 months I had an offer. I then realized that there could truly be implicit bias in resume review including impact of ethnic sounding or non Anglo-Saxon names.


Stan: So what was your journey after starting work in the pharmaceutical industry?

Raymahl: Yes, I had seven successful professional years. But then in 2015, I saw a television special about issues with diversity hiring in Silicon Valley on CNN, and I felt that this was an issue that needed to be addressed and that I could do something about it.


Stan: So what happened next?

Raymahl: In my little bit of spare time, I researched issues in implicit bias in the recruiting process – how things like names, colleges attended, previous companies worked for, etc., can introduce bias in applicant evaluation, and even trump key skills or ability to succeed in the position. I then took some computer programming courses so I could prepare myself to design software that could evaluate resumes while removing these biasing factors. Eventually I left my Project Manager position so I could full time launch my new company, Applyable.


Is your recruiting process helping or impeding building a successful diverse workforce?

Stan: How will the Applyable system work?

Raymahl: First, when companies post their jobs on our site and applicants submit their information and responses to screening questions, our system creates a decluttered resume that removes names, ties to gender, ethnicity, age etc. Second, our system evaluates the decluttered resume to present the hiring companies a strong diverse list of qualified candidates to interview. The names, schools, etc can then be provided later, but now we’ve neutralized the human error of the unconscious mind in these preliminary stages.


Stan: So what is next for Applyable? Are you looking for clients?

Raymahl: Right now we are in a pilot program with the county and city of Durham, North Carolina and working on creating an early adopter program with several smaller and medium size enterprises to collect more user feedback and fine tune our solution for a broader launch. I’ll eventually be seeking some venture capital for this next step in growth once we prove our value.


Stan: How can my readers learn more about your work and keep up with your progress?

Raymahl: Yes, they can check out my website, https://www.applyable.io And of course I can be emailed at [email protected] or called at 910-284-1304. My web site is a great place to start since it explains the business case for a diverse workforce, human error and the cost of bad hiring, and more about the Applyable approach.

Stan: Raymahl, thank you for your time. You are indeed addressing a huge business need with your venture, and I look forward to following up as you prepare to launch on a larger scale.

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Please also read my earlier two-part blog series on implicit or unconscious bias:

Seven Biases in the Workplace – Let’s Be Brutally Honest About It!

More About Unconscious Bias – A Guest Blog by John Luecke

More About Unconscious Bias – A Guest Blog by John Luecke

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Guest Blogger Intercultural Communications Trainer and Consultant John Luecke

About the Contributor: John Luecke, who serves as a long-time Raleigh Sister Cities volunteer with me, is an Intercultural Communication Trainer and Consultant. For more information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrluecke/

Introduction: Last month, I published a very widely read blog receiving a tremendous number of hits. In “Seven Biases in the Workplace – Let’s Be Brutally Honest About It,” I challenge us all to be brutally honest about unconscious biases that can pop into our heads about the diverse co-workers we interact with, and to address it with action. Admittedly, it was a fairly rudimentary blog introducing this concept.

Intercultural Communications Trainer and Consultant, John Luecke, with whom I serve as a Raleigh Sister Cities volunteer, agreed to write a guest blog going much deeper into this important issue. Thank you, John!

John writes: Last month’s blog post identified lots of typical workplace biases, but the solution is much more complicated than just becoming aware of them and then resisting the urge to enact your biases.

After all, unconscious biases are just that – unconscious. We’re generally not aware of them, thus making it hard to correct something we don’t see in ourselves. There are relatively objective ways of assessing our unconscious biases — the Implicit Attitude Test or IAT, for example. It’s a free, self-administered online test that helps identify unconscious bias. You can take the test here https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

When I took it for potential biases toward black people and Muslims, the IAT told me that I had a “strong preference for white people.” A bit of a shock, but it didn’t call me a bigot or suggest I engaged in prejudicial actions against blacks, just that I preferred white people. Given my limited exposure to black people, this should not have been a surprise. I fared much better with Muslims, but then I’ve spent a lot of time studying Islam, Middle Eastern culture and have several Muslim friends.

For better or worse unconscious biases provide value; for example, they kept our ancestors alive when threatened by sabre tooth tigers or the warriors from the other side of the mountain. Today they continue to alert us to perceived threats and dangers.

Here’s how they work: When we see something as threatening, dangerous, or fearful our amygdala kicks in and floods our bodies with cortisol and testosterone – two hormones that allow us to quickly respond to dangers. The amygdala is a walnut-shaped structure that sits at the base of our brains and processes incoming signals. The result is a fight-flight or freeze response to danger, and it’s kept our species alive for thousands of years. The amygdala typically takes between 80 and 200 milliseconds to respond, and it shuts down our brain’s communication with our prefrontal cortex – that’s where reasonable thinking takes place.

If we can find a few seconds of stillness to let our prefrontal cortex become engaged, we can have a much more reasoned response to a perceived threat. However, if someone is coming after you with a big knife, go with the fight or flight response and let your prefrontal cortex sort things out later.

But for the kinds of perceptual threats we’re likely to encounter in the workplace – our biased reactions to the overweight employee, the millennial, the older employee — find that moment of stillness and let your reason take over from your amygdala.

Unconscious biases are part of the hard wiring of our brains. Incidentally, our brains consume approximately 20 percent of our bodies’ energy. By establishing unconscious biases, or brains conserve energy and make lots of automatic decisions. Some research suggests that up to 98 percent of what’s going on in our brains happens at an unconscious level. Problems occur when our brains make unconscious decisions about people, especially those decisions that disadvantage some people and prevent us from forming productive relationships with them.

There are lots of ways of dealing with unconscious bias beyond simply recognizing it in ourselves. One of the easiest is regular meditation – any kind of mediation. You don’t have to spend two years in a Tibetan cave, but 15 to 20 minutes a day of meditation can slow the response of your amygdala and provide time for your prefrontal cortex to engage. This includes such techniques as breath mediation, walking meditation, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, etc. Meditation is only one of the many tools we can use to reduce our unconscious biases.