‘’Should upholding a level of kindness in a team be the responsibility of one or all? Hiring involves many decision makers, all should feel responsible to act inclusively.’’- Abadesi Osunsade, Founder and CEO of Hustle Crew, an inclusivity awareness and training organisation
Inclusive hiring is the deliberate practice of recruiting, retaining and nurturing a workforce that reflects a broad spectrum of backgrounds, characteristics, perspectives and experiences.
Finding, attracting and retaining diverse candidates requires using a robust hiring plan to create a level playing field throughout the hiring process, starting from job descriptions, all the way to onboarding new employees, and retaining them for many years. In short, it means truly adhering to principles of openness, equity, and inclusion.
In order to be truly effective organisation-wide it requires a conscious, lived and consistent approach from intent, to process to performance management, driven by leadership and supported by everyone within the organisation. Nonetheless, there are actions every individual can take, from internal advocacy to adjustments as a hiring manager in order to promote a more inclusive environment. We’ll cover both approaches throughout this article.
“The only way to create a robust process is to ensure it’s a top-down approach i.e. endorsed by, and followed by leadership. No exceptions. If a process is consistently followed it creates results. When the process stops achieving results it’s a chance for stakeholders to go back to the drawing board with learnings and create a new process again. Ultimately, a process must be followed. When it’s enforced by the most powerful and authoritative roles in the org it tends to be.”- Abadesi Osunsade, Founder and CEO of Hustle Crew, an inclusivity awareness and training organisation
What inclusive hiring is: Defining inclusivity
Inclusivity is an evolving concept and can mean different things to different people, depending on their starting points. It’s important when setting out on an inclusivity program to think deeply about your definition: people often know instinctively what is or is not inclusive, but can struggle to codify that instinct, leading to debates and confusion. When we asked our interview pool what inclusivity meant to them, they responded:
“For me, it’s being cognisant of the multitude of lived experiences and building with the least advantaged in mind.”
Abadesi Osunsade, Founder and CEO of Hustle Crew, an inclusivity awareness and training organisation.
“Inclusivity is about the entire spectrum, that is, diversity, equity and inclusion. When we started out [DiverCity] 16 seasons ago, we were thinking through certain lenses: gender, ethnicity, LGBTQ, disability. But that’s now extended out. We found over the last 16 series that what falls under this inclusion umbrella needs to include neurodiversity, also mental health, age, and both visible and invisible disabilities.”
Julia Streets – a Fintech entrepreneur, advisor, professional host/presenter and the host of the top-rated D&I podcast, DiverCity.
“Inclusivity is ensuring as an individual or a business that you provide equal access to opportunities or resources to those who might be excluded or marginalized, such as those from minority groups or having physical or intellectual disabilities.”
Tom Shurrock – Director of Product, tackling inequality by building talent lifecycle management products at Beamery.
“Inclusivity is when you genuinely invite a diverse set into a normal process. Normal meaning not creating a separate process or making those perceived as diverse feel as if they don’t belong.”
Genevieve Dozier – Founder & CEO of Warpaint Consulting, a Board Director of Paytech Women and an Advisory Board Member for Money 20/20 & VizyPay.
“Inclusivity means making sure everyone feels welcome, valued, and respected, no matter who they are or where they come from. Imagine your school or a party where everyone is invited and treated fairly, regardless of their background, race, gender, or beliefs. Inclusivity is about creating an environment where everyone can be themselves and contribute their unique perspectives and talents.”
Diversity and Social Impact
This article will explore the definitions of diversity, equity, equality and inclusion, the benefits of inclusive hiring and introduce practical tips for building an inclusive hiring process.
Benefits of inclusive hiring
Higher creativity and innovation – Harvard Business Review found that companies with diverse teams are more innovative. When employees from varied backgrounds collaborate, they can approach problems from different angles which can lead to building innovative products; employees in a “speak up” culture are 3.5 times as likely to contribute their full innovative potential.
‘’You could have five of the best strategic thinkers in a room together. But if they’ve all come from the same background, they’ve all been educated in the same way – you are going to be limited in your ability to think from different perspectives. If you had five people that have come from different backgrounds they will approach problems in different ways, your teams will collectively be able to think from multiple perspectives, which greatly increases your chances of succeeding in business.’’ – Tom Shurrock – Director of Product at Beamery
Better decision making – Clover Pop, an AI-driven decision making intelligence platform that’s used by multiple blue chips, found that inclusive decision making leads to better decisions up to 82% of the time. The more diverse the team, the better the outcome: diverse teams bring more perspectives and knowledge, are able to critically evaluate ideas and identify more pitfalls than might be considered in a more homogenous team. When building products better decisions can lead to reduced risk, reduced cost of mistakes and higher value for the customers.
