Strategies for Nurturing Diversity in Your Hiring Process

Diversity is not a slogan; it’s a practice. Companies that embody diversity have more pronounced success than companies that don’t. Hiring people from different backgrounds fosters creativity and boosts morale, among other things.

Below are some metrics that illustrate how crucial nurturing diversity in your hiring process can be:

• Companies in the top 25% for ethnic and cultural diversity were 36% more profitable than those in the bottom 25%.
• Companies with higher-than-average diversity had 19% higher innovation revenues.
• Diverse teams outperform non-diverse ones by 35%.
• The national GDP would increase by $25 billion if just 1% more disabled people were hired.
• Companies with greater than 30% female executives were more likely to outperform those with 10%-30% women executives.

What Is Diversity Hiring?

Diversity hiring is a recruitment and hiring approach devoid of biases based on a prospective employee’s age, gender, religion, sexual orientation and other personal characteristics that don’t affect job performance.

It requires upending the unconscious biases within the hiring process. These biases are learned prejudices and stereotypes that are often unintentional and automatic.

Why Focus on Diversity in Hiring?

Diversity hiring allows for people from different backgrounds to have greater access to jobs based on merit.

It is also a way to find qualified individuals who may have been overlooked due to their background. The nursing field has led the way in promoting diverse hiring practices and equitable pay.

Let’s dive into the strategies necessary to foster diversity within the hiring process.

How to Make Your Hiring Practices More Inclusive?

Step 1:Perform an Audit on Current Diversity Practices

To determine a plan of action for diversity hiring, it’s essential to understand where your company stands at the present moment. Try and isolate the data to get a better sense of where to improve.

Does your company have an issue retaining diverse candidates? Or rather, does your company not even have the capacity to get various candidates within the doors?

Figuring out the problem first will help you develop a solid plan to solve it.

Step 2: Revise Your Job Ads

Don’t discount language. If your company’s language to find talent doesn’t convey your values or represent the type of people you want to hire, you should consider revising it.

Below are some tips to help you design your job ads:

• Outline job duties that are only essential. On average, men apply for jobs that they meet just 60% of the criteria. Women typically feel the need to meet closer to 100% to apply. If you write overly detailed, pronounced requirements, it could limit the range of applicants you receive.
• Promote your company’s diversity credentials within the job posting. This shows that you are serious about fostering a diverse community.
• Use inclusive, age and gender-neutral language. Some job postings will express that they are seeking a “rockstar” or “ninja” or “guru” This language may discourage some candidates, often women, from applying.
• Showcase inclusive benefits like shared parental leave and flexible working.

After drafting your job advertisement, have someone else look it over for you. Having another set of eyes can help you uncover things you might have missed when initially writing it.

Step 3: Post on Job Boards Targeted Toward Underrepresented Groups

If your company has a hard time finding diverse, qualified talent, it may stem from looking in the wrong places. There are plenty of platforms to find candidates that don’t fit typical characteristics.

Some of the most common are:

• Hire Autism – is a jobs board for people on the autistic spectrum.
• Pink Jobs – is a jobs board for LGBTQ+ people.
• TJobBank – is a jobs board for transgender people.
• Recruit Disability – is a jobs board for people with disabilities.
• 70 Million Jobs – is a jobs board for people with criminal records.p>

Step 4: Develop a More Inclusive Candidate Screening Process

Most companies employ the standard candidate screening process, such as looking at prior experience, school, or personal connection. These strategies do not foster diverse hiring practices.

Below are some techniques to help your company hire a more diverse talent pool.

• Blind Hiring – This is a technique that masks or “blinds” personal information about a recruiter or hiring manager candidate. This strategy is employed to mitigate unconscious or conscious biases about a candidate.
• Pre-hire skills assessments – Often, companies look for culture fits, which can lead to bias in recruiting. By using skills assessments, you can focus on your candidate’s abilities. You can create an on-the-job simulation to determine a candidate’s fit.

Step 5: Practice Inclusive Interviewing

It’s paramount to have a diverse hiring board if you can. Get feedback from diverse people on your staff regarding the hiring decision. Ask your employees for feedback on the job description as well.

Just as having a diverse team promotes a healthy exchange of ideas and creativity, diverse interviewing tactics do the same to identify great candidates of all backgrounds.

Guest post by Incredible Health