"By associating stereotypical characteristics to the candidate based on his or her location, the interviewer could lose out on the critical assessment of the candidate” explains Sanju Ballurkar

The bias of the organisation or the hiring team in favour of (or against) a particular state, city or even locality is generally known as location bias

Biasness during recruitment procedures have a long-term effect on the company. Candidates come across different types of biases during the recruiting procedure in various sectors. One of those is location based-bias, which relates to where the prospective candidate belongs to or comes from.

Giving an example of location-based bias, Shantanu Rooj, Founder and CEO, TeamLease EdTech, said, “In several cases, it has been found that the hiring team believes that people from Gujarat are commercially cunning, people from West Bengal are generally revolutionary, people coming from certain affluent localities in the city are too casual about their jobs and people coming from far off places may have a commute problem and hence can create a negative bias amongst the hiring folks.”

“A location bias during any hiring process, like several other types of biases, could prevent an objective assessment of the candidate during an interview. By associating stereotypical characteristics to the candidate based on his or her location, the interviewer could lose out on the critical assessment of the candidate,” said Sanju Ballurkar, President, Experis IT, a part of ManpowerGroup India.

Highlighting the sectors in which this type of bias is prevalent, Rooj said, “The problem is often found in the hiring teams of many organisations and is quite prevalent. This is mostly found in the non-technology and conventional sectors like BFSI, FMCG, education, manufacturing, telecom etc.”