Increased market reach – if a company is diverse and inclusive, it better reflects the demographics of the wider population. This makes it easier to connect with a wider customer base and understand their needs and preferences. You can then become more attuned to the nuances of various markets and build more inclusive products that will service more customers.
Cultural shifts – Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s now an expectation. This is primarily driven by Gen Z entering the workforce; where they are expected to account for 75% of the global workforce by 2030. All-In Diversity observes that their life decisions, both as consumers and employees, will be driven by how closely an organisation’s values, policies and practices align with their own. From this perspective, employees, customers and the society surrounding a business are as critical a set of stakeholders as business owners, senior managers or investors.
Inclusion leads to a tangible impact on the bottom line – according to a widely recognised HR thought leader Josh Bersin’s study of 450 companies, highly inclusive organisations generate 2.3x more cash flow per employee and 1.4x more revenue. Additionally they are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market.
What is inclusive hiring?
Inclusive hiring refers to the practice of actively seeking and recruiting individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Abadesi Osunsade frames inclusive hiring as ‘’reducing the impact of bias from every stage of the candidate journey. And, of course, removing ambiguity.’’
The goal of inclusive hiring is to create a work environment that values and embraces differences, promotes equity, and ensures that all individuals have equal access to opportunities and resources.
Key principles of inclusive hiring include:
Unbiased evaluation – using standardised and structured interview processes that minimise unconscious biases and focus on a candidate’s skills, ambition and potential.
Bias refers to an inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair. Unconscious bias refers to the automatic associations and reactions that arise when we encounter a person or group. Instead of maintaining neutrality, we tend to associate positive or negative stereotypes with certain groups and let these biases influence our behaviour towards them.
Equality – ensuring that all candidates have equal access to job opportunities, regardless of their background, gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, or other characteristics and removing barriers (such as unconscious bias) that may discriminate against certain groups.
Equality refers to the principle of treating all individuals in the same way, giving them equal access to opportunities. While equality is important, it does not account for the fact that different individuals might start from different positions due to various factors like socioeconomic background and historical inequalities. This is where equity comes in.
Equity – ensuring that candidates are evaluated and treated fairly, regardless of their background. If hired, offering them equitable compensation and benefits, without penalising them for their diverse backgrounds.
Equity recognises that each person has different circumstances and different levels of support are needed to ensure that individuals reach an outcome that’s on par with others. An example of this in action might be standardising offer packages for different levels of the hierarchy, rather than offering candidates a slight increase on their previous role’s salary to save company costs.
Diversity – actively seeking candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, including but not limited to race, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, mental health, neurodiverse, and socioeconomic status.
Diversity means representation of individuals with different individual characteristics, backgrounds and experiences. Different characteristics include (but are not limited to) gender, race, age, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, religion, disabilities and socioeconomic status.
Inclusion – implementing inclusive practices at every stage of the hiring process, from job descriptions to onboarding.
Inclusion happens when every person is treated with respect, valued for their unique perspectives, and given equal access to opportunities. It creates an environment where everyone, regardless of difference. feels a real sense of belonging and is empowered to participate, contribute and perform.
‘’When we think about inclusion, it literally is a catch-all – thinking about visible and perhaps not so visible identity. If you have a very strong culture where you live and breathe inclusion every single day, you will attract inclusive character or your enclosed talent that identifies in multiple different ways because they feel like they belong.’’ – Julia Streets – a Fintech entrepreneur, advisor, professional host/presenter and the host of the top-rated D&I podcast, DiverCity.
Representation – aiming for diverse representation at all levels of the organisation, including leadership positions.
Representation refers to ensuring that the composition of the employees reflects the diversity of the population that it services. It ensures that diverse employees and their viewpoints can be found or depicted across all departments and seniority levels within the company.
Candidate experience – providing a positive and respectful experience for all candidates who view, apply or interview for a job, regardless of the outcome of their application.
It’s important to note that these terms are interconnected and work together to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace. Inclusive culture promotes diversity, equity ensures fairness, and equality seeks to provide equal opportunities regardless of differences.
