Inclusive hiring is incredibly important for a number of reasons. Not only does it open your business to a widened range of viewpoints, approaches, and management styles, but it can be a net positive for an organization’s overall success. With benefits such as employee retention, productivity, and an increase in employee satisfaction, hiring with the goal of inclusivity means spotlighting hiring practices that recognize diversity and new perspective. But inclusive hiring is about more than recruiting with the intent to tick off a box. It should include an active effort to eliminate bias on an organizational level, while actively preventing discrimination. But regardless of your place within your business, where do you start?
1. Evaluate your weak spots and consider what diversity means to you.
What are you missing in the success of your organization? This could be an open line of communication for all employees, a wide range of employee perspective, generational gaps, experience gaps, or intersectionality. Often, when you can identify the areas in which your business is lacking, it’s easier to see where the blank spots exist. Once you’ve effectively identified areas of improvement, approaching a diverse hiring strategy is much more manageable.
2. Pivot your brand identity.
Brand identity is critical to ensuring your business is approachable and welcoming to all applicants at the source. In some industries that can be more male-dominated, messaging can benefit from a makeover. Identify language that could deter visitors to your social media or website, and pivot to inclusive messaging. A good rule of thumb here is to communicate with the goal of making everyone feel like your target audience. Depending on your business there may be exceptions to this rule, such as when you’re identifying specific skill sets or industry experience, but for the most part, your language should be non-gendered, free of stereotypes or generalizations, and neutral in tone.
3. Re-evaluate your job posting strategy
Using inclusive language is important when postings jobs too, but it can also be beneficial to evaluate what job boards you’re utilizing to attract candidates. Some large job sites such as Indeed may have the option to highlight posts for minority groups or persons with disabilities, but getting creative with your posting strategy can be a great approach as well. A good place to start is to check out local non-profit organizations or event groups that have job boards. These can include groups for women in tech, new immigrants, or people with disabilities. Not only will this increase your applicant pool, but you’ll have the opportunity to meet people who may not have otherwise applied.
4. Eliminate career growth obstacles
Larger businesses should already have an internal recruiting strategy in place, but implementing internal mobility tracking can help you to identify where obstacles exist for employees, and paint a clearer picture of growth progression for all employees. As an added bonus, this will help with employee retention and overall morale too!
5. Be mindful during the interview process
The interview process can be intimidating for anyone, but it’s especially important to consider how your organization can benefit from more inclusive practices. Consider a gender balanced interview panel, and be mindful of obstacles your interviewee may have faced over their employment history. You don’t have to compromise on your qualification requirements in every case, but being open to a variety of career paths and employment backgrounds will allow you to see talent and valuable attributes that you may not have encountered otherwise.
6. Keep an eye on your metrics
It may not make sense for smaller companies to track hiring metrics, but larger organizations can only benefit from having an idea of what their hiring looks like from a broader perspective. Some applicant tracking systems can highlight the differences between why certain employees were hired over others, and display pipeline obstacles for candidates with diverse backgrounds. It can also help to keep track of things like how new hires are fitting in with their peers, or employees who may be falling behind.
Do you have a specific hiring need that isn’t being met? Are you having difficultly finding and retaining top talent? Stellar can help. Get in touch with our sales team here.