10 Steps to Hire More Diverse Candidates

Diversity in the workplace means that the people who work for a company ought to reflect the demographics of society as a whole. It is wise to hire people with a range of skills and experiences to work on your project. Some of the things that can be considered diverse are gender, experience, socioeconomic position, ethnicity, faith, sexuality, etc.

There are two kinds of diversity: those that are natural, like differences in racial or ethnic groups, and those that are learned or earned over time. People are naturally diverse in many ways, such as based on their race, gender, age, health, and any other trait that makes them unique. Things like schooling, work experience, values, skills, and information that are “acquired” are more flexible and can change and grow over time. 

If you want to hire people, diversity recruiting means using a process that doesn’t favour or dislike any one person or group of people. It is still based on merit and the goal is still to find the best option, but it is set up so that all applicants, no matter where they come from, have the same chance. A report by McKinsey reported that companies with diverse leadership teams have 19% higher revenue. So, Diverse Hiring is important from an ethical and profit perspective.

Steps to Hire More Diverse Candidates

1. Analyse Previous Experience

One of the best ways to find diverse applicants for positions is to look over your old ads and make changes that will appeal to a wider group of people. You might realise that some phrases you use are better for people with a certain amount of experience. If this happens to be the case, you should find ways to make your language more open to people from all backgrounds so that you can get more applicants. The notice should make the diverse candidates comfortable. If you want to improve your diversity hiring strategy, don’t be hesitant to compose job ads with particular categories of people in mind. Tell the people you want to hire that you’re looking for them and tell them why your company is a good fit for them.

2. Target diverse platforms

Getting candidates from a range of places is a great way to make sure that the workforce is full of people from different backgrounds. If you want to find new people, don’t keep going to the same places. If you only use the sources you know well, you might end up with a talent pool full of people who are similar and not very diverse. Third party websites, like Geek for Geeks, Vividhataa, Sheworks, Teksands help the companies in acquiring.

3. Get your diverse workers to recommend their friends and family

There’s a good chance that people on your team know other people with similar backgrounds. Setting up a programme to help people refer diverse candidates is a great way to improve your diversity hiring efforts and show that your business values people with various backgrounds and ideas. Talk to a few people who already work for you who are in that group if you want to hire more people from that group. Give them the resources they require to help spread the word about your company and ask them to forward the job postings with their networks. Both your current workers and job candidates will feel like your organisation values their presence and opinions, which is great for team engagement and morale as a whole.

4. Offer internship positions to diverse groups

A lot of businesses have started internal diversity programmes that give people from certain areas the chance to do internships. This is a great way to get people who have only recently begun out in your field to join your team and learn.
In order to do this, you should contact local schools and community groups to find out how you can connect with kids. Communities often have their own growth-promoting programmes. Working with these programmes is an excellent opportunity to give back and get access to new and different types of talent.

5. Create a workplace brand that shows off your diversity

One of the best ways to find more diverse job candidates is to build a company brand that shows you value people and their ideas from every aspect of life. Talk to your team about the advantages and importance of variety. Get their support, and make these ideas part of the way your company works. Getting known as an employer who values diversity will start to happen as you do these things. Get your workers to engage in conversation regarding this part of the business. Write down their stories and use that part of your company’s personality in how you market your job brand. Different types of candidates will look for companies that really care about those things, and the only way to get those rewards is to grow naturally.

6. Make company rules that will attract people from different backgrounds

It’s one thing to say that you value hiring people from different backgrounds, but it’s quite another to live by those beliefs every day. That’s why it’s so important for companies to make rules that encourage people from different backgrounds. You might want to change the days off and schedules so that they include more neighbourhood events, religious holidays, and so on. Candidates should not have to follow a strict schedule all the time. Instead, they should be able to set their own hours and still be active in their communities. It’s also important for managers to tell workers to speak out if they believe that certain rules are in any way preventing diversity. Individual views will always affect how people see and act in the workplace, so it’s important to promote open and honest communication to make sure everybody feels accepted. It is important to make sure that your diversity hiring plan is working by putting these rules in place while actively supporting them when you are hiring.

7. Include blind resumes and interviews

Recruiters are “blacking out” all personal information on resumes more and more often as a way to avoid bias in the way they screen candidates. Names, schools, dates of birth, specific places, and other pieces of information can all be used to form an unfavourable opinion of a candidate, even if the person isn’t aware of it. To get rid of bias, blind interviews work the same way as blacking out resumes. However, this method should be used during the first few talks with the candidate. You can do them by sending text-based questions to candidates via text message or through the recruitment tool of your choice. Candidates are asked to answer these questions without giving any personal details. The point is to avoid having any biases about who you choose to talk to more. Of course, it’s harder to get rid of all attitude and preconception when you talk to people on a telephone or in person, which is why blind interviews work best early on.

8. When writing job descriptions, think about diversity

It’s important to make sure that the language used in job titles doesn’t turn off any groups of people, but it is important to check your ads to get more diverse applicants. Find a way to make your job titles more open to everyone. Get rid of any words or phrases that might make people think you’re only looking for people of a certain gender, race, or other background. One example is that you could change any words or phrases that might turn off some possibly good candidates.

9. Allow people to work from home

It is very important to be able to offer options that help to get a wider range of candidates. One important part of being able to reach more people is having the option to work from home or in informal settings. For people who have responsibilities, like taking care of sick family members or children, being able to offer casual and remote work will meet their needs as well as the needs of the business. Also, women returning to work for a second time might be offered a flexible working hours to manage their personal and professional life.

10. Offer practical training and mentoring opportunities

Giving your employees training is one of the best ways to keep them on board. But did you know that employees who have been trained by their boss are more likely to stay with that boss? Also, giving training means that people who don’t have the right skills right now might still apply because they know they can learn those skills on the job. Like training, mentoring is also a great way to get diverse people to think about sending in an application. People who don’t have enough confidence but have all the skills they need are often hesitant to apply. Mentoring can help change that.

Conclusion

Diversity recruiting means that your team should be made up of people from different backgrounds and that your hiring rules shouldn’t favour or disadvantage any person or group of candidates. Some of the many ways you can make your own diversity hiring plan are to ask employees for recommendations, offer training, use blind CVs, and a lot more steps as mentioned above.