How Personal Appearance Affects Hiring Choices
Eliminate the Influence Physical Traits Have on Candidate Selection
Mar 16, 2009
There’s an old story about the efforts of an orchestra to recruit violinists. Because they kept hiring males and they wanted to make every effort to provide an equal opportunity to females, they changed their initial visual screening process.
With the screening committee in the audience, each applicant would walk out on stage behind a closed curtain and perform. The purpose was to ensure that candidates only be judged on their ability to play. However, the all-male hiring continued.
What they realized was that the sound a candidate’s shoes made across the wood stage was distinctive. High heels were instantly recognizable. Fortunately, there was an easy remedy. From then on all candidates were required to remove their shoes before venturing out on stage to perform.
Even now as we finally elect someone other than a grumpy old white man to the presidency of the United States, there are still plenty of workplaces in this country where people are treated differently because of how they look.
Physical Appearance Influences Decisions
In today’s workplace, an employee's physical appearance can have a powerful influence on job success, yet for the most part, employees have no protection from appearance-based discrimination unless workers are singled out based on their race, gender or age.
There is a tale about a study conducted in a classroom where an individual stood at the front of the class and was identified as a student. The class was asked how tall they thought he was. Their guess was 5’8”. When that same individual stood before another group and was identified as a professor, his height jumped to 6’2”. The theory being that the more powerful a person is perceived the taller they appear. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. On average, shorter people are looked at as less powerful (Danny Devito and Napoleon Bonaparte being two exceptions).
However, height isn’t the only physical trait that experts warn can impact work life. Some surprising statistics from the Council on Weight and Size Discrimination indicate that according to a 2004 survey workers who are heavier than average are paid approximate $1.25 less an hour. And weight isn’t the only physical trait that can impact earnings. According to information developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, workers with below-average looks tend to earn an average nine percent less per hour than above-average looking workers.
Overcoming Incorrect Perceptions
While it is no surprise that the average human is typically more attracted to someone similar to themselves in temperament, personality and outlook, human beings also tend to be attracted to those who are similar in physical appearance. This isn’t to condone this behavior it’s merely to point it out. So how can employers filter out discrimination?
Obviously, the first step is to build in policies that discourage this type of behavior. However, it is equally important to build in practices that help counter unintentional biases. Procedures such as telephone prescreening of candidates in order to gather details about job-specific skills and experiences without the influence of non-work related factors or online, prescreening questionnaires which provide the same information in a written format can help reduce the likelihood of inappropriate decision making.
But there’s an added benefit to each of these procedures. Employers can learn more about each candidate’s communication skills, too. With the telephone prescreening, they can gauge verbal skills; with the questionnaire, they can gauge written. And these are only two possible processes employers can utilize. There are likely many others.
The whole idea is to step back and take a look at how to remove any possible bias that might creep into interviewing methods, hiring decisions and employment practices and consider candidates, employees and people in general based on their character, skills, and knowledge.
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