Diversity Hiring & Building An Inclusive & Equitable Workforce

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Diversity, equity and inclusion- the trending terms in boardrooms, town halls, and press releases. It's the new metric to measure a company's growth and impacts an organization's brand value. Job seekers are looking for diverse and inclusive organizations and companies are valuing diverse viewpoints. 

However, for all its popularity, diversity, inclusion and equity are still not well-understood concepts. People are aware of this recruitment process. However, organizations still struggle to build effective strategies for implementing these hiring practices, and accurately measuring their benefits and effectiveness. 

It's high time we turned diversity from a discussion point to an action point. So let's understand what this concept is all about.

Diversity, Inclusion & Equity (DE&I) at the Workplace

Diversity, inclusion, and equity are three important concepts that relate to creating a positive and inclusive workplace environment.

Diversity refers to the range of differences among individuals in a workplace, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, and socioeconomic background. It recognizes and values the unique perspectives, experiences, and talents that each individual brings to the table. Embracing diversity in the workplace means actively seeking out and promoting a workforce that reflects the rich tapestry of society.

Inclusion goes beyond simply having a diverse workforce and focuses on creating an environment where all individuals feel valued, respected, and included. It involves fostering a sense of belonging and ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities to participate, contribute, and advance within the organization. Inclusion requires fostering a culture of open communication, collaboration, and mutual respect, where diverse voices are heard, and diverse perspectives are valued.

Equity is about ensuring fairness and justice in the workplace. It recognizes that not all individuals start from the same place and have the same opportunities. Equity involves identifying and addressing systemic barriers and biases that may prevent certain individuals or groups from fully participating or advancing in the workplace. It means providing support, resources, and opportunities to level the playing field and create equal access to success for all employees.

Diversity, inclusion, and equity are interconnected concepts that are crucial for creating a workplace that celebrates and values differences, fosters a sense of belonging, and ensures fairness and equal opportunities for all employees. By embracing these principles, organizations can drive innovation and foster creativity.

What Is Equitable, Inclusive & Diversity Hiring?

DE&I hiring refers to recruitment methods that focus on hiring an individual purely on talent and skill set, irrespective of their age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, class, caste, or any other arbitrary measure that has no impact on an individual's performance. It also focuses on building a culture where members from all backgrounds, including traditionally oppressed backgrounds, are given equal opportunities to grow. Lastly, it encourages practices that boost diverse representation in the workforce.

One may think that this is a given in the modern workforce. But for the longest time, organizations suffered from a hiring bias, where potential candidates were judged on measures other than their performance. Unconscious biases and stereotypes impacted hiring managers' decisions - and a wrong first impression (due to no fault of the candidate) went a long way in determining a recruiter's decision. 

Unconscious bias refers to an inherent bias that individuals may exhibit because of their upbringing or social construct. This does not automatically imply that an individual is a bad professional. But, it does indicate a vulnerability that can impact the individual's decision-making ability.  Thus, it's important that professionals identify such biases, and learn how to eliminate them to make better-informed, fair and just decisions at the workplace - be that about hiring or growth. 

A common misconception is that diversity hiring focuses on a group of individuals - presumably a group that has faced discrimination in the past. However, diversity hiring is not focused on any one group of individuals; and they’re not hired to make the workplace appear more “inclusive”.

It's a recruitment practice that focuses on correcting existing biases to attract, assess, hire, and retain qualified candidates. 

Inclusive vs Diversity Hiring

Diversity and inclusion are two distinct concepts in the context of hiring. Diversity focuses on creating a workforce that represents a wide range of perspectives and experiences. Inclusion is about creating an environment where every individual feels valued, respected, and included.

Here are the key differences between the two:

Diversity Hiring Needs A Culture Of Inclusion

There is a reason the terms diversity, equity and inclusion go hand-in-hand. There still exists a widely-held perception that organizations engage in diversity hiring simply to meet corporate mandates or a diversity quota i.e., diversity hiring for the sake of making a workplace diverse. This reinforces the idea that candidates hired through diversity hiring are not qualified and their employability lies in their ability to fit a quota or metrics. This, in turn, impacts that hired individual's career growth and prospects in the organization.

Thus, it's not enough to remove biases while hiring - it's also important to build a culture of inclusion. In other words, diversity hiring should not just be a box to check on your list of recruitment goals. Rather, it should be a practice followed across all departments in an organization.

Remember, diversity hiring is not just a target for recruitment teams but rather, a team goal. 

