Recognizing and overcoming unconscious bias in the workplace

Unconscious bias in the workplace doesn’t stop just because teams cross borders. When you’re hiring across cultures, biases often show up in subtle ways—who gets the interview or whose ideas get the spotlight. Left alone, these patterns chip away at collaboration, stall diversity, and make it harder for people to feel like they belong.

That’s why tackling bias matters. Inclusive global teams are built when leaders put fairness at the center of every interaction. Do that, and you give your team members space to bring fresh perspectives that can drive better outcomes.

What is unconscious bias in the workplace?

Unconscious or implicit bias refers to the snap judgments we all make about other people. They come from lived experiences, cultural cues, personal beliefs, and the stereotypes we’ve picked up along the way. None of it is intentional, but those assumptions still shape how we see and respond to others.

This kind of automatic bias can have a visible impact in the workplace. Hiring managers might favor one candidate over another because of a familiar-sounding name. A performance review might reflect a manager’s personal preferences more than someone’s actual work quality. Or one person’s idea might get ignored in meetings until someone else repeats it. These unconscious bias examples happen more often than you might realize, and are unfair to the people on the receiving end: These patterns aren’t malicious, but they still shut people out.

Even more biases might appear in global teams. Different accents, communication styles, or cultural habits can trigger hidden assumptions. And if left unchecked, those biases undermine collaboration. Tackling them is part of building a globally inclusive workplace, where ideas and contributions are valued from every team member. 

Types of unconscious bias in the workplace

Understanding each type of bias helps teams recognize and address them more effectively. These are 11 examples of implicit bias that often show up in hiring, feedback, and day-to-day interactions. 

Affinity bias

The tendency to favor people who feel familiar can lead to affinity bias: unfair advantages for those with shared experiences and interests over those with different life experiences. 

Ageism

Ageism is a term for unconscious beliefs about what people can or can’t do based on their age. It limits advancement, especially in leadership and promotions, for both older and younger workers, regardless of skill and performance.

Authority bias

Taking the word of a superior without question can slip into authority bias, which assumes someone’s opinion is right just because of their seniority or influence rather than the merit of their ideas. 

Confirmation bias

Fact-checking isn’t without biases. Warping new information to fit a pre-existing worldview, or looking for information that supports a first impression and ignoring anything that contradicts it, is a way to reinforce gut decisions with confirmation bias.

Contrast effect

Timing drives perception with the contrast effect. It can appear as judging someone in comparison to the person who came right before them rather than for their own merit. 

Gender bias

Gender bias is a set of assumptions about roles, strengths, and behaviors based on gender. It often shows up when one gender (often men) is seen as a “better” fit for leadership or technical roles.

Halo and horns effect

The halo effect occurs when one strong trait creates an overly positive impression, while the horns effect skews negative. It can distort interviews and performance reviews.

Idiosyncratic rater bias

Ratings are more reflective of the person filling them out than the person being rated with idiosyncratic rater bias. Different evaluators may give an employee different scores for the same skill in a performance review, overvaluing the evaluator’s weaknesses and undervaluing their strengths. This can lead to a lower employee rating than is objectively true, or a higher rating for an employee’s skills in an area outside the evaluator’s wheelhouse.

Name bias

Making assumptions based on how someone’s name sounds creates bias and often leads to unfair screening during hiring when names signal race, ethnicity, or culture of origin. The name bias often works hand-in-hand with the affinity bias, so hiring managers are more likely to hire people from the same race or culture, limiting team diversity.

Recency bias

Recency bias places too much weight on what happened most recently instead of evaluating the whole picture. It can show itself in year-end performance reviews, especially if an employee has done particularly well (or poorly) in the time leading up to the review. 

Status quo bias

Preferring what’s familiar and keeping current statuses in place, even when better options exist, can slow down organizational progress and keep hiring pools and internal processes from evolving.

How does unconscious bias affect the workplace?

