403: What Are Unconscious Cognitive Biases and Why Should HR Professionals Care?
Define and identify unconscious biases, and take steps to counteract their impact on hiring, investigations and promotions.
As humans, we are all naturally affected by unconscious biases. These unintended prejudices may impact hiring decisions, the outcome of workplace investigations, mentoring and promotions. You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge, so the first step is to define cognitive bias and learn how it works. Then you can help your organization make judgments, determinations and decisions confidently knowing that biases among decision-makers have not compromised the results.
Amy Oppenheimer has more than 30 years of experience as an attorney, investigator, administrative law judge, expert witness, mediator and trainer. Her areas of expertise include preventing workplace harassment and responding to allegations of harassment, retaliation, whistleblower claims, discrimination and other forms of workplace misconduct. Amy is co-author of “Investigating Workplace Harassment, How to Be Fair, Thorough and Legal.” She is the founder and president of the board of the California Association of Workplace Investigators, Inc. (CAOWI) and is on the Executive Committee of the Labor and Employment Section of the State Bar of California.
