Building a truly fair hiring process starts with understanding where bias hides and having the right tools to address it. A well-implemented Applicant Tracking System can bring the consistency, structure, and data-driven insight your organization needs to hire more equitably and build stronger teams.
Summary:
Hiring bias is one of those uncomfortable truths that most organizations know exists but struggle to actually fix. Even the most well-intentioned recruiters carry unconscious assumptions that can quietly shape who gets called back and who gets passed over. The good news? Technology can help. Specifically, a well-implemented Applicant Tracking System can be one of your most practical, day-to-day tools for building a hiring process that's genuinely more fair.
This isn't about checking a box. It's about building teams that are stronger because they're more diverse, and creating a workplace where the best person for the job actually gets it.
Hiring bias shows up in ways that are often subtle and unintentional. It's not usually overt discrimination. It's the quiet mental shortcuts we all take when we're sorting through a stack of resumes or sitting across from a candidate. Some of the most common forms include:
Race and Ethnicity: Candidates from certain backgrounds may be unfairly overlooked, often before anyone has even reviewed their qualifications.
Gender: Outdated assumptions about which gender is "right" for certain roles still influence decisions in many workplaces.
Age: Younger candidates get written off as inexperienced. Older candidates get written off as set in their ways. Both assumptions are often wrong.
Educational Background: Favoring candidates from prestigious schools, even when the job doesn't actually require that pedigree, is a surprisingly common bias.
Socioeconomic Status: Assumptions about a candidate's background can color perceptions of their fit, drive, or professionalism, often inaccurately.
Neurodiversity: Candidates with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or other cognitive differences are frequently filtered out by processes designed around a narrow definition of "professional." That's a loss for everyone.
Geographic and Name-Based Bias: Research continues to show that candidates with names perceived as foreign or unfamiliar receive fewer callbacks, even with identical qualifications. Remote work has opened up the talent pool geographically, but location-based assumptions still linger in many hiring decisions.
The tricky thing about most of these biases is that the people acting on them usually don't realize they're doing it. That's what makes systemic solutions so important.
Reducing hiring bias is one part of a broader commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Here’s what each of those terms means in a workplace context.
Statistics show that diverse workforces outperform those who don’t prioritize DEI in productivity, engagement, and creativity.
Organizations with above-average gender diversity and levels of employee engagement outperform companies with below-average diversity and engagement by 46% to 58%.
One way to get guaranteed DEI buy-in is highlighting how it’s healthy for your organization’s bottom line.
Companies with more women in C-suite level positions have 34% greater returns for shareholders.
One of the simplest and most powerful things an ATS does is standardize your recruitment process. Every candidate moves through the same steps, receives the same communications, and gets evaluated against the same criteria. That consistency alone reduces a lot of opportunities for bias to sneak in.
When resumes are reviewed manually and informally, recruiters can unconsciously favor people who share their background, went to similar schools, or even have familiar-sounding names. An ATS creates structure that helps prevent that from happening. Learn more about how HiringThing approaches structured, consistent hiring workflows.
Manual resume screening is one of the biggest sources of bias in hiring. It's easy to be swayed by a well-known company name, a prestigious university, or even a shared hobby listed at the bottom of a resume. An ATS screens resumes based on the criteria that actually matter for the role: skills, experience, and qualifications.
Many modern platforms use machine learning to continuously refine that screening over time, getting better and more accurate as they go.
This one is worth its own section, because it represents a real shift in how forward-thinking organizations are approaching talent. The traditional resume has always been a noisy signal, full of credential proxies that don't reliably predict job performance. Prestigious degree? Fancy company name? Those things tell you a lot about someone's access to opportunity, but not necessarily their ability to do the work.
A growing number of organizations are moving toward skills-based hiring, and a good ATS supports that shift. By building job requirements around demonstrated competencies rather than educational pedigree, and using assessments or skills screenings integrated into the ATS workflow, you can evaluate what candidates can actually do rather than where they went to school. This approach tends to benefit candidates from non-traditional backgrounds significantly, widening your talent pool in ways that credential-focused hiring never would.
Building skills-based job descriptions that attract the right candidates from the start is one of the highest-leverage things you can do.
Some ATS platforms take it a step further with blind recruitment features, stripping out details like names, gender, age, and educational background so that reviewers are focusing only on what candidates can actually do. This approach can be especially effective in the early stages of hiring, when those identifiers are most likely to trigger unconscious bias.