How to build an inclusive hiring process: principles
In an ideal world, leadership should champion this initiative in order to ensure that any efforts taken will be understood, promoted and supported. There are multiple ways in which they can educate themselves, gain support to stay on track and create effective systems to implement inclusivity; from DEI programs to advisory boards.
However there are also actions hiring managers or employees can take: from advocacy to changing their own processes and championing a different approach to HR. It’s key that there’s bottom up support for inclusivity as well as top down efforts.
Whilst a truly inclusive hiring process requires company wide changes, there are significant steps you can take whatever your level, and education is a primary step.
How to start implementing an inclusive hiring process:
Measure the status quo
Common ways of measuring diversity include counts and percentage shares of the workforce with the following characteristic types:
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Sexual orientation
- Age
- Neurodiversity
- Social background
- Any other way you define or choose to measure diversity
The second stage is to segment your employee base by other factors, such as seniority, function, location, tenure, and to assess employee characteristic count and percentage shares through this additional lens, in order to answer questions like: ‘Are diverse employees churning faster? Are they failing to progress in the same numbers?’.
Share your assessment of the situation
Having analysed the data, be honest about where the gaps are and be transparent about it. Listen and respond to the diverse employees or team members you already have – they will help you retain and recruit new and diverse talent. Discuss diversity and inclusion with your team as a collective and proactively come to some actions that you can take.
If you’re an employee, consider raising awareness via tools such as employee feedback surveys, discussions with HR and management. You can also proactively assess your own biases and raise your own awareness of them via using online tools such as Project Implicit from Harvard University.
Commit to it
Where company wide initiatives are in place, inclusive hiring is a shared responsibility that needs to trickle down from leadership through to the different teams.
Leaders should demonstrate a clear commitment to diversity and inclusion by actively participating in diversity and inclusion initiatives, setting the tone for the entire organisation. Their visible support sends a powerful message that inclusion is a top priority.
This behaviour can be demonstrated by leaders within the organisation from the CEO downwards – so even if you’re a hiring manager with a team of 2, when scaling your team you can demonstrate commitment to some of these initiatives.
Communication
Company wide commitments must be articulated and shared across the organisation. This starts with defining what diversity, equity and inclusion means for the company, sharing definitions and leading workshops to align and educate teams.
Hosting internal and external events or talks to discuss why you’re prioritising D&I, what you’re currently doing and championing the progress you’ve made as a company will help to drive the initiatives forward and build your presence as a company that truly cares about DEI.
“At the last tech company I worked for as a VP we increased the number of Black employees hired by 800% year on year. We achieved this by rolling out intensive bias awareness and inclusion skills training, partnering with diversity focused communities and investing heavily in our employer brand.” – Abadesi Osunsade, Founder and CEO of Hustle Crew, an inclusivity awareness and training organisation
Measurement and iteration
As with any goal, you need to assess your progress via KPIs. Should you not meet your goals, you need to go back and assess where in the funnel things are breaking and course correct.
Try to avoid vanity metrics which make things look good, but don’t fundamentally move the needle. Let’s say you want to double the number of female engineers. If you hire 25 engineers a year, and end the year with 2 female engineers in your organisation (up from 1), you might feel that you’ve succeeded in your goals. You have to measure how the needle moves when it comes to female applications, interviews, final stage interviews, offers and so on; and be honest with your metrics about whether your teams are truly inclusive.
Challenges with inclusive hiring
Inclusive hiring doesn’t just happen for multiple reasons:
- Unconscious bias can influence hiring decisions. Biases are ingrained and may lead the hiring team to favour candidates who share similar backgrounds or characteristics, inadvertently excluding diverse talent.
- People tend to be more comfortable and connect more easily with individuals who are similar to them in terms of background, interests, or experiences. This can lead to the unintentional exclusion of candidates who differ from the current employees.
- Hiring processes can vary widely within an organisation or across different hiring teams, leading to inconsistencies and bias in how candidates are evaluated and selected.
- Even if diverse talent is successfully hired, companies may face retention challenges if they do not have a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture.
Therefore when attempting to effect change it’s important to be cognisant of all the ways that you can fail (and probably accepting of some failure), and to be prepared to re-define, re-work and iterate continuously in order to realise success. Paper exercises don’t stick, consistent process overhaul, measurement and feedback does.
How to build an inclusive hiring process: actions
‘’There are a lot of companies that try and maximise the number of diverse candidates making their way through the application stages, after a candidate has applied. However unless you focus on top of funnel activities, for example how you attract a diverse set of candidates you will find it hard to hit any DE&I targets.’’
