5 tips of diversity and inclusion in the workplace
78% of talent leaders place
diversity as having the biggest impact on how their companies are recruiting in
2018. It is now widely accepted that the advantages of a more diverse workforce
range from improving company culture, boosting innovation and understanding
your customer, right through to improving financial performance. Many employers
however, rank identifying diverse talent as one of their biggest challenges.
Several of
Resource Management's clients share a common desire to improve workforce Diversity
and Inclusion consulting but often struggle to identify and implement
practical changes to their talent acquisition process to support this.
5 tips on
improving your workplace diversity:
1. Talk openly about your diversity goals and
measure progress
Diversity programmes start with a strategy and a
policy but real success comes from embedding diversity and inclusion into your
company culture. It’s a combined team effort with leaders providing the
sponsorship and inspiration, the business taking responsibility for delivery,
HR providing support and guidance and external partners offering their
expertise.
As with any
improvement programmes it is important to understand where you currently are
and where you want to get to. Diversity
and Inclusion consultants reporting as part of your talent acquisition
dashboards help to track progress, identify areas of improvement and maintain
the momentum of your diversity initiatives.
2. Understand unconscious bias and work to reduce
it
Training for hiring managers and the talent
acquisition team, gender neutral job descriptions and adverts, anonymised CVS
and a structured approach to interviews and scoring all help to eliminate
unconscious bias in the recruitment process.
3. Challenge hiring briefs
It is natural for a hiring manager to want to
appoint the ‘finished article’ when recruiting. For job vacancies with accepted
diversity challenges (for example Women in Leadership roles in the Financial
Services sector), an insistence on hiring candidates with specific sector
experience can limit talent pools.
‘Hiring for
Potential’ programmes that identify transferable skills and transferable
industry sectors can open up talent pools and support diversity initiatives. At
RM, we often receive instructions to identify a candidate who is currently
working in a particular role, is this always absolutely necessary or can we
challenge this to identify ‘return to work’ opportunities?
4. Embrace flexible working
There is a clear link between flexible working and
the ability to attract and retain diverse talent. This ranges from flexible
hours and ad hoc remote working through to dynamic working, part-time and job
share opportunities. Changing your default position to ‘we are a flexible
employer’ can be a positive step in the right direction.
5. Build and engage with Talent Communities
The traditional approach to recruitment, i.e.
trying to fill a vacancy, introduces a time pressure to the process which can
have a negative impact on diversity. With a scarcity of global talent, building
pipelines to attract and engage a diverse pool of potential future candidates
is essential to long-term diversity strategies. This proactive approach coupled
with informal coffee chats promotes your EVP and is an effective way of
engaging with candidates who are not yet ready to change jobs.
For more information
about Diversity
and inclusion consulting firms visit on dimenzion3.com
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