A hiring process must always remain fair and unbiased to certain people, and this has been the norm of recruitment for generations to follow. By addressing the issue of diversity in hiring, many companies aim to focus on skill-based recruitment rather than factors like gender, income group, race, or social background.
The diversity in hiring also gives the establishment an altered hiring process to make it fairer for all people applying for these jobs.
The popular workspace insights company Glassdoor surveyed diversity at the workplace and determined that 67% of new employees look for variety. Additionally, over 40% of all women working in a corporate structure feel disconnected from decision-making. This imbalance is fixable only by fixing the gender ratio in the workplace.
This change is possible by setting up a system that sees merit and not other facts mentioned above. Whether using a recruitment agency, screening workers, or even shortlisting the final candidates, each process should allow the best talent to shine irrespective of other factors.
Here are a few steps your company can remain mindful about to promote the culture of diversity in hiring better.
Step One: Understand your Current Diversity In Hiring
The first step is to determine if there is a problem and to what degree it has affected your workplace. This is possible by running a few diversity hiring audits and examining the current recruitment process.
The company must also study the existing workforce for patterns of biased hiring. Are there too many people from the same community? Does the office lack gender equality? Does one of the hiring processes hamper diversity in hiring?
Additionally, also note all the factors in favour of diversity in hiring. What are some steps you have already taken to ensure better workplace equality? These factors further help you steam ahead in the right direction.
Set a goal once you have a general overview of the workforce and the hiring system. This claim provides purpose to your mission. For example, if you have noticed that customer-facing roles in your company have very few women, you can set a target to hire 10% more women in the next two quarters.
Step Two: Take Actions
With all the information in mind, you can now take appropriate actions to ensure better workplace diversity. Here are a few approaches.
Revisit the Job Listings
Many job listings have subtle hints of biases embedded in them without your knowledge. This is as simple as not using a general neutral term while addressing the candidates in the listing. Additionally, mention the main job title using neutral words. For example, host and hostess describe two genders; using just one of those in the communication can become misleading.
Offer Job Flexibility
The same remunerations and work conditions do not fit every candidate. The company must remain flexible to encourage a diverse group of people. For example, people who stay outside the city must have levied on work-from-home and travel alternatives. Similarly, women require maternity benefits and much more.
Hint at the Existing Diversity
Another way to push for a diverse workforce is by displaying your existing diversity. This display helps you create a welcoming image about your company and encourages more in-bound applications. This is possible by using photos, videos or sharing employee stories in the form of blogs.
Step Three: Create a Fair Hiring System
The most critical aspect to making a change that lasts is to fix the problem at its core by shuffling or course-correcting your hiring processes.
One of the best ways to eliminate bias from hiring is using a pre-hiring assignment. This exercise sets the basis for hiring and levels the playing field purely to merit. These are assignments like cognitive tests, job simulations, etc.
Furthermore, some companies opt for a blind-hiring process. These audio-only interviews only showcase talents and communication skills without generating biases on appearances and race.
Another option is to incentivize the referral of those from minority groups. Such an attempt will encourage those within the office to stir positive change.
Step Four: Alter Shortlisting Processes
Lastly, you must alter the system of shortlisting candidates. Research shows that many biases occur at these early stages of hiring.
Including diversified hiring, a panel is a beautiful starting point. Ensure the recruitment teams have a mix of races, genders, opinions, and ideologies. Next, the teams must focus on skill-based shortlisting before disclosing personal details about the candidate. These are similar to the method we mentioned above.
On the other hand, shuffling interviewers within an organization helps to avoid bias in the hiring.
Finally, Experiment with the two-in-a-pool process. This Harvard-tested technique requires each hiring pool to have at least two candidates from a minority, and this has proven to make diverse hiring 190 times better.
Step Five: Study the Changes
You have now created a framework to better recruit candidates without biases and a keen eye for diversity. You must now understand the merits of this system and ensure they are air-tight.
Furthermore, promote campaigns to encourage diversity in hiring others in the industry. This small change can create a domino effect and help create a world free from prejudice.
In Closing,
Diversity at the workplace helps your business in more ways than one can assume. It provides more perspectives, caters to customers better, encourages a more accessible world, and helps those communities who have remained suppressed for generations.
