How to Boost Diversity in Your Recruitment Process
Nowadays, diversity is no longer a trend—it’s a necessity. Think of it this way: companies without diverse members have less access to experience, insights, and valuable world views. Chron’s article about workplace diversity also highlights its importance outside the office, as diverse businesses are more likely to gain loyal consumers and attract a wider pool of talented, as well as qualified applicants. Plus, you’ll have an overall better reputation among your peers. So if you see a noticeable lack of diversity in your workspace, then it’s time to get hiring.
Here are five things you can do to improve your diversity recruitment strategies.
Modernise company policies
It’s easy to claim that you’re an advocate for diversity on your job ads, but it’s another thing to actually uphold those values. Instead of actively searching for candidates, create company policies that will appeal to a diverse field of potential applicants. This includes but is not limited to: honouring different religious holidays, having appropriately labelled toilets, offering maternity leaves, and much more.
Broaden your search
One way you can make sure that your pool of candidates is diverse is by expanding your search beyond the same job platforms and websites. Comeet’s guide to improving the recruitment process emphasises the importance of tapping into new sources of talent, whether it’s online job boards, career fairs, college campuses, or industry trade shows. Otherwise, you’re sure to end up with an echo chamber of candidates who are too similar to each other. For instance, you can scour through groups dedicated to people of colour, or forums where tech women like to engage. The important part is to be more proactive in your search.
Automate part of the recruitment process
Interviews still need to be conducted face-to-face to make an accurate assessment of the applicant’s skills, but using an applicant tracking system (ATS) is a faster and non-biased way to shortlist your candidates. From being equipped with the necessary skills to having the right amount of experience, an ATS tracker will assess applicants based on competency alone. PC Mag lists some of the best ATS trackers on the market, such as Workable for SMBs and Bamboo HR for bigger companies.
Encourage employees to refer their connections
It’s very likely that your employees already have networks of people with the diverse background that you’re looking for. Thus, creating a diverse candidate referral program is not only good for your recruitment strategy, but it also shows that the company values both employee opinions and workplace inclusivity. If you’re looking to hire a specific group of people, it helps to reach out to your current network of employees with already similar backgrounds.
Offer targeted internships
One way to encourage budding candidates and nurture fresh talents in the industry is by providing targeted internships. To do this, you can reach out to different schools and various communities in your area, and come up with opportunities to collaborate early on. If everything works out, you get the chance to absorb them into the company after they graduate. In fact, studies on The Balance Careers show that 2 out of 5 company hires come from their intern pool.
As mentioned above, diversity hiring isn’t just a passing trend; it’s a smarter way to do business, and the fair choice for everyone. As New York Times’ bestselling author Stephen Covey once said, “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.”
For more recruitment tips, check out our previous post on ‘Get Your Recruitment Right First Time’.