Participants found the workshops useful and indicated that they would take
different approaches to recruitment and appraisal, one reaction was ‘Helpful
and thought-provoking’.
The principal difficulties are the fairly low take-up and the tendency for those
who attend to be those who already have a high awareness of the issues.
Summary
From birth we all form hypotheses about how men and women behave and,
eventually, about how members of other groups, for example, those defined
by race or ethnicity, behave. Such hypothesis formation is necessary for us to
function in a social world but the resulting hypotheses can lead to faulty
evaluations of the performance of men and women or other groups.
Understanding the, often subtle, effects of such implicit hypotheses is
essential if women and members of black and minority ethnic groups are to
able to participate fully in the workplace and in society generally. Fact based
workshops introducing the concepts of unconscious bias and exploring
potential remedies are an important part of creating a workplace where all
employees are valued, complementing or stimulating other initiatives such as
family friendly working practices and pro-active recruitment.