Tom Shurrock – Director of Product, tackling inequality by building talent lifecycle management products at Beamery
It’s critical to optimise every stage of the hiring funnel to accomplish your desired results:
- Diversity starts with how the company presents itself and its roles to the world. Barriers here affect the rest of the funnel.
- Einstein famously said that ‘’the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting similar results’’. In order to find new pools of people, you have to move beyond your usual hunting grounds. That means proactively approaching possible candidates, and holding your recruiters accountable.
- Bias can seep into the hiring process at various stages – job descriptions, screening, assessment or offers. It needs to be addressed at each step to arrive at more equitable decisions.
- Inclusive hiring is not just about getting diverse candidates in the door; it’s also about creating an environment where they can belong and thrive.
Managing your staff and team through this process:
- You may experience resistance from your team or staff as you go through this process. People may feel defensive about their biases or about being confronted around exclusion in the funnel. Creating a safe environment for open discussion is key, and mobilising your team behind the benefits of these changes is critical.
- These changes to the standard operating procedure will create more work for staff in terms of candidate sourcing, evaluation of metrics, time invested in training and document overhaul, and increased scrutiny of their training process. Top-down enforcement will fail if the critical step of mobilising from the bottom-up in favour of the change is missed. That requires investment of time and resources.
- Be cognisant that the burden of education disproportionately falls on diverse groups, and that continuously pushing them to explain, advocate and educate the rest of the organisation can be tough. HR, leaders and managers should step up and support them.
Inclusive job descriptions
The job description is the first step in the candidate’s interactions with your company. This is the moment where they will decide if they’re interested in pursuing the opportunity. Job descriptions need to be written in a way that appeals to a diverse range of people, so you don’t lose them from the get-go. The below tips are complementary and should be used together:
Reframe your key requirements
It’s not uncommon to define the perfect candidate as a checklist of qualifications and experiences they have to meet. By doing so you might put off perfectly capable candidates with more diverse backgrounds. Be clear about what is a must-have experience versus a nice-to-have experience, and try to think about capabilities and skills, versus experiences and qualifications when putting together the role description.
Shortening the requirements list increases job description reach by including candidates excluded by other processes or by previous barriers to entry. By focusing on skills you will broaden the matching candidate pool, whereas focusing on qualifications and experiences will narrow it.
Other tips and tricks include avoiding formatting habits that codify gender bias: avoid having more than ⅓ of the job ad as a bulleted list. This is the sweet spot for the job description to appeal to all genders according to Textio, a widely used AI tool that recognises and removes bias in the hiring process.
Use inclusive language
Tom Shurrock says that “using ambitious and competitive language in your job description can be interpreted by candidates as confrontational culture and might put neurodiverse people off while having a stronger appeal to the male population. Similarly, using terms like ‘’fast-paced, active’’ has been known to stop older candidates or people with physical disabilities from applying.’’
If the language focuses on a specific type of person, people who don’t fit the box will feel excluded. Any unnecessary slang or internal terms can also appear exclusive.
In order to avoid this, you can educate yourself via using tools like Textio and UInclude that identify and replace any exclusive words and phrases from job descriptions and performance reviews.
Hire for culture add, not culture fit
Replicating your current internal culture leads to more of the same. You’re looking to add elements to your culture, not enforce similarity.
Be transparent and intentional about compensation
Clearly communicating the compensation package, including the base salary, bonuses and benefits will demonstrate your commitment to equity. This is an action you can take as a hiring manager. You can often be under pressure to save the company cost, but consider if you’re doing this at the expense of behaving equitably towards your team. Rather than simply applying the previous base salary + pay bump formula; consider if doing so means they would be paid less than other members of the team.
If implementing a company wide program as a leader, consider building flexibility into your benefits packages to accommodate different needs, and be able to advertise this on job descriptions. Examples of this include recognising candidates’ different needs when it comes to flexible working hours, work from home vs office attendance requirements, implementation of mental health days and many many more.
Demonstrate your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
Describing your commitment on role descriptions signals to candidates that your company values their contributions and perspectives. Use tangible examples – diversity metrics that you have improved or any current DEI initiatives like buddy/ mentorship programmes or employee resource groups rather than blanket DEI aspirational statements without evidence to back them up.
