Recruitment intermediaries, such as HR personnel and external recruiters, play a crucial role in hiring by preselecting candidates for managers. However, their decisions may be shaped by their perceptions of what hiring managers prefer. This could potentially lead to biased candidate selection and reinforcing discrimination in the labour market.

Why this matters

• Medium-to-large companies rely heavily on intermediaries to manage hiring.
• These companies employ over 50% of the workforce in the US and Europe.
• Intermediaries are incentivised to make fast hires, using metrics like Time to Hire and Offer-to-Acceptance Rates.
• If intermediaries believe hiring managers have biased preferences, they may reinforce those biases by filtering candidates accordingly.

How the study was conducted

In their study, Hausfeld and Hirmas designed 2 economic experiments to examine how intermediaries predict a hiring manager’s candidate preferences. Participants acting as intermediaries, preselected candidates to be evaluated an employer (other participant). Candidates were evaluated based on:

• Job-relevant factors – aptitude and personality test scores.
• Seemingly irrelevant factors – for example, gender.

Additionally, intermediaries were provided with information about the hiring manager, including their gender, age, and skills. The study also tracked the intermediaries’ visual attention to see which factors they focused on when selecting candidates.

Key findings

The study uncovered a pattern of same-gender favouritism in hiring:

• Intermediaries expect managers to prefer candidates of their own gender.
• Those who anticipate stronger same-gender preferences spend more time examining candidates’ gender details.
• This behaviour suggests that intermediaries’ assumptions can reinforce discrimination in hiring, or even cause it when it is not present.

Implications for the labour market

The study highlights a hidden mechanism of discrimination in hiring, particularly given that men continue to be overrepresented in managerial roles. Same-gender favouritism can contribute to the underrepresentation of women and other marginalised groups.

Recommendations for fairer hiring practices

To mitigate bias in recruitment, organisations should:

• Establish balanced hiring committees that reflect gender and demographic diversity.
• Implement structural reforms to address bias at all stages of the hiring process, not just in final hiring decisions.
• Encourage awareness training for intermediaries to reduce reliance on perceived manager preferences.

Equitable

By shedding light on the role of intermediaries in shaping hiring outcomes, this study demonstrates the importance of fairer hiring practices. Addressing bias in recruitment can help create a more equitable job market for all candidates.