Unconscious bias in the workplace can be a complicated and a delicate topic. With the Covid-19 pandemic bringing with it a whole new set of challenges for working parents, managers play a critical role. In this article we discuss unconscious bias and the impact on the workplace, the maternal wall, and solutions for reducing unconscious bias in the workplace.  

What is Unconscious Bias? 

Bias is a prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another usually in a way that is unfair. Biases may be held by an individual, group, or institution and can have negative or positive consequences. Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. 

The Impact of Unconscious Bias 

When employees see others being promoted based on relationship rather than merit, they leave the company. Employee turnover resulting from unconscious bias is an expensive mistake. CareerBuilder estimates that turnover costs companies $22,000 per employee. Other sources estimate the cost to be much higher when replacing an employee earning $100,000 or more per year.  

The “Maternal Wall”  

Harvard Business Review (HBR) has been researching how women who have always been successful at work find their competence questioned when they take parental leave or ask for a flexible work schedule. They call this bias the “maternal wall.” This bias also affects fathers who ask for even the most modest accommodations for caregiving.  

Standard Processes Reduce Unconscious Bias 

Unconsciously the person with whom you have perceived affinity will automatically have an edge, whether they deserve it or not. Reducing our unconscious bias as we interact with others at work can be accomplished by creating standard processes that will help you to pause before you react in favor of, or to the detriment of someone in a review process.  

Strategies to Reduce Unconscious Bias Towards Parents

• Offer flexible work schedules to all.  If your industry allows for it, flexible hours benefit both parents and non-parents in separate ways. For parents of young children, their work schedule can be tied to their children’s school, sleep, childcare, or spouse’s schedules. Non-parents can use flexible working hours to be more productive; taking advantage of their most productive time of day, shifting schedules to avoid sitting in traffic, or flexing their schedule to care for aging parents. Regardless of the reason, allowing all employees to work flexible schedules creates a standardized policy that reduces unconscious bias. If you have a work-from-home policy, stick with a blanket rule for all, and do not make managers judge whether someone’s reason is worthy or not. 

  HBR found that while most workplaces allowed their employees some flexibility in working hours, the usage rates for employees were exceptionally low. The reason is because the use of flexible policies was shown to result in negative work consequences for employees, such as wage penalties, lower performance evaluations, and fewer promotions.  

  If you offer your employees flexible working hours, be sure to make it easy for them to take advantage of the policy. Make sure you’re not signaling — either through subtle means (“Oh, you’re leaving already? Must be nice!”) or through more direct consequences (like poor performance evaluations) — that employees should actually be working “normal” hours. 

• Offer training on unconscious bias. Training on unconscious bias helps to raise awareness of blind spots and remove or reduce the possibility of unconsciously discriminating against those who do not match the value system we have developed throughout our lives. Making managers aware of unconscious biases through training and development costs a fraction of the average turnover cost of an employee, at only $1,200 per employee. Offering unconscious bias training is far less expensive and better for morale of the workforce.  

• Create policies to support working families. Offer family-friendly benefits to all parents regardless of their path to parenthood to support parents in the workplace and at home. These benefits can include paid parental leave, paid sick days, paid personal days, paid bereavement days, disability leave and benefit navigation assistance. Policies can be de-stigmatized through regular training and open communication about them.