Studies have shown that the most successful companies are made up of a diverse workforce. In this article, Zain Jaffer, founder and CEO of Zain Ventures, discusses how to eliminate recruitment bias to attract top talent and build healthy, productive, and diverse teams.
Every company seeks to hire the best possible people, but these decisions are often affected by unconscious biases. Unfortunately, this can lead to a stagnant uniformity in the workforce instead of a more desirable diversity. A recent study by McKinsey & CompanyOpens a new window called “Diversity Matters†has shown that “companies in the top 25 percent of racial and ethnic diversity were 35 percent more likely to show returns exceeding their respective industry median.†Thus, building a workforce that embraces individuals of diverse racial, gender, religious, and sexual orientation is not only a sound moral choice for the twenty-first-century workplace, but it also contributes to the bottom line.
What Are the Benefits of a Diverse Workforce?
A mixed workforce has been demonstrated to yield strengths that drive innovation, increase adaptability, and foster strong performances. Studies show that businesses with a diverse workforce:
· Enjoy higher profits.
· Experience increased productivity with more magnificent skill sets and work experience.
· Boost their reputation within communities and industries.
· Are better able to win top talent in broader candidate pools.
· Improve employment engagement, especially among millennials.
· Increase creativity and problem solving by drawing viewpoints from multiple perspectives.
· Reduce employee turnover by accepting and valuing all employees.
· Provide more significant opportunities for enriching employees’ personal and professional growth.
· Improve businesses’ understanding of different markets and customer groups.
Learn More: AI, the Future of Recruitment, Hasn’t Solved the Bias ProblemOpens a new window
Where to Start
The starting point for creating a diverse workforce is eliminating recruitment bias. Recruiters who are left to rely on instinctual inclinations will make decisions based on shared grounds with the prospective employee rather than purely upon qualifications. Research has shown that diversity training has little effect on these hardwired behaviors. Instead, the most effective course is to minimize situations that allow biases to occur by adopting the following practices.
1. Check job description language
Job description language can make many candidates feel excluded. Compose job descriptions that appeal to a broad spectrum of candidates by avoiding words geared toward a specific demographic. Restrictive terms such as “salesman†or other wording, which suggest gender or age, have the potential to deter potential hires. Prevent this bias by using vocabulary that avoids gender-coding and use neutral pronouns aiming to be as inclusive as possible, making job ads appealing to all applicants.
2. Diversify recruitment campaigns
Look into changing up recruitment campaigns to reach diverse channels that haven’t been typically approached in the past. Move away from industry niche sites to broaden the recruitment pool. Look into colleges and universities with more diverse communities to reach underrepresented students. Consider virtual career fairs that target minority groups such as veterans and people with disabilities to connect with these job seekers.
3. Offer targeted internships
Create an internal diversity program that offers courses to underrepresented groups by reaching out to minority organizations. Ask for help from schools and community groups to promote this kind of outreach. Such efforts create valuable connections with up-and-coming students, in effect, changing the future face of the industry. Interns become brand ambassadors projecting the face of diverse hiring and demonstrating that inclusion is taken seriously.
4. Blind the resume review process
Remove bias by “blacking out†personal information from recruiters or hiring managers on resumes when screening candidates. Eliminate information such as names, schools, dates, and locations to prevent potentially biased assessments. This permits the focus to remain on relevant skills and weeds out information unrelated to job performance for objective evaluations.
5. Start with blind interviews
Although you will eventually meet your candidates personally, take steps to anonymize the initial meeting to ensure you’ve selected a pool of candidates without bias. Consider emailing candidates a Q&A or conducting a live chat. Questions should avoid touching upon personal information for candidates to remain truly anonymous.
6. Use work sample tests
Allowing candidates to mimic the tasks for the job is an effective way of assessing future job performance. Evaluating potential hires through solving work-related problems and skills testing supplies hiring managers with tangible insights. This allows an unbiased critique of work quality, which bypasses unconscious judging.
7. Standardize in-person interviews
Develop a strict set of interview questions to prevent hiring managers from falling into the trappings of unstructured interviews, which often leads to a bias toward similar candidates. Using standardized questions also allows for a fair comparison of skill sets when reviewing notes, putting everyone on a level playing field.
Learn More: Eliminating Unconscious Bias: Moving toward Diversity in the WorkforceOpens a new window
How You Can Establish Diversity in Corporate Culture to Improve Retention
Developing a corporate culture that showcases diversity should become integral to the business model to improve the retention of diverse employees.
Below are several tips on how to foster inclusivity in company culture:
· Establish a well-thought-out and strategic diversity and equality policy to be part of the company’s brand.
· Ensure that managers prioritize principles that promote from a broad demographic spectrum.
· Demonstrate the value of diversity through inclusion initiatives like mini-events of art and culture, privilege “walks,†or diversity games to dispel stereotypes.
· Follow a diversity calendar that tracks upcoming religious or cultural holidays, thus making historical and cultural knowledge more widespread.
· Organize potluck lunches where employees bring food from their culture and heritage.
· Create an atmosphere that encourages employees to communicate openly.
· Encourage those with quiet voices to be heard in meetings or collaborations.
· Facilitate open conversations that show appreciation for alternate viewpoints from all walks of life.
Hiring a diverse workforce is the first step, but neglecting to build an underlying company culture that supports inclusion is a significant failing. Employees who meet cultural roadblocks or encounter stereotyping will feel excluded, resulting in high employee turnover. Implementing these measures can ensure inclusion and enable a productive and engaged diverse workforce.
What are your strategies to build a diverse workforce? Share your thoughts with us on TwitterOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , or LinkedInOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you.