Yahoo Finance How to improve diversity when recruiting
A growing number of businesses consider diversity to be a key concern, with more than two-thirds of executives rating it as an important issue.
There are many reasons why making sure our workplaces are inclusive is important. Not only is it morally right, but having a diverse range of employees can help boost creative thinking, improve decision-making and also boost performance.
“Highly inclusive” organisations generate 1.4 times more revenue and are 120 percent more capable of meeting financial targets, according to Deloitte research.
When it comes to recruitment, improving diversity means attracting more diverse candidates and removing bias from the hiring process. So what are the factors you should consider?
Check your language in job adverts
It’s important to make sure a job advert attracts a wide range of people and to ensure certain language doesn’t deter candidates from applying.
“Pay attention to language in your job applications. You might say you have a young and vibrant culture, but this might put off older candidates,” said Abby Carlton, director of social impact at Indeed, speaking at the Indeed Interactive conference in Austin.
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It’s also key to check to bias in adverts, which may put off women from applying. The inclusion of certain words in job descriptions that are regarded as more “masculine” can lead to fewer women putting themselves forward for positions – particularly senior roles in male-dominated professions.
Last year, research by TotalJobs found that out of 75,000 job ads, 478,175 words were thought to carry a gender bias, with ads for social care and admin roles most likely to use female-biased language, at 87% and 67% respectively.
It’s also important to think carefully about the requirements of a job too, as research shows that women are unlikely to apply for a position unless they meet 100% of the requirements - while men will apply if they meet 60%
Remove bias from the screening process
“Go beyond the resume and really show what people can bring to the job,” Carlton advised, highlighting that people from different backgrounds can each bring something new to a job.
It might be worth considering blind resume screening, as gender and ethnicity of names are known to have an impact on CV screening.
READ MORE: why we need to tackle discrimination at work
Blind hiring means removing personal information, such as someone’s name, age or gender from an application during the assessment and selection process. Instead, initial decisions are simply based on qualifications, experience, education, references or the quality of the CV itself.
There are tools and technology that can help with this process, including software that assists with screening and reviews your job adverts to check for bias. Blind hiring can also save time, as manually going through CVs can be labour-intensive.
Create diverse interview teams
It’s important to build interview teams based on who can evaluate candidates objectively, as well as who can make a potential employee feel comfortable - so it’s key to have a diverse selection of interviewers.
“Bringing underrepresented employees into your interview process shows that you’re committed to different points of view and opinions—a great signal to candidates that you value diversity. That’s why 35% of companies we surveyed are using this tactic,” research by LinkedIn found.
Ensuring the interview panel for new hires contains women can help improve gender diversity, for example.
Beware of ‘affinity bias’
Interviewers need to be aware of bias, even if it is subconscious. Affinity bias, for example, is a preference for people “like me” - which means interviewers are more likely to rate a candidate highly if they have a similar background to themselves.
Confirmation bias, Glassdoor explains, is when someone “forms an opinion and interprets new evidence as confirmation of that belief”. In this case, an interviewer may start with a preconceived opinion of an interviewee based on their CV, and ask questions aimed at confirming that belief.
Expand your sourcing networks
You may also want to consider where you are recruiting from, to improve diversity in your business. The Global Recruiting Trends 2018 report by LinkedIn found 28% of survey respondents say they show candidates they value diversity by recruiting at universities, trade schools and community colleges with diverse student bodies. You could also try reaching out to networking organisations or other networks, and review CVs and applications from more than one job website.
