Top 5 Ways Recruiters Can Embrace Diversity Hiring

The best way to scale up the company globally is to get familiar with the words: Diversity and Inclusion.

A diverse workplace is an environment that allows all candidates access to opportunities and resources regardless of their diverse identities.

But why are we discussing this topic today? Look at these statistics:

• Women make up only 5.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs. Among these, only 40% are satisfied with their company’s decision-making process.
• 41% of managers do not have enough time to implement diversity hiring initiatives in their company’s recruitment process.
• Men get hired two times more than women, regardless of the gender of the interviewing panel.

This data proves how diversity hiring is still far from 100% implementation. So if you want to step up your DE&I hiring efforts, here’s how you can start!

What is Diversity Hiring?

Diversity hiring refers to intentionally seeking out and hiring candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, including differences in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, and other dimensions of diversity.

This approach is designed to increase the diversity of the workforce and create a more inclusive workplace culture.

Utilizing recruitment technology like an applicant management system, having diverse interview panels, and organizing events to promote diversity all contribute to hiring a diverse pool of candidates.

The benefits of a diverse workforce are already clear enough from the statistics mentioned above, but here are a few more reasons why it’s high time recruiters invest in DE&I hiring:

1. Improved decision-making: Teams with diverse experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds tend to make better decisions and solve problems more effectively.
2. Increased innovation: A diverse workplace encourages new ideas and approaches, leading to greater innovation and creativity.
3. Better representation of talent pool: A diverse workforce help companies understand and serve their candidates better, leading to improved employee satisfaction and increased market share.
4. Enhanced brand reputation: Companies that prioritize diversity and inclusion are often viewed more favorably by consumers, leading to a more substantial brand reputation and increased competitiveness.
5. Attracting and Retaining top talent: A diverse and inclusive workplace never feels short of qualified candidates. Employees stick with such companies for a longer time.

5 Steps to Hire a Diverse Workforce

1. Set SMART Goals for Yourself and Your Hiring Team

Your priority must be to analyze your company’s present situation. Where does the problem lie, and how do those problems affect the workplace?

Think about the existing representation of your employee headcount. Are there too many males? Or do most employees belong to the same community? Where is your hiring process lacking?

Try to build a wish list around these problems.

Understanding the strengths and challenges of diversity hiring will help o set achievable and time-bounded goals, allowing you to set a benchmark to analyze your performance and gradually improve.

The best advice will be to focus on employer branding and take “smaller” steps at a time rather than setting broad goals like “having a 100% diverse talent pool before the next hiring cycle”.

Setting vague and subjective goals won’t help you in your mission.

2. Learn the Art of Writing an Inclusive Job Description

A job description is the first thing active job seekers come across. Biased wording can influence their choice of applying for the job.

Studies have shown that the job description’s language and tone affect candidates’ decision to apply for or reject the job offer, showing how essential it is to use inclusive terms.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind while writing your next job advertisement for a diverse talent pool:

• Use gender-neutral language.
• Separate minimum and preferred prerequisites.
• Use simple language.
• Consider broad demographic appeal when writing benefits.
• Assess a posting for inclusive language.

Many AI tools in the marketplace can help recruiters create a job description that appeals to diverse talents.

These tools use machine learning and NPL algorithm to help you remove any language that could decrease the advertisement’s effectiveness.

3. Create a Fair Assessing Method

Most biased hiring decisions are made at the assessing stage, and they can seep into your recruiting process in any form, from the candidate’s name to the university they attended.

The few best ways to eliminate these biases are:

• Blind resume: This technique utilizes tools that hide candidates’ “personal” information, which could lead to limited selection.
• Pre-hiring assessment: These are the tasks given to candidates before they appear for any phone or face-to-face interview. They can help quickly evaluate candidates’ skills without preparing manual tests or long hours of scoring.  
• HR tools like Resume Parser and recruiting software can minimize unconscious biases greatly.
• Asking for referrals from an existing employee of a minority group can stir positive change in your recruitment process.
• Shuffling interviewers and employing diversified panels at each hiring stage can also help avoid hiring bias.
• Two-in-a-pool process: Your final candidate pool must contain at least two candidates from a minority group.

4. Leverage Technology for Hiring Diverse Talents

A diversity recruiting system can help recruiters eliminate unconscious bias from almost every hiring stage, like:

• Resume Screening: Automated resume screening tools use ML algorithms to scan resumes and identify candidates who meet specific qualifications and skills at the initial stage of the hiring process.
• Artificial Intelligence-Powered Interviews: AI-powered interviewing tools can conduct initial candidate interviews and provide data-driven insights on the candidate’s responses, helping to eliminate bias at the evaluation stage.
• Virtual Job Fairs and Career Sites: These hiring platforms can provide more significant job opportunities for diverse candidates who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend in-person events.
• Building Diverse Talent Pipelines: Companies can use technology to build diverse talent pipelines by leveraging social media, employee referrals, and other digital channels to reach underrepresented groups and connect with potential candidates.

5. Evaluate Your Diversity Hiring Metrics

Evaluating diversity metrics is the most crucial step in implementing a successful DE&I hiring strategy. After all, you can’t make a new strategy work out without identifying if it fits your current hiring workflow.

When assessing your progress, you must avoid putting people in traditional stereotypes, which ultimately makes you ignore their unique traits. Instead, list the attributes you are looking for in your ideal candidate and stick to them.

Promote events and campaigns to attract diverse talents. Be active in diversified community groups to elevate your network. These changes may appear small but can create a domino effect, positively impacting your hiring process.

Also, don’t forget to communicate with the company’s existing employees. It will help you better understand what else is required to be added from your end.  

Finally, focus on the company’s work culture. Make sure that the employees feel involved and appreciated. This will retain them for a more extended period.

Remember: Diversity hiring is not just a matter of fairness and equality but also a wise business decision that can bring numerous benefits to companies and recruiters.

It is already on the priority list of many recruiters. Now, It’s time for you to implement it as well. It will help your agency in many more ways, you can assume.