In yesterday’s Advisor, we talked about the benefits of having a diverse workforce and took a look at a few recruiting tips to ensure that the recruiting process promotes inclusion. Today let’s outline a few more tips:
- Pay attention to how the employment brand looks from the candidate perspective. Does the organization appear to be a place that would favor one demographic over another? That alone could discourage applicants from other backgrounds, which could reduce the organization’s ability to improve diversity in the workplace.
- Audit the organization’s workforce to see what types of diversity already exist—and consider going a step further and analyzing how each type of candidate came to the organization. This can help you to identify which recruiting methods may help to improve diversity.
- Work with the rest of the organization if necessary to implement diversity training and ensure that all employees are treated with respect. If the organization has a hostile working environment for anyone who is “different” from other employees, word will spread, which will hamper any recruiting efforts.
- Consider expanding geographic reach of job postings. This may mean working with others in the organization to put together a package that includes relocation benefits. Or it may mean allowing remote work. But either way, expanding geographic reach for job postings can open up the job to a more varied audience.
- Consider intentionally reaching out to groups that focus on diversity to get your jobs posted with them.
- Consider implementing skills-based assessments for candidates and relying on those in conjunction with other recruiting practices. Skills-based assessments can help you to find candidates who may not have the standard background on their résumé but who are completely qualified in terms of their skill set. This can help you to stop unintentionally ignoring candidates who are otherwise qualified—and may improve your diversity as a result.
- Use metrics to measure diversity. If we take the time to measure diversity at all stages of the recruiting process, that will put more of a focus on it and improve our ability to recruit more diverse candidates. You could start by reviewing demographic statistics in all locations where your company operates and see how your organization compares to the areas it operates in. This type of benchmarking can tell you where the organization is not keeping up with the demographics it serves.
What other ways have you tried to ensure your workforce maintains diversity?