The Importance of DE&I Hiring

A diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring process is incredibly important for organizations and holds several benefits, namely: 

i) Wide talent pool with varied networking opportunities

Diversity hiring helps companies build a talent pool of candidates with a broader range of skills and experiences than a homogeneous workforce. Consequently, organizations benefit from better and newer networking opportunities. A diverse workforce is also more equipped to cater to a wider range of customer base. 

ii) Boost in profitability

Multiple reports have stated that a diverse workforce boosts profitability. Organizations with a diverse group of employees are likely to financially outperform organizations with a less diverse or homogenous workforce. 

iii) Increase in innovation and creativity

Having a workforce of diverse viewpoints fosters greater innovation and creativity. This translates to organizations that are better at coming up with novel solutions to problems. This also enables companies to build solutions and technologies that cater to different segments of the population. 

iv) Improved retention, and thus, productivity

Diverse and inclusive workplaces that focus on open communication encourage employees to authentically express themselves. Employees are more likely to stay with an organization that values their individuality, and where job performance is the criterion for career growth. This helps improve the retention rate, which in turn boosts productivity.  

v) Positive employer brand

An organization's ability to attract high-quality talent is greatly impacted by its brand value. Fostering a company culture of diversity and inclusion positively impacts the employer brand. This is exactly why D&I is a key metric for adjudging if an organization is a good place to work. 

Developing DE&I Hiring Strategies

Every organization has different objectives and hiring strategies may differ between organizations. However, any effective DE&I recruitment strategy has four basic steps: 

i) Audit current recruitment practices

The first step is to audit the current practices and find loopholes. DE&I initiatives work best when there is a concrete end goal in sight rather than a generic goal. In other words, don't implement diversity hiring just for the sake of diversity but actually work on improving the hiring process. 

ii) Addressing bias in hiring

Companies can address biases in hiring by implementing strategies such as blind resume screening, structured interviews, and diverse interview panels. These measures help reduce unconscious biases based on factors like gender, race, or age. Common biases in the hiring process include the halo effect, where a positive first impression influences overall judgment, and affinity bias, where hiring managers favor candidates who are similar to themselves.

iii) Identify the metrics to improve

After auditing current practices, organizations should identify all the metrics where the performance is below accepted standards or industry benchmarks. It's always advisable to start slow - you can't overhaul the process in one go. 

iv) Include DE&I goals in all major steps: candidate sourcing, screening and shortlisting

The best strategy for diversity hiring is one where organizations weed out the bias in the current recruiting practices and correct for past biases. This is where this step becomes important. Herein, companies need to employ a diversity mindset in all major stages of job application - sourcing candidates (inclusive job descriptions, diverse job portals, etc.), candidate screening (blind hiring, etc.), and candidate shortlisting (skill-based assessment, etc.). 

v) Evaluate the defined metrics

The commitment to diversity has to be a continuous process, where you keep evaluating results and take corrective measures. It's only when you compare the pre and post-diversity hiring data on key metrics that you can understand if a strategy is working or failing. 

Encouraging Referrals and References from Minority Employees

Employee referrals play a crucial role in sourcing diverse candidates for a company. When minority employees refer their friends, family members, or acquaintances for job openings, it helps to increase the diversity within the organization. This is because minority employees often have networks that are more diverse and inclusive, which can lead to a wider pool of candidates from different backgrounds. Additionally, minority employees are more likely to refer individuals who share similar experiences and perspectives, which can contribute to a more inclusive and welcoming work environment.

By actively encouraging referrals from minority employees, companies can tap into these diverse networks and attract a wider range of candidates who may not have otherwise considered applying. This can help to break down barriers and increase the representation of underrepresented groups within the organization. Moreover, employee referrals tend to result in higher-quality candidates as the referring employee has firsthand knowledge of the skills and qualifications of the person they are referring.

Organizations can use this recruiting strategy as a basic framework and develop a strategic approach to DE&I hiring that works best for them. 

Measuring the Effectiveness of DE&I Recruiting

You've built your DE&I recruiting strategy and implemented it. But the journey doesn't stop here. Now it's time to measure the effectiveness and find areas of improvement. 

Here are a few ways to measure the effectiveness of your diversity efforts: 

i) Measure key metrics and compare

Naturally, the easiest way to evaluate the effectiveness of your diversity recruiting strategy is to gather data and compare it to past performance. 

ii) Evaluate the recruitment process

Another way to evaluate effectiveness is to take feedback from potential candidates about the recruitment process. This could be through forms collected at the end of the process or minor pulse checks during the hiring process. 

iii) Gather feedback from existing employees 

As mentioned before, diversity should not just be a hiring strategy but rather, part of the workplace culture. Thus, engage with current employees and gather feedback on what they love about the organization and what can be improved further. 

The Common Mistakes In DE&I Hiring

Merely introducing inclusion initiatives is not enough. Organizations need to gather both, data and feedback on key performance indicators to understand if the DE&I strategy implemented actually delivers the required results. Companies that introduce new strategies but don't evaluate their results are left ill-equipped to cater to the reality of a diverse workforce. 

