CPD – Affinity Bias, What to Look Out For

A good workplace is when the business supports fairness. A space where there is no preference between all the employees. Even though some employees say, they are logical and open-minded. Sometimes, they can make mistakes when evaluating or reasoning. This can happen without realising. This is a problem that is called affinity bias.

The bias happens when someone favours and feels more comfortable with some individuals. Those who are apparently alike in some way. There are some reasons that can make this happen, such as similar interests. The traits can affect decisions and behaviours. Also, results in without realising rejecting those who act or look different.

Oftentimes, this can create conflicts in the workplace. Especially when you are hiring and recruiting or becoming a team leader or manager. A proper work environment should promote diversity, fair treatment, and inclusion. Unfair preferences can cause exclusion in the company. That is why understanding how affinity bias works will help you to avoid this situation in future events.

Course Description

To improve your consciousness from this subtle bias, the CPD – Affinity Bias, What to Look Out For will help you to stay neutral. The participants will learn how to be objective when evaluating someone who has shared pursuits with them. This ability will help the business to stay varied and equal. Here are the outputs from the course:

1. Build self-awareness
2. Make inclusive decisions
3. Practical insight

Since diversity is important for a company, taking this course will help the participants to maintain that. It is going to increase your awareness of making choices and will not fall into the affinity bias. Enroling in this course can serve as a stepping stone for professional growth and in developing your workplace into a more open and welcoming environment.

Course Framework

The knowledge and skills you’ll acquire will define how participants approach decision-making and communication in the professional setting. This course will provide the learners the capability to notice and address bias. They will be able to make a conscious decision without any external factors influencing their choice. They will learn:

• Understanding of affinity bias
• Building self-awareness
• Building inclusivity

From this course, participants will take part in demonstrations, practise scenarios, and hands-on questions. They will have a better understanding of handling such situations. Especially since the CCM collaborates with experts and professionals to ensure that everything is relevant to the topic. If you want to learn how to avoid affinity bias in your workplace, then this is the avenue for you.

Admission Requirements

Everyone can join the CPD – Affinity Bias, What to Look Out For programme. However, people who work in  HR, recruitment specialists, team leaders or managers, and consultants can get the best out of the course. Those roles require you to make fair decisions. Joining the discussion can help them make inclusive decisions and ensure fair treatment among employees and interviewees.

The impact of affinity bias in the workplace

In workplace settings, you have to avoid affinity bias even though the likeness tends to cloud your opinion. This has effects on hiring, promotions, and team dynamics. Additionally, some of them refuse to work with someone because of their similarity. Meanwhile, others choose to work with them even if they can’t do the jobs. These are some key examples where it often happens:

Recruitment and Hiring

When you are reviewing applicants, sometimes you can get interested in someone. One of the major reasons is because of their alikeness with you. For example, you give different treatment to the candidate who has the same culture as you. Some hiring managers may not notice they favour those professionals. This can result in potentially missing more qualified but different candidates. When this happens, it leads to a lack of diversity in the workforce. This can limit creativity, innovation, and representation.

Performance Reviews and Promotion

For managers or team leaders, affinity bias can lead to an unhealthy working environment. For instance, when a professional who connects with a senior worker may receive more positive comments despite incompetencies and poor behaviour. With this, they are privileged of greater opportunities for advancement but achieved that unjustly. Oftentimes, managers and team leaders also overlook qualified individuals, even if they have better value. Showing signs of prejudice can affect the performance of the employees.

Team Dynamics

On the other hand, this issue will also impact the team dynamics. A workplace with good chemistry can produce efficiency and excellent efforts from the workers. But, affinity bias can impact their morale and engagement. For example, team members who do not share the same interests with the majority might feel left out. It can lead to lower team productivity.

Also, when people with similar interests dominate a team, it can cause the business to become stale. The decision-making may become less dynamic, and creative ideas may be limited. Meanwhile, creating a perfect workplace welcomes change and new perspectives. When you cannot achieve that, there is a possibility that your business will fail.

Employee Development

Keeping a fair decision is important for a manager or team leader. But, affinity bias affects their decision and often leans toward people who remind them of themselves. This leads to unfairness in access to work advice or support for the employees. Also, a favoured worker may receive an easier assignment than the others. Alternatively, they can receive a harder task to further advance their skills and careers compared to others.

Workplace Culture

It is important that workplace culture comes from diversity. This is because it can help everyone  feel welcomed and belong. Only certain groups can feel included if a workplace culture is based on affinity bias. Also, it can continue stereotypes and create obstacles to fair treatment and inclusion. This leads to lower job satisfaction and leaving the job for the underrepresented groups.

Create a diverse workplace with CCM

Affinity bias is a small but significant issue in the workplace. It affects diversity, fair treatment, and inclusion. This is a bias that happens when an individual has similar attributes as yours, such as similarities in backgrounds, interests, or experience. Ultimately, it leads to favouritism and exclusion of employees who are different or have other preferences. 

Although many employees believe they have rational and unbiased decision-making, this unconscious bias can change that opinion. This tendency often happens when shortlisting candidates during recruitment, performance reviews and promotions, and team dynamics. Slowly, it leads to an increasing number of employees leaving because of less workplace happiness. Consequently, it can have negative effects on the company as a whole.

Therefore, it is important to create a work environment without bias. Employers must actively promote self-awareness and fair choices among employees. The College of Contract Management can help you achieve it with the CPD – Affinity Bias, What to Look Out For course. This programme will help you to improve diversity and overcome inclusion in the workplace. In the end, it creates a fair, creative, and lively workplace.

The CPD – Affinity Bias, What to Look Out For will be available soon, with the lecturer’s schedule and the course materials. For any additional update, it will be shared according to the live session schedule. If you have questions, we encourage you to contact us through the CCM team email or use the live chat feature during the lecture. We are happy to help you with any concerns.