The Cost of Unconscious Bias
It’s time for us all to get serious about unconscious bias and to develop the skills, tools and insights to not only talk about it but actually address it, and this requires a certain level of emotional resilience. Because the truth is, it’s not an easy thing to come to terms with, as individuals or as organisations, because it means we need to acknowledge that we are all susceptible to it, and it requires deeper reflection than most of us are comfortable with. But however awkward it may feel, the cost of doing nothing is now far too great for us to ignore the issue any longer.
The human toll has always been immense; the emotional attrition that wears away at us in professional and social settings, the disparity in opportunity and career progression, the general sense of disunity and the resulting negativity that pervades our world, the needless loss of life as a result of bias in policing and judicial processes, and even the stifled progress of society due to certain groups being denied the opportunity to fully contribute to the social, academic and artistic progress of the whole.
Knowledge has been monopolised, creative expression homogenised, health and healing commercialised, literature, science, social discourse and even the process of social change, all ‘westernised’; this impacts the entire planet, in the same way that an eco-system would suffer due to loss of biodiversity. This loss of social diversity and lack of variance in worldview is holding back our whole world, and in some cases actually destroying our planet.
And now, on top of the human cost of unconscious bias, the financial cost to businesses is too great for them to leave unconscious bias unaddressed. Our global society has evolved not only in its social awareness and its moral standards but also in the demographics of the workforce; not only are consumers more conscious and ethical but also the talent has become more diverse and discerning.
This has all meant that the business case for addressing unconscious bias is motivating organisations around the world to not just take an interest but to take serious action. Already, the world’s most forward-thinking companies are taking measures to meaningfully address bias in the workplace, and they are doing more than the bare minimum 90min unconscious bias training; because the economic cost is too great for inauthentic measures.
The cost of the rehiring process in the US alone, due to talent leaving companies on the grounds of diversity and inclusion concerns, is now surpassing $US64b, and this does not even account for the costs involved in legal proceedings and payouts for discriminatory behaviour. In the UK it is estimated that the cost of discrimination is £40b, with personal wellbeing impacts adding another £12b.
Further to that, the loss of productivity in the workplace due to discriminatory and biased behaviour is estimated to be a staggering $US450-550 billion per year in the United States alone.
These figures don’t even encapsulate the potential losses incurred when high-performing talent decide to not even apply to work for companies with low Diversity and Inclusion ratings. Already, 47% of millennial talent say that they actively look for inclusive employers, and services like Glassdoor are normalising the process of leaving reviews for past employers on indicators such as diversity, inclusion, remuneration, and workplace culture.
More than a generation after anti-discrimination laws were passed, the cascading impacts on workplace culture and workforce demographics are now being felt. It is no longer acceptable to turn a blind eye to overt prejudice, subtle discrimination or even unconscious bias. And as usual, it will be the financial impacts that will motivate the business world to address this issue of social justice, meaningfully.
Those engaged in the process of creating more equitable, inclusive and welcoming workplaces are already seeing the positive returns, and as our planet continues to evolve, it will be those who are able to adapt to the changing social landscape who will establish themselves are leaders of their respective sectors into the future.
Understanding the difference between prejudice and unconscious bias is the first step in getting individual and organisational buy-in on the issue of addressing bias. The fact is, unconscious bias, is just that, unconscious, and no one is immune to having it. And though prejudice does exist all around us, it is important to be aware that unconscious bias is often times even more damaging to individuals and organisational culture because of the progressive spaces in which it lives.
Being susceptible to unconscious bias is not a measure of good or bad, it is simply an outcome of having lived in a biased media environment that has reinforced false narratives such as gender constructs, racial hierarchy and cultural superiority. Our bias comes from the ideas we have consumed through children’s books, adult fiction, film and television, advertisements, political discourse, education and entertainment; bias is not a reflection of our hearts, but rather an unconscious outcome of the media we have actively or passively consumed.
This is why there is no need to feel threatened or awkward by attempts to address it, because though it has very real impacts on people’s lives, it does not come out of malice or mistrust, but simply out of having consumed misinformation. Unlike prejudice, unconscious bias cannot be found through self-reflection, and simply being aware of it does not mean we are able to not act according to its dictates. In fact, research has shown that stress, uncertainty, pressure, fear and nerves all make us more susceptible to unconscious bias.
So not only does unconscious bias run counter to our consciously held beliefs and ideals, it is informed by all of the various types of content we have consumed, it is also exaggerated by high stress, uncertainty, fear and situations of pressure. So no wonder its impact is being felt by employees and workplaces all over the world.
As for how to go about addressing unconscious bias by design, well that’s the topic of the next post, so keep an eye out for that one, next week.
About the Author
Erfan Daliri is a social change author, educator and consultant with a Masters Degree in Communication for Social Change from the University of Queensland. He has worked for 20 years in a diverse range of areas, including participatory community development, social justice advocacy, cross-cultural communication, youth engagement and empowerment, refugee and migrant settlement services, sustainability and systems thinking for social change.
He is the founding director of Newkind Social Justice Conference, programme coordinator of the National Unity in Diversity Conference, and consults and advises on communication and project design for organisations such as Amnesty International and the Australian Red Cross.
Erfan is passionate about empowering organisations and communities to address issues of social, environmental and economic justice and to help them build a more inclusive, cohesive, sustainable and equitable society.
His most recent book Raising Humanity discusses the underlying causes of socio-economic injustice and covers the themes of ecology and economy, resilience, resistance and what it takes to be an effective changemaker.
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The idea that unconscious bias exists in all of us is no longer a question to be asked but rather a scientific matter of fact. And because it is costing the business world $64B dollars annually in the rehiring process alone means that companies are finally ready to talk about it and understand how their human resources and diversity & inclusion staff can mitigate its impact. The true cost of unconscious bias includes the human resources to rehire, decreased productivity due to low employee satisfaction, as well as the loss of potential talent unwilling to even apply to work for employers with negative diversity and inclusion reports. Beyond these business indicators, the social and emotional cost of unconscious bias on our world is far too great to even hypothesise at this stage.