Most organisations have established diversity, equity and inclusion practices to help their team feel a sense of belonging and safety in the workplace. How do you communicate these to future employees? How could you build on them to attract an even more diverse workforce? We take a look at ways to improve your inclusive hiring practice.

Takeaways:

Historically, a job interview has been an environment to put your best foot forward, and gloss over any negative aspects that you feel may impact your chances of securing a role. This mindset is rapidly changing as employers seek more inclusive and diverse teams, and employees seek safe and supportive work environments.

• ensure your recruitment process is inclusive and appropriate

• communicate the culture and support structures in your organisation

• allow your applicants to be their best selves throughout your interview process.

Employers are increasingly focused on ensuring inclusive hiring practices within their organisation. Diversity, inclusivity and accessibility are all important factors for today’s modern workplaces to recruit for and ensure they have the right support in place for too. A tight labour market has enabled more people on the fringes of employment, to get the jobs they want, and businesses are benefiting from wider representation across their team.

How can you better communicate the culture and support structures of your organisation?

For organisations wanting to encourage a more diverse pool of applicants to apply for vacant roles, there are many things you can initiate in your organisation to project the internal culture that will be appealing for many different types of prospective employees. Here are some of our ideas to encourage a wide variety of applicants:

• ask members of your existing team, the wider community and applicants to tell you what they need to support them in their role

• format job adverts (and all external communications about new roles) using open and transparent language and processes, avoiding ambiguous language. 

• provide a visual infographic/video introducing your organisation. Show the overall organisation, values, aims and what you do.

• ensure candidates have a sense of control and understanding of the bigger picture of the recruitment process. What support is available to manage anxiety through the process?

• explain your physical office environment, and specify the options and arrangements available for remote and flexible working.

• educate your team about how to ask sensitive questions, using strengths based language and active listening and responding.

• offer candidates the option of submitting their application in an alternative format to a traditional CV, for example, via a video.

• decide how you might reconcile the difference between qualifications and equivalent experience, or for junior roles, how you might assess potential without a track record of experience. 

• ensure potential employees know they will not be penalised in any way because of their neurodiversity or work preferences.

• be transparent about inclusive work environment adaptations available on request by employees. Examples include: a quiet space, coloured backgrounds on screens, speech to text software, no hot-desking, inclusive unisex bathrooms.

• have a process to determine everyone's personal preferences for communication, for example, email compared to verbal instructions. 

• create an introductory video of the people they will meet during the recruitment process (before the interview).

• have explicit and transparent communications about all stages of the process, and give explicit feedback on their progress through these stages.

• commit to responding to every candidate that applies.

• make sure there's one point of contact to engage with and ask questions

• recognise different ways of thinking and processing and communicate that you value this. Actively engage the applicant for feedback on what they find helpful and unhelpful, for example, finding out how they prefer to communicate, such as by email, phone, or face to face

• provide a checklist of what potential candidates need to have thought of and provide an example of potential questions. You may want to develop a video of where the interview will take place.

Extra reading:
8 Diversity Hiring Mistakes (e-book)