How Companies Can Identify Racial and Gender Bias in Their Resident Service

Companies can ensure that their resident service does not practice racial or gender bias by following a specific roadmap, reports the Harvard Business Review . The first step is to map out employee-resident touchpoints, including methods for handling complaints, to determine whether differential service treatment is present and flag high-priority interfaces requiring review. The second step is determining which groups should be compared in this review. Third is clearly defining the behaviors to be tested, with the audit designed to zero in on specific practices that frontline workers should employ. Factors that could muddle the results of the review should then be identified and excluded, and frontline workers should not be made aware of the investigation. Concurrently, when selecting auditors, it is vital to confirm that they have no personal stake in the audit's outcomes. Once an audit is complete, companies should devise anticipatory service protocols that standardize employee-resident interactions, and then develop employee feedback channels. A third point is to emphasize "equal" service in addition to "best" service to eliminate inconsistency, and diversify workers' experiences afterward via hiring and employee rotations.