TOP TECHNIQUES FOR PUTTING DIVERSITY AT THE CORE OF YOUR RECRUITMENT DRIVES

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We know that diverse organizations thrive and succeed at greater levels than homogenous organizations. However, when it comes to recruitment, a lot of organizations struggle to attract and hire diverse members of staff. There are many different elements to consider, from where the ad gets posted to how it’s phrased, and to how screening processes and interviews are conducted. It’s potentially overwhelming for someone who has minimal experience, and even experts struggle to take all the different areas into account.

For that reason, we’ve gathered up the most effective ways you can put diversity at the center of your hiring practices, making sure that your organization is inclusive and that your teams are as strong as possible at all levels.

Gather information

Understanding more about who is applying for your jobs is one of the most empowering ways to start your inclusivity efforts. If you don’t know what gaps exist, it’s very hard to fix them effectively. Do you already have a good balance of ethnic minorities or women applying for your jobs? Are you failing to attract enough older individuals? Is your job messaging accidentally turning off religious candidates?

The only way to find these things out for sure is to ask candidates to fill in some information about who they are. Create a quick form that candidates can fill in to give you an idea of who is applying. However, it’s really important to store this separately from candidate data, and to totally anonymize it. You don’t want any risk of it influencing the hiring process!

Once you’ve got the data, make sure you take the time to analyze it and assess where gaps lie. This should help you figure out which demographics are absent, and then you can start looking for ways to address this. You can also collect data on your existing employees, looking for patterns that suggest a problematic bias.

Advertise in multiple places & consider language

It’s important to think about where your job adverts will appear. Diverse candidates can’t apply if they never see the job posting. You should think about putting up adverts on websites such as Indeed, your own site, and other job boards.

Furthermore, think about the language you are using. Listing too many requirements can deter candidates from applying. It’s thought that women in particular have a higher bar for how many requirements they need to meet before applying for the job. You should therefore consider whether you can reduce requirements to encourage more applications.

If you have benefits that would particularly suit certain demographics, make sure you list these. For example, if you’ve got great disability benefits, mention them in the job ad. Offering flexible public holidays can encourage religious candidates. In short, think about ways that you can word job ads to make them attractive to diverse candidates and address areas that may be important to them.

Anonymize applications

Once you’ve got applications in, it’s well worth taking the time to anonymize these to remove any risk of bias in the hiring committee. If you can, get rid of names, genders, ages, and more. It can be difficult to eliminate all information, but the more anonymous applications are, the easier it is to ensure that your initial screenings are unbiased.

Later, you may want to consider reinserting information so you can ensure that you are considering a diverse pool of candidates, but taking the time to anonymize early on can be very beneficial.

Consider virtual interviews

Virtual interviews have many benefits, although there are also drawbacks. Online technologies are thought to increase diversity in the hiring practice in several ways. Firstly, they can increase geographic diversity by making it easier to apply for positions from a distance. They may also make it easier for disabled candidates to apply because they reduce the need to travel.

It’s important to be aware that they have the potential to increase bias too, however. If you’re viewing candidates’ homes, you might see religious artifacts, family photos, or other elements that shouldn’t be factored into hiring decisions.

Virtual interviews could potentially be conducted by phone, further eliminating choices that relate to how candidates look. This can help eliminate issues such as fatphobia, religious discrimination, and more. However, it may not help combat gender biases and other problems. View this as a potentially useful tool when handled correctly, but remember that bringing candidates on-site is also valuable.

Assess on merit

Some interviewers lean toward certain candidates because of vague “feelings” that they will be right. Often, this is based on woolly information such as being a good “culture fit.” This should act as a yellow flag in the process. While it is important to think about how well an individual fits with your organization’s goals, vague notions about “culture fit” are often based on an innate preference for people who are like us.

Instead, try to assess candidates based on their skills. It’s okay to look at soft skills too - “this person connects with clients better” is fine, for example - but don’t base hiring decisions on undefined preferences. Always think about what makes one person more qualified than another and make sure you’re judging on identical criteria to make things fair.

A great way to assess candidates based on merit is to have them perform a short, paid-for task related to the work they will be performing. You can then rank candidates based on how they have performed and interview the highest performers. This is a very effective way to reduce bias and increase inclusivity.

Train all hiring personnel on inclusivity

A company’s hiring personnel are the frontline in reducing bias in the hiring process. However, humans are notoriously bad when it comes to spotting biases, especially in their own thinking. That means it’s crucial to train all hiring personnel on the top ways to spot bias and improve inclusivity. This shouldn’t be one-off training, but regularly repeated.

If possible, organizations should look for ways to train other employees too. A culture of diversity throughout the whole organization will spread and enhance inclusivity efforts in many ways, including in hiring processes.

Time to get hands-on!

Explore research  by BCG on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across Southeast Asia. Discover inclusive recruitment techniques through inspiring case studies from the Philippines and Indonesia that showcase actionable strategies to foster equitable workplaces.