Here are some common mistakes in inclusive and diversity hiring: 

1. Lack of diversity in leadership positions: This refers to the underrepresentation of diverse individuals, such as women, people of color, and individuals from marginalized groups, in leadership roles within organizations. Overcoming this obstacle involves implementing strategies to increase diversity in leadership, such as targeted recruitment efforts, mentorship programs, and creating inclusive promotion policies.

2. Unconscious bias and stereotypes: Unconscious bias refers to the biases and stereotypes that individuals hold unconsciously, which can influence decision-making and perpetuate inequalities. Overcoming this obstacle involves raising awareness about unconscious bias, providing training and education on bias mitigation, and implementing policies and practices that promote fairness and inclusivity.

3. Resistance to change and lack of buy-in from employees: Some employees may resist efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies due to various reasons, such as fear of losing privilege or a lack of understanding of the benefits of diversity. Overcoming this obstacle involves effective communication, engaging employees in the process, addressing concerns and misconceptions, and highlighting the positive impact of DEI on the organization.

4. Limited resources and budget constraints: Organizations may face challenges in allocating sufficient resources and budget to support DEI initiatives. Overcoming this obstacle involves advocating for the importance of DEI, seeking external funding or partnerships, prioritizing DEI in budget planning, and finding creative and cost-effective solutions.

5. Difficulty in measuring and tracking progress: Measuring and tracking progress in DEI efforts can be challenging due to the complex nature of diversity and inclusion. Overcoming this obstacle involves developing clear metrics and indicators, collecting relevant data, conducting regular assessments, and using technology and data analytics to monitor progress and identify areas for improvement.

6. Inadequate training and education on DEI topics: Many individuals may lack the necessary knowledge and understanding of DEI topics, which can hinder progress in creating inclusive environments. Overcoming this obstacle involves providing comprehensive and ongoing training and education on DEI, including topics such as unconscious bias,

Focusing on only 'traditional' diversity

Another mistake with DE&I initiatives, especially diversity hiring, is focusing on only one form of diversity. Traditionally, diversity only focused on binary definitions of gender (male vs female candidates) and race (people of color). That's an extremely restrictive definition of diversity. Apart from gender and race, there are different types of diversity, based on age, sexual orientation, class, caste (in India), disability, etc. When implementing diversity hiring strategies, organizations should be inclusive of people from all types of backgrounds. 

Diversity Fatigue & Other Challenges in Diversity Hiring

Diversity fatigue refers to a phenomenon where individuals or organizations become tired or overwhelmed by the constant focus on diversity and inclusion. It occurs when there is a saturation of diversity-related initiatives, discussions, and efforts, leading to a sense of exhaustion or apathy towards the topic. Diversity fatigue can manifest in various ways, such as reduced enthusiasm for diversity initiatives, resistance to change, or a lack of motivation to actively participate in diversity and inclusion efforts. It is important to address diversity fatigue and find ways to re-energize individuals and organizations to ensure continued progress towards creating inclusive environments.

Two of the other major challenges that organizations face when employing diversity hiring strategies are: 

i) Not having the right data

The biggest challenge in diversity hiring is not having data - this includes data on labour market and how you compare to industry standards. Using incorrect metrics or not investing in resources to collect appropriate data can leave you with limited or even misleading information. This increases the possibility of mishires. 

ii) Not finding different types of candidate

Many organizations face an issue with sourcing diverse candidates i.e., people from diverse backgrounds are not applying for the available roles in the organization. For example, a lack of female candidates for primarily male-dominated fields like the role of a software engineer or sales executive. 

The range of candidates applying to an organization could be limited for multiple reasons.  Simply posting a recruitment notice won't invite candidates to apply if your organization does not provide an inclusive workforce. For example, an absence of comprehensive maternity leave may discourage female candidates from applying. 

Implementing DE&I in Hiring: Best Practices

 Keep the following tips in mind when implementing DE&I initiatives:

i) Write an inclusive job description that is age and/or gender-neutral. 

ii) Post the vacancy on multiple job boards and social media sites to improve your chances of attracting diverse candidates. Organizations may even use employee referrals to encourage individuals to tap into their network. 

iii) Make the job application process more inclusive by adding the description in multiple languages and making it easily accessible to people from diverse backgrounds.  

iii) Utilizing blind hiring practices i.e., software or tools that hide personal information about a candidate

iv) Invest in merit-based assessment and not just interviews

v) Improve the interview process by including a diverse interview panel

vi) Focus on improving workplace diversity

Diversity hiring has several benefits and it makes moral and fiscal sense for organizations to direct their attention to this recruitment strategy. 

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