In the workplace, embracing diversity ensures the makeup of your organization reflects a constantly evolving world. It creates a melting pot of people, ideas, and experiences. This goes beyond a strategic business move, becoming a moral necessity that helps create an environment where employees feel valued, represented, seen, and respected. But how do we achieve this? In this blog, we'll explore the importance of diversity for your organization and how to attract diverse talent, including actionable efforts and strategies you can implement throughout recruitment.
Why you need diverse talent
Diversity refers to various backgrounds, abilities, experiences, and cultural influences. It includes individual characteristics such as socioeconomic environment, race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, and religious and spiritual preference. When people from these diverse backgrounds come together, they enrich conversations and bring different perspectives and opinions. This is why diverse talent is a necessity for your organization.
Studies show that diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets. Diverse teams are more creative and innovative, which enables them to perform better and achieve better results. However, the benefits extend beyond a better bottom line. According to a 2022 Gallup survey, 42% of employees consider an organization's diversity and inclusion of all types of people as a key factor when deciding whether to accept a job.
When organizations embrace diversity, employees tend to be happier and more engaged, have increased job satisfaction and productivity, and stay longer at the company. For these reasons, creating a diverse environment should be a top priority.
How to attract diverse talent
Now that you know the benefits of hiring diverse talent, what can your organization do to attract a diverse talent pool? Consider the following practices and strategies to attract diverse candidates.
Gather employee feedback
No organization is perfect. Talking to your employees is the best way to determine how your organization can improve. Regularly collect employee feedback through surveys and exit interviews to learn what your company is doing well and what it could improve regarding the culture, sense of belonging, and DEI efforts. Make the process anonymous for current employees to ensure they feel comfortable providing open and honest responses. Review their responses and what steps you can take to improve and create a workplace that embraces diversity.
Assess your company's DEI efforts
Understanding how your organization embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion is a good starting point for identifying areas that need improvement. For instance, if leadership lacks diversity, employees leave at higher rates, or employee satisfaction is declining, it could indicate unconscious bias. Evaluate metrics related to diversity in your workforce numbers, leadership, employee benefit programs, retention, hiring, employee complaints, and employee resource groups (ERGs) to identify areas for improvement, uncover gaps and disparities in your efforts, and find potential solutions.
Set DEI goals
Use the insights you've collected to help you set actionable and measurable diversity recruitment goals. Once you know where your organization is and where you want it to be, you can create a plan to make improvements and, ultimately, achieve your goals. Some examples of DEI goals include:
- Increase ERG participation X percent
- Increase representation of women in senior management by X percent
- Increase job satisfaction by X percent
- Expand employee benefit program offerings
Create a diverse culture
Company culture covers various aspects of an organization, such as its values, belief systems, public perceptions, and behaviors. A positive company culture can impact job satisfaction, engagement, and productivity for current employees. For prospective job candidates, it can make or break your reputation.
A strong, positive, and inclusive company culture can build your organization's trust and credibility, ultimately attracting top and diverse talent. Invest your time and effort in evaluating your company culture by gathering employee feedback and reviewing Glassdoor comments. This will help you identify areas for improvement and build a workplace that fosters a sense of belonging and pride.
Use a structured interview process
Implementing a structured interview process ensures that all candidates are treated the same and removes the opportunity for bias. When candidates follow the same steps, they're likely to be hired based solely on their skills and competency, not on bias and personal opinions that the hiring team has formed. For example, completing a skills assessment can give you an idea of their level of expertise and how they'd fit into your organization.
Additional ways to create a structured interview process are to ask all candidates the same questions, create a system for evaluating their responses, and use anonymous resume screening that doesn't display their name, age, gender, education, or ethnicity.
Leverage your organization's ERGs
ERGs provide immense value to the workplace by creating a community where employees from shared backgrounds and interests can connect. This helps to foster inclusion, acceptance, and belonging, ultimately leading to a more inclusive company and positive work environment over time. These employee-led groups benefit current employees and can be a helpful resource in recruiting new talent. Your organization can use ERG members' networks to open your recruitment process to a larger, more diverse pool of candidates.
If your company offers incentives for candidate referrals, this can also motivate employees to recommend potential candidates. Furthermore, offering job candidates an opportunity to meet with representatives from an ERG of their choice during the interview process allows them to learn more about the company and its culture while fostering a greater connection.
Form a diverse recruitment team
Diversity attracts diversity in talent. When hiring and recruitment teams consist of people from different backgrounds, genders, races, ethnicities, and more, it challenges biases. It creates a unique set of views and characteristics for identifying and assessing potential candidates. Additionally, during the interview process, diversity in the hiring team can make candidates feel more comfortable and show that your organization prioritizes diversity.
Update your job postings and descriptions
A job posting may be a job candidate's first impression and introduction to your organization. If it contains divisive, biased, or exclusionary language, it may deter qualified individuals from applying. Focus on crafting thoughtful and intentional job descriptions that encourage all qualified candidates to apply. Monster suggests the following tips for writing more inclusive job descriptions:
- Remove gender-coded words
- Avoid gender bias
- Eliminate racial bias
- Avoid age discrimination and focus on experienced workers (e.g., don't use phrases like "calling all recent college grads" and "young and energetic")
- Welcome and encourage disabled workers to apply
Tailor your employee benefits to a more diverse workforce
Employee benefits play an important part in attracting top talent. Find ways to diversify your benefits program to appeal to everyone. Consider offering flexible options such as health and wellness programs, initiatives that promote a healthier work-life balance, financial preparedness support, and learning and development opportunities. By providing a variety of options, there will be something for everyone.
Diversity plays a major role in creating a place where people want to work. Attracting diverse talent is just the tip of the iceberg. After you've identified ways to improve your company and its recruitment process, continue to be intentional in your efforts. Creating and maintaining a welcoming and inclusive environment can help you attract and retain talented individuals who can take your organization to new heights.
