Leaders looking to hire new employees have long used referrals to get the job done. But in an age when corporations are more sensitive and aware of the need to reduce bias in the workplace, limiting referral hiring can be a good idea.

A new Harvard Business Review posting suggests that limiting referral hiring can help reduce workplace bias because it would move beyond hiring “from within or from employees’ social networks.”

“Reach out to women and minority groups,” the HBR posting recommends, citing Google as an example of the way to go. “Google partners with historically black colleges such as Spelman and Florida A&M University and with Hispanic-serving institutions such as New Mexico State and the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez.

A leader can take this step on his or her own by working with the same organizations or recruiting from similar ones locally or in their individual industries, the posting noted.

The full blog posting is “How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams, and it contains a number of other recommendations. The article can be accessed at this link.