Making Institutional Hiring Practices Equitable

Institutional hiring processes are another critical component of plasma physics workforce pathways. Gatekeepers involved in hiring decisions must address and mitigate sources of bias in the hiring process that can disproportionally weed out marginalized communities. It is important to understand the psychological basis for how bias, racialization, and marginalization can affect hiring decisions. This psychological basis is presented to provide a better understanding for the rationale behind a number of evidence based practices that institutions can take to mitigate bias. Practices can include incorporating non-cognitive variables in hiring, improving diversity and cultural competencies of hiring committees, and implementing requirements for a sufficiently diverse applicant pool. Prior to the talk, consider taking at least one 10 minute Social Attitudes assessment from the Harvard Project Implicit website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/).