BLM Spurs Employers to Look More Closely at Implicit Bias

Fenwick employment practices counsel Matthew Damm spoke with Law360 about employers’ enhanced efforts to combat implicit bias. Implicit bias occurs when individuals make unconscious assumptions about people based on factors like race and gender.

Damm discussed how the Black Lives Matter movement has put implicit bias front and center in employee training and communications.

He told Law360 that companies realize that “you can’t just pay lip service to the movement,” but have to “make real change and put significant resources toward supporting it.”

Damm also addressed employers’ efforts to be more proactive in increasing diversity in their ranks.

“Increasing diversity and recognizing implicit bias, they’re almost like cousins, because I think that the more diversity you have the more effectively you can identify what implicit bias is and how you might be able to calculate for it and overcome it,” Damm said.

The full article is available on Law360 (subscription required).