In our previous blog, we looked at the value that a truly diverse and inclusive team will add to your business. While employers understand and appreciate the benefits of implementing a hiring strategy that’s diverse and inclusive, it can be tricky to know where to start and the elements that need to be included.
Here, we take a look at some of the key areas of focus if you’re looking to create a winning D&I recruitment strategy. First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room…
Embrace the uncomfortable
Don’t let a fear of saying the wrong thing paralyse you into inaction. If you’re looking to make a fundamental change in your organisation, you need to listen and actively approach things with an open mind.
Chief People Officer for VICE Media Group and diversity, equity and inclusion strategist Daisy Auger-Dominguez summed it up in Harvard Business Review: “Push yourself to communicate candidly about difficult topics. Accept that you are never going to be perfect. Apologise and admit your mistakes and blindspots, express gratitude when someone corrects you, listen to those who have been injured or silenced, and commit to doing better.”
Define your goals
To prevent your D&I strategy from losing momentum, you need to establish precisely what you’re looking to achieve, commit the goals to writing and share them with all key stakeholders. For example, do you want employees at all levels of your organisation to better reflect your customer base or the communities you serve? Are you looking to increase female representation in development roles? Do your management teams lack professionals from underrepresented groups?
Make friends with data
Every employer has access to a plethora of data regarding the recruitment process and employee lifecycle. With your specific goals in mind, each stage of the hiring funnel should be analysed to identify areas for improvement.
You don’t need to have a degree in data science to see that target candidates are dropping out at the interview stage or that you’re not attracting them in the first place.
Rethink your expectations
Employers can be guilty of making outdated demands that exclude valuable talent. If you’ve been hiring for a number of years, you’ll know that a degree and prior experience don’t always translate to success, so why keep demanding them? Narrowing your search to a particular skill-set and experience level means you’re guaranteed to keep hiring the same faces over and over again - not ideal for your D&I goals.
Instead, shift your focus to assess other aspects of a candidate, like their drive, potential to learn and commitment. Shift your ‘essential’ criteria to ‘desirable’ and give someone a chance to impress you before making a judgment.
Get flexible
Restricting working hours to nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday is a dated approach that can limit talent attraction. According to the report, Homeworking in the UK: Before and during the 2020 lockdown, nine out of 10 people want some form of flexible working in their future.
Incorporating flexible and remote policies helps widen the talent pool across many factors, including location, age, gender, ethnicity and life stage.
In a recent episode of nufuture’s video podcast Biscuits and Tea with JP, our MD and founder Johnny Perotta spoke to Sarah Barber about her experiences getting back into work after caring for children and how companies can help mums with the transition. Highlighting the importance of flexible working, Sarah said: “It gives you a feeling that the company cares about you, rather than just focusing on what you can give them.”
Minimise bias in the recruitment process
Training is available for your hiring teams and interviewers, which is designed to help them recognise their bias and use the right terminology when communicating with different people. Additionally, you can access recruitment software that removes the names, addresses and other key data from CVs to ensure the right decisions are made for the right reasons.
Connect with our team
A specialist talent partner, like nufuture, can connect you with valuable tools and support you need to deliver a fair and inclusive recruitment process, whether you need help building more diverse talent pipelines or require insights into your existing data. Contact us today to find out what we can do for you on 01344 289224 or email info@nufuture.co.uk.