Having a diverse workforce helps organisations flourish. This is why diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) must be at the heart of recruitment and hiring. Shay Dalton explains what can be done to help promote DE&I and overcome bias in this field.
Diversity and inclusion are now at the forefront of organisations’ strategies for improvement and growth. Businesses everywhere strive to be more inclusive of prospective employees regarding gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality and more. To increase diversity and reduce bias, one must look at every stage of the hiring process, from screening CVs to making an offer. It must then carry on to when prospective employees become actual employees who feel included and not discriminated against in the workplace. Outlined below are a few things that can be done at all stages of employment to encourage greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in your organisation.
Ensure your interview panel embraces diversity
Be mindful of who you have on your interview panel. It’s probably not a bad idea for a prospective employee to meet as many team members of various ages, genders and races as possible to help them understand the business. Naturally, this may not always be possible depending on the current diversity of your team, but it can shine a positive light on the culture and ethos of your team.
Don’t Google your candidates
We’ve all been guilty of it, but if you can avoid Googling candidates before their pre-phone screening, it will do wonders for reducing unconscious bias.
As well as not looking into a candidate’s online presence, a first-round interview should be conducted by phone. While video may be useful to create a good atmosphere in later stages, completing the first round by phone means the chances of unconscious bias by recruiters or talent acquisition are minimal.
Use inclusive language
Creating a supportive dialogue and using inclusive language can help your employees feel comfortable and generate a more diverse candidate pool. Incorporating this type of language in important messaging is proven to increase productivity and improve employee morale within the workplace, so it is worthwhile to establish solid principles for consistent use. You should regularly check all marketing collateral and, in particular, job adverts that will go out on behalf of the company to ensure inclusive language is being employed.
Ensure top-level management are on board
Strategy and communication supporting diversity and reducing bias must be implemented from the top down. Therefore, hiring managers, team leaders, and managing directors must understand the DE&I strategy and how best to utilise it when building and motivating their teams.
Implement strategy into daily working life
You can have a solid DE&I policy and a strategy committed to eliminating unconscious bias, but there is no point talking the talk if you don’t walk the walk. These ideas and the overall ethos must be embedded in the organisation’s daily working life and culture. Otherwise, they are meaningless. Running regular company events, culture nights and focusing on clubs and societies centred around relevant DE&I topics puts the ideas into practice. Furthermore, it is necessary to increase awareness of these areas.
Shay Dalton is Managing Director at Lincoln Recuitment.
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