5 Incredibly Effective Strategies for Inclusive Hiring

In this revamped corporate world, new trends are thriving at a swift pace. A lot about the corporate world has changed, and it seems like the caravan of transitions will be extended. Modern organizations embrace new trends from hiring to operations and customer service. Among these significant trends, diversity and inclusion in the workplace take a substantial lead over others. 

In contemporary times, organizations are more eager to incorporate diversity than ever before. The focus is on hiring inclusively to create a diverse workforce that can take organizational performance to the next level. However, what is inclusive hiring, and how does it positively impact organizations? 

Inclusive hiring emphasizes hiring highly talented and reliable employees from diverse backgrounds. This diversity can exist in the form of socio-cultural backgrounds, experiences, talents, mindsets, genders, and ages. The idea behind inclusive hiring is not only to create a diverse workforce but also to get the best out of diverse talents. 

Hiring people from different origins, opinions and perspectives can help organizations untangle complex business challenges. This explains why most organizations are undergoing a paradigm shift concerning their hiring practices as they aim for greater inclusion. 

This blog meticulously analyzes the advantages of hiring inclusive and how organizations can do that with excellent efficiency. Let us get started without further ado. To begin with, let us understand the kind of value that inclusive hiring offers to organizations. 

What Do Diversity and Inclusion Bring to the Floor?

Did you know that companies that embrace diversity and inclusion have a 70% higher chance of penetrating new markets? Diversity insights further reveal that organizations with an equal representation of genders can generate 41% more revenue than contemporaries. 

Moreover, racially and ethnically diverse companies have a 35% higher chance of outperforming their competitors. Indeed, diversity and inclusion offer multi-dimensional competitive advantages to organizations. Are you making the most of this opportunity already? 

These insights reveal that diversity and inclusion directly correlate with business success. Besides, it is also true that a large number of millennials are keen on working for organizations known for being inclusive. In fact, as per Deloitte Millennial Survey, around 75% of millennials feel that inclusive organizations are far more innovative. This is why they look forward to working for an inclusive organization. 

These trends explain why contemporary organizations lay great emphasis on inclusive hiring. The question is, what does it take to create an inclusive workforce that can deliver extraordinary results? Let’s find out without further ado. 

Five Ways Organizations Can Hire Inclusively to Add Unique Value

1. Create an Inclusive Employer Brand

Do you emphasize the need to create a strong employer brand? Why are people so excited to work for organizations like Google, Microsoft, or Amazon? Of course, they are the most successful companies in their industry, and working for them is a matter of pride for their employees. However, another critical aspect is that these companies have branded themselves well as diverse and inclusive organizations. 

People look at these organizations as brands that embrace diversity and inclusion. This could be the key to their inclusive workforces that add so much value to these businesses. If you wish to hire inclusively as these big organizations do, you need to brand yourself as an inclusive organization where diversity is much more than a trend. So, as long as you get your employer branding right, the ball is certainly in your court. 

When candidates are impressed by the fact that inclusion is a natural virtue of your organization, they will undoubtedly gravitate. For that, you must promote your diversity and inclusion initiatives on social media, your official website, and digital adverts. The more impressive the employer brand, the higher the chances of attracting top talents. 

In fact, in this digital marketing era, it is not that complicated to brand yourself as a business driven by inclusion. But first, you would need to define what diversity and inclusion signify for your organization. Also, creating a strong employer brand is not only about digital marketing. This is where word-of-mouth marketing is also significant. 

It would be best if you also promoted effective and incredible inclusion among your current workforce. Referrals play an important role in hiring, and you would, of course, know that already. If you treat your diverse workforce well and empower them with inclusion, they will likely refer the organization to their near and dear ones. Also, in this way, you can ensure that employee engagement is always high. 

The bottom line is that creating an employer brand is the key to attracting top talent. In fact, in contemporary times, organizations are competing hard to get the best young talents out there. To outperform your contemporaries, you must work on branding in the job market. 

2. Negate Subconscious Bias With AI in Recruiting

AI is one of the most thriving trends in recruitment, changing things for the better. It makes sense that you utilize it to the maximum extent to recruit top-notch talents. In fact, as per LinkedIn, 96% of HR managers feel AI can lead to excellent recruitment efficiency. Moreover, per Addepto, the following statistics are worth considering. 

• 58% of recruiters are of the view that AI improves outcomes in terms of sourcing candidates
• 56% of hiring managers assert that with AI, they can optimize results in candidate screening 
• 55% of recruiters across different industries believe AI can significantly help them nurture candidates

Furthermore, concerning inclusive hiring, AI’s most significant benefit lies in removing subconscious bias. It is true that some recruiters may tend to people belonging to a particular religion, ethnicity, or gender. If this bias exists in your organization’s recruitment process, inclusive hiring prospects will be dented. 

However, when AI solutions facilitate hiring processes, you can minimize bias. When you keep this bias under check, you can make inclusive hiring a practical reality. 

3. Write Gender-Neutral Job Descriptions

Gender is essential to inclusion, and the modern world is swiftly marching towards gender neutrality. Gender-specific job descriptions would seem so much out of place in such an era. You may be perceived as a discriminatory organization if you write gender-oriented job descriptions on job portals. You certainly do not want that to interfere with your objectives of inclusive hiring. 

Therefore, ensure all your job descriptions posted across platforms do not include gender terms. This will assist your organization in creating a solid and impressive perception of being gender-neutral. This could be a great way to hire inclusively in a way that candidates come to you than you having to chase them. 

4. Make Interview Panels as Diverse as You Can

Another worthwhile strategy to hire inclusively is to create diverse interview panels. When your interview panels speak volumes about inclusion, you can make a great impression among candidates. It will inspire greater confidence in candidates whose organization values inclusion. 

For candidates coming from minority backgrounds, this could be a great first impression of the company. This is how you can address their concerns and emotional vulnerability linked to their minority identity. 

5. Track Your Inclusive Hiring Objectives

Organizations have the best chance of achieving their objectives when regularly tracking results. You must consistently track your inclusive hiring objectives. The question is, which are the results that you need to follow in this context? Well, a quick list of measurable results is provided below. 

• The pace with which candidates are moving through the recruitment funnel 
• The proportion of candidates with diverse identities among the total number of candidates 
• The balance of diverse candidates hired relative to the total number of hirings in a specific period 
• Employee retention and turnover rates among employees from uniquely diverse backgrounds and identities

In this way, regular tracking of your inclusive recruitment strategies can ascertain the gaps. You can get a direct and quantifiable measure of your system’s performance. Hence, you can drive consistent refinements in your recruitment strategies to optimize results. Set intelligent objectives with brilliant insights and see how results improve! 

Claiming to be a diverse organization and being one are two different things. If you are diligent in your ambition of inclusive hiring, you need to look at diversity as more than a trend. It would be best if you institutionalized the virtues of inclusiveness in your organization to create a strong employer brand. Besides, you need to bring some progressive changes to your hiring practices to create an inclusive workforce that adds to business success. 

Jessica Robinson is the Content & Outreach Manager at The Speaking Polymath.

Get the top recruiting news and insights delivered to your inbox every week. Sign up for the Recruiter Today newsletter.