Approximately 16% of managers are less likely to hire a candidate who supports President Donald Trump. However, almost as many — 14% — say they would be more likely to hire a candidate who does. That’s according to a Resume Builder survey conducted after the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
This means nearly a third of managers allow political affiliations to influence their decisions, indicating the presence of polarization. Leaders can meet this moment by shoring up workplace culture through “empathy checks,” inclusive hiring strategies, and best practices for a safe work environment. These measures can prevent or treat polarization. Notably, 69% of survey respondents said political affiliation has no impact on their decision-making. This provides some reassurance of neutrality within hiring practices. These findings reflect a workplace where a moment of polarization can lead to a rise of incivility. The SHRM Q4 2024 Civility Index found that 56% of U.S. workers have seen or experienced incivility in the workplace, and 44% believe U.S. residents’ ability to be civil toward one another will decrease in 2025.
The inability to be civil and inclusive toward colleagues with different political opinions can harm diversity, innovation, and resilience. Looking at two types of diversity — gender and ethnicity — there is clear evidence of diversity’s impact on the bottom line. A 2023 report from McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity exhibit a 27% financial advantage over others. Similarly, companies in the top quartile for representation of women were significantly more likely to outperform their counterparts. Confronting political bias is another way to support diversity and positively impact the bottom line.
Political Bias and the Law of Group Polarization
The observed hiring trends align with broader psychological phenomena observed in group dynamics — most notably described in The Law of Group Polarization (John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper No. 91, 1999) by Cass R. Sunstein. Sunstein explains that “deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments.”
In other words, those who are already in alignment with an idea or an issue will only further move toward the extreme end of that idea or issue. Practically, in a workplace, if you’re allowing alignment on politics or a particular candidate to enter the hiring process, you’re allowing the group — in this case, the company — to move closer to an extreme where the politics of all employees align. These politically homogenous workplaces may effectively become echo chambers, where the similarity in perspectives hinders creativity, innovation, and organizational resilience.
When leadership becomes isolated in an echo chamber, the lack of diverse insights negatively impacts the bottom line. Open communication, a cornerstone of strong workplace culture, is stifled in such environments.
When communication is suffocated, productivity is lost, and employees begin making their exit plan. In an episode of SHRM’s People + Strategy podcast, founder and chairman of Acceleration Partners, a global partner marketing agency, Robert Glazer suggests getting ahead of an employee’s exit with honest conversations. When an employee feels safe to lean in, you can “dig to the root of the problem and figure out, ‘Is this something that we can solve, and who needs to solve it?’” he said.
This communication approach is borne out in The State of Global Workplace Culture in 2024 report from SHRM Thought Leadership, which shows open communication is a universal driver of a positive workplace culture. Workplace culture plays a critical role in employee retention: 57% of employees worldwide who rate their culture as poor or terrible say they are actively or will soon start looking for a new job. In contrast, only 15% of employees worldwide who rate their culture as good or excellent say they are looking for a way out of their current company. Echo chambers that result from practicing bias in hiring, political or otherwise, lead to fewer perspectives, which can reinforce outdated ideas and limit innovation.
Breaking Down Echo Chambers in Hiring Practices
To promote a diverse and inclusive workplace that reinforces organizational resilience and minimizes the risk of political bias, senior leaders should focus on three key areas of action.
Conduct an Empathy Check
One key finding of the Resume Builder survey is that managers who are less likely to hire Trump supporters often cite concerns about decision-making skills (76%), perceived lack of empathy (67%), and workplace tension (59%).
Where there are concerns over a perceived lack of empathy in candidates, it’s up to leadership to model a workplace culture that encourages empathy. It starts by extending empathy to candidates, but it’s also important to check in on the empathy of leadership and ensure it is built into processes carried out by managers. Consider implementing process changes or trainings that go beyond theory by demonstrating practices to adopt.
To encourage empathy, organizations should:
Embed Empathy into Leadership Training: Offer scenario-based training that encourages leaders to view challenges from multiple perspectives.
Evaluate Empathy Metrics: Use tools such as employee feedback surveys to measure empathy levels within teams and leadership.
Model Empathy from the Top: Senior leaders should demonstrate inclusive behaviors to set the tone for their organizations.
Foster Inclusive Hiring Practices
Time constraints and resource limitations can make it difficult to thoroughly evaluate candidates. As a result, unconscious biases may creep into hiring decisions.
Organizations can combat this by implementing best practices to curb unconscious bias in the hiring process, such as:
Implementing Structured Interviews: Standardized questions help ensure candidates are evaluated consistently, reducing room for bias.
Leveraging Technology: Use AI-driven tools to anonymize resumes or analyze candidates objectively.
Broadening Talent Pools: Partner with diverse recruitment platforms to ensure a wider array of candidates are considered.
Take the Temperature of Your Workplace Culture
Lastly, executives can examine the culture of their own company to see how it can overcome any individual’s political views to create a safe workplace.
Whether you focus on leveraging leadership to set the tone for the organization or reviewing key policies and guidelines, look for ways to refresh and reinforce best practices for a psychologically safe work environment.
These include:
Conducting Culture Audits: Regularly assess inclusivity through surveys and feedback mechanisms.
Reviewing Policies: Ensure that guidelines and practices, such as grievance procedures, promote fairness and neutrality.
Creating Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Support groups that encourage dialogue across diverse perspectives.
The Path Forward
Ensuring neutrality in hiring practices requires active cultivation. By embedding empathy, fostering inclusive hiring practices, and maintaining cultural accountability, organizations can dismantle echo chambers before they form and build resilient, diverse workplaces.
As political and social dynamics continue to evolve, HR leaders and executives must prioritize systems that embrace diversity and discourage bias. Doing so ensures workplaces not only survive but thrive amid complexity and change.
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