“I think setting those expectations up front and having those conversations is so important because if you go into it knowing what the company expects, what the company culture is like and it aligns with what the candidate is expecting – that’s going to be a win.” – Genevieve Dozier – Founder & CEO of Warpaint Consulting
It will be obvious if the commitment is real or if it’s just cookie-cutter phrases and buzzwords, both from the job description itself and from a swift check of your company’s Glassdoor and Linkedin pages.
Unless you’re ready to fully commit and be authentic, best not to do it half way.
Finding diverse talent
Here’s how to tap into various sources to expand your pool of diverse candidates:
Diverse job boards and platforms
Understand that Linkedin or Indeed alone won’t yield results. Instead use specialised job boards and platforms that cater to underrepresented groups. These platforms often focus on specific demographics, such as women, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and racial and ethnic minorities. Enforce this approach with external or internal recruiters, and give them time to invest in sourcing diverse candidates.
Underrepresented communities
Engage with underrepresented communities directly through outreach and partnerships. Attend local events, conferences, and meetups that cater to these communities. Employee Resource Groups can be an invaluable resource in identifying such groups and supporting such initiatives.
Events and meetups
Attend networking events and conferences that focus on diversity and inclusion, both within and outside your industry. Consider hosting or sponsoring events that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in your industry, which can help you build a reputation as an inclusive employer and connect with a diverse talent pool.
Referrals
Encourage your existing diverse employees to refer candidates from their networks. Referrals can be a powerful way to attract diverse talent, as often people are more likely to recommend candidates similar to themselves.
Employee Resource Groups
Set up, then ask your company’s Employee Resource Groups for assistance with this task. These groups are voluntary employee councils, set up with the aim of encouraging diverse perspectives and fostering diversity, equity and inclusion within their employer organisations. ERG members often have connections to external networks and can be valuable in identifying external talent.
Hire in bulk
If you’re in a position where you’re hiring from multiple roles in the same function, consider bulk hiring. Taking an entire graduating cohort from a retraining program, apprenticeship or other such schemes can eliminate selection bias.
Screening and interviewing
Anonymize applications
If there’s no information available about a candidate’s name, gender, ethnicity, it forces the hiring team to stay focused on the content of the application. In this way interviewers are given a chance to see the applicant as an individual, rather than fitting them into predefined categories.
Hiring tools like Greenhouse or Workable offer this (and more) to help with the anonymization process. Unbias.io is a nifty Chrome extension that removes faces and names from LinkedIn profiles.
It was proven in the 1970s and 1980s when orchestras started using blind screening and the number of women gaining roles increased from 6% to 21%.
Demonstrate diversity on your interview panel
Having a diverse group of people who interview the candidate will help to get a well-rounded assessment and reduce unconscious bias.
Diversity of viewpoints helps counteract the impact of any individual’s unconscious biases, leading to fairer and more objective evaluations. It also helps a candidate to understand if the company is truly dedicated to inclusion.
Create structured interviews
A standardised set of behavioural questions that test skills and competencies will ensure that you’re assessing each candidate as fairly as possible. The questions should be paired with a scale (e.g. 1 to 5 or Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree) to allow the interviewers to objectively assess the candidate’s abilities and suitability for the role.
Each interviewer should take detailed notes during the interviews, so they can come back to it for clarification as needed and use it as evidence for their scores. After each interview, hold a session to discuss the evaluations. This will create an open discussion and allow you to identify any potential biases, and have them countered.
It’s common to use problem-solving tasks as assessments of product people. Keep in mind that not everyone processes information the same way and might need extra time, so the preference should always be for a take-home task over a live task.
Similarly, always ask the candidates if they need any assistance to be able to attend the interview, whether it’s online or in-person and offer flexibility with the task format.
Offer stage
Studies have found that individuals from underrepresented groups, particularly women and minorities, don’t negotiate as much as white men due to fear of negative consequences. Offering proactive negotiation support can help to level the playing field and address potential disparities that might arise during the offer stage.
Standardising offers and building flexibility into benefits packages as part of your equity initiatives can also assist to eliminate disparities and is one of the simplest ways to eliminate this issue.
However if you have not done this in advance there are some support options:
- Provide resources – articles, videos and how-to guides will set the expectation that negotiating is normal and encourage them to go through the process.
- Don’t ask for their current salary – asking what the candidate currently earns will limit their negotiation power and reinforce the pay disparities. You might also unintentionally adjust your perception of their worth based on that figure. Instead, ask what they’re expecting to make.
- Encourage an open discussion – it will reiterate the company’s commitment to equity and provide an opportunity to address any potential misalignment.
