Recent research has suggested that companies with at least two women in executive positions in the C-Suite and two women in board positions had higher profitability than those that didn’t have this diversity. But still the majority of companies have mostly white, male board members. So what is preventing this diversity?

According to a video from Harvard Business Review, unconscious biases make people reluctant to go against the status quo, but there is another reason that has to do with the diversity of the hiring pool that may impact the outcome. 

Let’s say there are three finalists in a candidate pool: two are men and one is a woman. It is much more likely that a man will be hired in this position because men outweigh women in the candidate pool. The research also found the same was true if two women and one man were finalists for a job; in this case a woman is much more likely to be hired. Two white candidates and one black candidate? You guessed it – in this scenario a white candidate is more likely to be hired. What about the reverse – two black candidates and one white candidate? A black candidate is more likely to get the job. 

Watch the video below for the full explanation of the research and let us know what you think or your experience in the comments section.