4 ways to find and hire more diverse talent

The past few months has presented recruitment businesses with many challenges but it has also given businesses the opportunity to reflect, reset and come back stronger. We are seeing one big area of opportunity: Recruitment companies can add great value as trusted advisors in guiding their clients and recruitment teams to source, recruit, and place outstanding talent — especially diverse talent.

Here are some strategies that can help you find and hire more diverse talent for your clients:

Stop relying on referrals

While referrals can be a quick and collaborative way to bring talent into an organisation, they’ll also ensure a homogeneous team. People, often unconsciously, will refer talent that fits a similar profile to themselves, for example men are more likely to refer men, and whites are more likely to refer whites which eventually hinders the diversity efforts.

Referrals also bring in the question of ‘The Network Gap’ people might be experiencing due to their less fortunate backgrounds. If you are interested in learning more on Closing the Network Gap, refer to this article please.

Focus on competency-based interviewing

An efficient interview process frames each stage as an opportunity to drill into specific competencies, rather than on soft skills or vague ideas of “culture fit.” It is important to remove the personal aspect from an interview, which is meant to be about skill, experience, and motivation.

Un-cliché your job descriptions

Are you still looking for rockstars, ninjas, gurus, and purple squirrels? You shouldn’t be. In 2020, the language we use to talk about work has evolved. Studies have shown the effects of biased language in job descriptions — they deter marginalised groups from clicking “Submit Application.”

Here are more articles that can benefit you on how to write inclusive job descriptions and eliminate bias from hiring process:

5 Must-Do’s for Writing Inclusive Job Descriptions

4 Highly Effective Ways to Eliminate Hiring Bias

3 Ways Companies Are Fighting Bias in the Workplace and Hiring Process

This Linkedin Learning path will also give you a good understanding of biases in workplaces, and more importantly how you can be aware of and overcome your own biases.

Walk the walk

Unfortunately, not every company has a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) team fully staffed and empowered to drive organisational change. However, as a trusted partner to your client’s business, there are other ways to publicise a commitment to diversity and inclusivity. Blog posts, diversity statements, and published internal employee demographic information can go a long way in educating your clients and in attracting the candidates who have historically been made to feel they didn’t belong.

Adapted from: 5 Strategies for Effective Diversity Recruitment