Recruitment consultants Cpl Solutions International, has said that employers in Northern Ireland should modernise their approach to ‘unconscious bias’ in the workplace.

Unconscious bias happens when the brain makes incredibly quick judgments and assessments of people and situations without the individual realising. Biases are influenced by background, cultural environment and personal experiences.

To support and empower local employers Cpl hosted an ‘unconscious bias’ event in Belfast in conjunction with Management & Leadership Network (MLN) to equip companies to adapt and evolve to the changing workplace environment.

According to Peter Cosgrove, Group Marketing and Communications Director at Cpl understanding and changing unconscious biases is now vital to modern employers.

“At any given moment, our brains are receiving 11 million pieces of information. We can only consciously process about 40 of those pieces. To process the rest, we rely on our subconscious, which helps us filter information by taking mental shortcuts. We want businesses to better understand this process and so improve areas of their business–like gender diversity, the multi–generational workforce and how to improve an organisation’s culture and hiring practices. Tackling unconscious bias removes barriers and ultimately leads to teams with a greater range of experiences and expertise.”

The accelerated pace of change, shifting demographics and increasing demands for transparency in many areas, including rewards, are contributing to profound workplace shifts.  Commenting on the event and importance of unconscious bias, Áine Brolly CEO of Cpl in Northern Ireland added:

“A more diverse workplace isn’t just something that feels right. Years of research has shown that more diverse workplaces are more innovative and thus perform better than those that aren’t. For instance, companies with higher proportions of women at board level outperform others by 53% and diverse teams outperform homogenous ones when solving complex problems. Making employers aware of this issue and its impact on their company will help them remain relevant in the dynamic environment and better able to attract, retain and engage high–value talent.”