Bias changes who gets in and who gets ahead, narrows diversity by favoring the familiar, and erodes trust and productivity. Here are some examples of how unconscious bias manifests in the workplace:

• Affinity bias: A hiring manager clicks with a candidate who shares their alma mater and weekend hobbies, then overestimates fit and potential compared to equally qualified candidates.
• Recency bias: During annual reviews, a manager fixates on a direct report’s slip in the last sprint and overlooks months of strong delivery, leading to a lower rating and missed bonus.
• Contrast effect: One standout performer on a team makes other solid contributors look “average” on paper, so they lose out on opportunities for career growth.
• Name bias: In resume screens, applicants with Anglo-sounding names get twice as many callbacks than identical profiles with non-Anglo names, shrinking the candidate pool and team diversity.
• Idiosyncratic rater bias: A manager is harder on an employee’s programming skills than their presentation skills in annual reviews because the manager is good at presenting and not at programming—not because the employee’s quality of work differs.

Why is unconscious bias important to address?

Unconscious bias shapes hiring, culture, and long-term outcomes across an organization. When left unchecked, biases can undermine fairness and quietly derail efforts to build a truly inclusive team. It also chips away at trust, which directly impacts team morale. If someone is only being assessed on their most recent performance in an annual review due to recency bias, for example, they may feel less motivated to work hard in the months that won’t be reflected.

For companies looking to improve equality and diversity in the workplace, tackling bias head-on is non-negotiable. It’s especially important when managing global talent or scaling remote hiring strategies, where cultural assumptions surface more easily. Addressing unconscious bias is also essential for reducing gender inequality and other systemic disparities in the workplace. 

A strong bias-reduction strategy should be part of any plan to promote diversity and inclusion and create more inclusive, intentional decision-making at every level. Some more benefits of addressing unconscious bias include:

• Improved employee experience: When people feel seen and valued for their contributions rather than stereotypes, they’re more likely to feel connected to their work. 
• Higher retention and engagement: Fairer processes reduce attrition. Employees who trust the system are 5.4 times more likely to want to stay a long time at their company.
• Better decision-making: Teams that break free of instinct-driven thinking make sharper, more objective calls in hiring, feedback, and promotions.
• Lower legal and reputational risk: Proactively addressing bias lowers the risk of legal claims related to discrimination or inequity when supported by transparent DEI training and policy updates.

8 ways to prevent unconscious bias in the workplace

Bias shows up in systems, not just individuals, which means prevention requires thoughtful, ongoing work. Here are eight practical strategies you can start using to overcome unconscious bias: 

1. Implement blind resume reviews: Removing names, graduation years, and other identity signals from resumes can reduce snap judgments early in the hiring process. 
2. Standardize interviews: Using the same structured questions for every candidate makes evaluations more consistent and reduces the impact of affinity or contrast bias. 
3. Offer regular unconscious bias training: Ongoing sessions—not just one-offs—help teams recognize patterns in decision making as they show up. Repeated exposure to implicit bias training can also help team members use more inclusive language and behaviors.
4. Use tools like the implicit association test: These assessments can help individuals uncover hidden biases. This can point people toward the ingrained biases and unhelpful patterns they should work on.
5. Use diverse hiring panels: Candidates report feeling more comfortable when multiple perspectives are involved in hiring decisions. Diverse panels signal that inclusion matters in the organization.
6. Redesign performance reviews for fairness: Avoid open-ended ratings or gut-feel scoring. Clear rubrics and peer input create more balance and reduce bias in feedback and promotions.
7. Embed mindfulness into team culture: Encourage people to pause and reflect before making decisions when evaluating others. Small shifts in awareness can change outcomes over time.
8. Review internal policies with equity in mind: From promotion criteria to mentorship programs, bias can hide in outdated systems. Review your practices regularly to ensure they support all types of diversity in the workplace.

Build a diverse, inclusive team with Oyster

Reducing unconscious bias is part of building a stronger, more effective team. When people feel respected and evaluated fairly, they show up with more trust, creativity, and energy. And that’s what fuels innovation and drives retention for organizations of all kinds.

Tackling bias is a key step toward a more equitable working world. Oyster makes it easier to hire across borders and build truly inclusive teams. From local compliance to compensation intelligence, Oyster gives you the tools to embed equity into every part of the employee experience, no matter where your team members live. 

Help your global team thrive with Oyster’s employer of record services.

About Oyster

Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, engage, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.

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