Unstructured interviews are a bias minefield. When every candidate gets different questions based on where the conversation naturally goes, you end up with apples-to-oranges comparisons that favor whoever made the best personal impression rather than whoever was most qualified.
An ATS helps you build and implement structured interview templates so every candidate answers the same questions, evaluated against the same rubric. You can track and record responses, making it easier to compare candidates fairly. Check out HiringThing for practical tips on building better interview processes.
Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly large role in recruitment, from resume parsing to candidate ranking to predictive hiring tools. Used well, AI can dramatically reduce the time spent on manual screening and surface strong candidates who might otherwise be overlooked. But it comes with real responsibilities.
AI hiring tools trained on historical data can inherit the biases of the past. If your best performers over the last decade skewed toward a particular demographic, an AI model trained on that data may quietly replicate that pattern. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other regulatory bodies have been paying close attention to AI in hiring, and that scrutiny is only increasing.
The takeaway isn't to avoid AI. It's to use it thoughtfully: audit your tools regularly, look for vendors who are transparent about how their models work, and make sure human reviewers are staying engaged in the process rather than rubber-stamping algorithmic outputs.
Here's where things get really useful. An ATS collects data at every stage of your recruitment process, and that data can tell you a lot about where bias might be showing up. Are certain demographic groups consistently dropping out at the same stage? Is your candidate pool as diverse as you think it is?
Having access to that information means you can actually do something about it, rather than just hoping your process is fair.
Bias often starts before a single application comes in. The language used in job postings has a measurable effect on who applies. Phrases like "rockstar," "ninja," or "aggressive self-starter" tend to skew male in appeal. Requirements like "must be able to lift 50 lbs" or "available for frequent travel" can unnecessarily screen out qualified candidates with disabilities or caregiving responsibilities.
Many modern ATS platforms include tools that flag potentially exclusionary language in job descriptions before they go live. Pair that with HiringThing's job posting features and you can reach a broader, more diverse candidate pool right from the start.
Many organizations have diversity goals but struggle to measure whether their efforts are working. An ATS can generate reports that show you the composition of your candidate pool at each stage, where you might be losing diverse candidates, and how your diversity metrics are trending over time. That visibility is essential for making real progress.
An ATS is a powerful tool, but it's not a magic fix. There are a couple of important caveats worth knowing.
Algorithmic bias is real. If the data used to train an ATS algorithm reflects historical biases, the algorithm can perpetuate them. That's why it matters to audit your systems regularly and make sure they're being built and maintained with diverse perspectives in mind.
Compliance is evolving. Several states and cities, including New York City, Illinois, and Maryland, have passed or proposed laws specifically governing the use of automated employment decision tools. Staying current on these regulations isn't just good practice. It's increasingly a legal requirement. A good ATS vendor will keep you informed as the landscape shifts.
Technology works best alongside human judgment. An ATS is great for removing bias in early screening and creating consistency in your process. But humans still need to assess things like cultural contribution, soft skills, and growth potential. The goal is a smart partnership between the two, not replacing one with the other.
Training matters. Getting the most out of an ATS requires that your team actually knows how to use it well. Invest in proper onboarding and ongoing training so that the system stays aligned with your organization's values and goals.
Technology is only part of the equation. These practices help make the rest of your recruiting process, and your organization as a whole, more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
You want to ensure you have a company-wide commitment to DEI. It’s not just enough to have those doing the recruiting buy-in—savvy job seekers will do research on your organization and if your DEI isn’t obvious in your marketing collateral, website design, or reviews, your DEI-centric recruiting is moot. You can have your employees sign a DEI commitment, conduct DEI training, or launch your new DEI initiatives with a presentation or party! Get the word out there and ensure key decision-makers are on your side.
A DEI statement will ideally address multiple facets of how your values and experiences advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in your work. You can place this prominently in any employer branding. Click here to check out 25 examples of diversity statements from companies you know.
The Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence defines explicit bias as bias, “characterized by overt negative behavior”—think someone who’s openly, proudly racist, homophobic, misogynistic, or ageist. Implicit bias is trickier. They define implicit bias as bias that “operates outside a person’s awareness and can be in direct contradiction to a person’s espoused beliefs and values.” Implicit bias automatically seeps into a person’s thinking and behavior, often without them realizing it. A hiring manager only hiring people that remind them of themselves is an example of implicit bias. So is thinking someone’s “too old,” “not old enough,” or “not the right gender” for a role.