Onboarding
Supporting new hires during onboarding is crucial to ensure that new hires, regardless of their background, feel welcome, valued, and equipped to succeed in their roles. Onboarding if done right will ramp up people effectively, build an inclusive culture and ultimately increase retention.
Without considering this as a key stage in your DEI initiatives, metrics risk becoming vanity measures: since unless the diverse pool you have equitably hired feels welcomed, supported, and stays in role, the initiative has fundamentally (and expensively) failed.
Create a safe space for people to talk about who they are out of work – allowing people to share salient details about their lives will help you and the team understand where you might unknowingly create a difficult environment for them. For example, by scheduling meetings over their school pick ups, medical appointments or prayer times.
Provide clear expectations – providing new hires with a detailed overview of their roles, responsibilities and goals will give them clarity about their contribution to the team and the company.
Co-create your onboarding programme – people learn in different ways, and having the same onboarding programme for everyone will not set them up for success. Have an open discussion and find out how to help the new hire learn more effectively.
“Each person has different social anxieties and different ways that they learn. And so asking that person ‘’how do you want to onboard?’’ will consider what they’re comfortable with, even from a mental health inclusion point of view.“– Genevieve Dozier – Founder & CEO of Warpaint Consulting
Provide accessible resources – ensure that resources related to onboarding, policies, benefits, and other relevant information are accessible and available to everyone, including those with disabilities.
Assign a buddy – pairing new hires with a buddy who can help them to navigate the organisation, answer questions and provide guidance will create a sense of belonging and help newcomers integrate more smoothly.
Offer diversity and inclusion training – it will help new employees understand the organisation’s commitment to inclusivity and educate them about how to interact respectfully with colleagues from various backgrounds.
Introduce employee resource groups – depending on the size of the company, there might be employee resource groups which are safe, supportive forums for employees who share a common identity. Make new employees aware of this resource.
Track and measure key metrics
It will take time to see results. Measuring key metrics is essential to be able to hold the company accountable, track progress and identify any gaps where improvements are needed.
You can break down the hiring funnel, identify each of the cohorts and measure how they move through the funnel, just like you would when optimising a customer journey:
Identify cohorts
- Demographics – collect data on the demographics of your applicant pool, interviewees, and hires. Evolve the information you collect as you learn more about people’s diverse capabilities. Remember to make information collection voluntary as candidates may feel cautious about sharing.
Measure the funnel
- Hiring pipeline – measure the representation of diverse candidates at each stage of the hiring process to identify potential bottlenecks.
- Conversion rates – measure the percentage of candidates from underrepresented groups who make it through each stage of the hiring process and are eventually hired.
- Offer acceptance rates – understand whether candidates from different backgrounds accept your job offers at similar rates.
- Retention rates – track the retention rates of diverse hires compared to the overall rate.
Wrap up on inclusive hiring
“Your culture matters more now, I would say, than ever before. On one hand, people say that culture eats strategy for breakfast. On the other hand, it is the culture, when we think about purpose, that people truly align with.” – Julia Streets – a Fintech entrepreneur, advisor, professional host/presenter and the host of the top-rated D&I podcast, DiverCity.
As we have outlined in this article, building an inclusive hiring process requires a holistic approach that spans from job descriptions to onboarding. By intentionally recruiting candidates from various backgrounds and underrepresented groups, organisations can create opportunities for fresh perspectives, innovative thinking, and increased revenue. But the revenue pay off only comes by walking the walk, not only talking the talk.
Having said that, building an inclusive hiring culture is a process. It can be hard to do everything at once. Get started with small initiatives and start to develop the full suite of initiatives over time.
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FAQs
What is inclusive hiring?
Inclusive hiring is the practice of trying to create an inclusive, equitable and unbiased hiring experience for candidates from a diverse range of backgrounds. Inclusive approaches should be present at every stage of the hiring process: from job description, application screening, interview protocols, offer and onboarding.
Why is inclusive hiring important?
Aside from the moral imperative, there are studies which show that businesses with more diverse teams benefit from better decision making and make more money due to a wider variety of viewpoints.
What are inclusive hiring practices?
Examples of some inclusive hiring practices include: focusing job descriptions on skills, rather than experience or qualifications, hiring for culture add, not culture fit, screening job descriptions for exclusive language, anonymising application screening, standardising interview practices and using scorecards, balancing interview panels for diversity and making standardised offers. Successful inclusive hiring practices start with creating a truly inclusive corporate culture, and feeding it into hiring processes.
