3.Know Yourself

We all revert to our preferences under pressure.  Awareness of any bias is the first step to a fair and transparent process. Cultural awareness is an important factor when engaging, interviewing and ultimately deciding on the best person for the job.

Actions you can take:

• Use the online Know Yourself' toolkit  and get five colleagues to do so, The chances are you will have a subconscious bias – we all do - but once you know about it you can ensure that your behaviour does not reflect it.
• Discuss with your staff why you want to use the 'Know Yourself' tool explaining your reason for gathering information and what you will use it for 

You can use this with your colleagues and teams too:

• Ask your employees to provide print outs of the feedback (in plain envelopes) and make it clear that the information they give is anonymous. Once you have the figures do some analysis. Have you identified if there are any biases against any particular group of people?
• Share your findings with your employees and if you have found biases, discuss plans for improvement by asking them for their ideas.
• Think about what actions you can take to ensure