Seven in 10 hiring managers will prioritize candidates who share their political views, according to a new poll.
Resume Builder’s research, as the U.S. presidential election hots up, is timely. The company surveyed 1,000 U.S.-based hiring managers and found that 68% are likely to hire individuals who share similar political views to their own.
One in five say they are unlikely to hire candidates with opposing views, and 64% of hiring managers say that knowing a candidate’s political views is important.
Interestingly, 64% of managers say they are almost always aware (35%) or sometimes aware (29%) of job candidates’ political views. In an interview scenario, there are a number of protected categories which exist thanks to federal and state law prohibitions. These include questions around race, gender, religion, age, or disability, for example.
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But there are currently no federal laws prohibiting political bias in the hiring process. In lieu of a recruiter asking the question of party allegiance, how do hiring managers establish a candidate’s political leanings?
Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder, says that, “A significant number of hiring managers also scrutinize social media and other outlets for clues about a candidate’s age, religion, or other personal characteristics that may introduce bias into the process”.
She adds, “This practice is, of course, unacceptable, and political bias should be viewed with the same seriousness as any other form of bias”.
Increasing polarization
In a fraught domestic political sphere, coupled with divisive geopolitical conflicts, many Americans may feel compelled to share their views publicly, either on social media or through watercooler conversations with colleagues.
“The increasing polarization of our society has forced us to confront these issues in the workplace more than ever before,” Haller notes.
In 2022, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conducted a Politics at Work Study, which found that the percentage of U.S. workers saying they’d experienced political affiliation bias had risen by 12% across the previous three years.
“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a real decline in civility when people express their opinions and beliefs, and it’s a barrier to success for employers and their employees,” said SHRM president and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, of the research.
“This trend has been fueled by the relative anonymity of social media, and it has spilled into our communities and our workplaces. In today’s climate, people are saying, ‘I can’t work with you if you don’t share my views.’”
This is quicksand territory to navigate for workers and employers alike. And it is made even more opaque by the fact that there is no one size fits all approach to how to deal with it.
Where federal workers may have more protections around political activity (as long as it occurs outside of work), experts point out that broadly, private employers can likely fire an employee based on their political affiliation, without running afoul of federal law.
Private companies may bring their own internal policies to bear on workers who they feel are outspoken. For example, in 2022, Meta used its Respectful Communication Policy to prohibit its employees from posting “opinions or debates about abortion being right or wrong, availability or rights of abortion, and political, religious, and humanitarian views on the topic”.
In April of this year, 28 employees at Google were sacked after staging a sit-in-style protest in the company’s California offices, in relation to demands that the company end its contracts with the Israeli government.
Resume Builder’s research found that the hiring managers who were unwilling to hire someone with different political affiliations would do so to avoid potential actions that may reflect poorly on the company (75%), or to avoid a bad culture fit (73%).
“Some managers justify bringing their personal biases into the hiring process by claiming they want candidates who align with the company’s culture and can represent the organization accordingly,” says the company’s Stacie Haller.
Diverse teams matter
However, diversity matters at work, whether that’s across race, ethnicity, or gender––or political viewpoints. Being exposed to those with different views to you can result in better business outcomes, as opposed to existing in an echo chamber-environment where confirmation bias can take over.
Multiple studies support this. Older research from Deloitte identified that as far back as 2017, inclusive teams outperformed their less inclusive peers by 80% in business.
McKinsey’s most recent Diversity Matters report backs this up. It found that companies committed to diversity show “a 39 percent increased likelihood of outperformance for those in the top quartile of ethnic representation versus the bottom quartile”. If your team isn’t diverse, there isn’t a regularly actioned DE&I policy in place, or you’re in an organization where your political stance is hindering your career growth or professional relationships, it could be time to find something new.
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