Admitting bias exists is a significant first step to ensuring you combat biases in your hiring process—we’re all governed somewhat by feelings we may not know we have. Admitting we all have biases allows you to put checks into place to ensure those implicit biases don’t interfere with hiring decisions.
We invite you and your co-workers to take the free Implicit Bias Test from Project Implicit.
You want to make sure you involve diverse employees when designing your new DEI recruiting strategy. You also want to ensure you’re involving a diverse group of employees as part of the hiring process—the more perspective you get, the stronger your recruiting will be.
“I just really like them,” isn’t a good reason to hire someone. Scorecards are a great way to help eliminate biases and make everyone think of specific reasons a candidate is a good fit for a role.
Take an honest look at how DEI-friendly your current recruiting process is, starting with these areas.
Showcase your company culture to make sure all candidates know they’d be welcome and valued. Set the expectations as an organization for what candidates can anticipate in the process as well as your own renewed dedication to a diverse team. Try adding photos and sharing team-building activities, like a volunteer day you participated in, to show what it’s like to work for your organization.
85% of roles are filled through networking, including referrals. Networking is a powerful recruitment tool and one we utilize frequently at HiringThing. However, relying too much on networking can result in a homogenous workforce. People’s networks are often comprised of people who are similar to them demographically—McKinsey’s research on diversity found that when men are asked about their professional networks, 63% of them state it’s comprised of “more or all men.”
You can help create more opportunities for others by providing access to your own contacts and networks. Make introductions. Give recommendations. Mentor. Sharing your network provides opportunities for others.
It’s important for management teams to encourage employees to speak up if they think certain policies are hindering diversity in any way.
A Glassdoor study found white employees (who make up 60% of the US workforce) tend to give a significantly higher rating for their company's DEI initiatives than African American employees.
When asking your workforce about their perception of company performance on diversity and inclusion efforts, it's particularly critical to listen to the voices of your diverse employees in an open, non-defensive manner.
Consider changing your time off and scheduling policies to include more religious holidays, community events, and so on. Encourage flexible work hours that will allow candidates to continue being involved with their communities, and not require them to conform to a cookie-cutter schedule at all times.
If your talent pool expands, so will your employees’ socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural backgrounds. Today’s job seekers want remote work, so this will widen your candidate pool and appeal to the masses.
Structured interviews are a strong foundation, and a few additional practices can make your interviews even more equitable.
All too often perceived negatives or weaknesses are used to gatekeep jobs, which is antithetical to DEI efforts. “They don’t have the requisite five years experience” is an easy way to sideline a candidate who may have four years experience, as well as a host of soft skills that would make them a standout candidate. Strength-based interviewing doesn’t focus on what candidates don’t have, but instead focuses on what they can bring to your company, which gives candidates with diverse backgrounds a more equal advantage. An example of strength-based interviewing would be to have a candidate list their top five soft skills and then explain how these would help propel the company forward.
Making the hiring process a collective effort is another way to help eliminate bias. If the hiring process is left up to just one person, you’re getting just one perspective, including individuals’ biases. A collective effort with multiple views and inputs means that colleagues have chances to counter each other’s biases and help each other think outside the box.
Culture-fit interviews were trendy for a while, but missed the mark. Group interviews are still a good chance for all team members to get to know your top candidates, but instead of seeing whether job candidates fit the company culture, reframe the interview to see how the candidate can enhance your company culture.
Forming partnerships with community organizations that work with underrepresented groups can enhance recruitment efforts. These partnerships can provide a more direct pathway for diverse talents to enter the company, ensuring a broader applicant pool.
Building a fair hiring process isn't just the right thing to do. It's also a competitive advantage. Organizations that reduce hiring bias attract a wider range of talent, benefit from more diverse perspectives, and build more creative, resilient teams.
An ATS won't solve everything, but when implemented thoughtfully, it can make a meaningful difference. It brings structure, consistency, and transparency to a process that often has too little of all three.
If you're ready to take a closer look at how an Applicant Tracking System can support your diversity and hiring goals, HiringThing is a great place to start. And for more practical hiring insights, HiringThing publishes regularly updated resources designed to help you hire smarter and more fairly.
Because when everyone gets a real shot, everyone wins.
HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable HR technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the HiringThing ATS platform empowers anyone, anywhere to build their dream team.