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      10 Things You Can Do to Reach DEI Goals

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      What You’ll Learn

      The first thing you must do to make meaningful progress on DEI goalsWhich talent pools many companies continue to overlookWhy culture “fit” is outdated and what’s important nowYou can make progress in many areas by testing a new tool, changing a policy, or saying “yes,” to a new idea

      About this eBook:

      After the #MeToo, #FoundersForChange, and #BLM movements, more companies prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Executives and hiring managers took a closer look at their current hiring models and recruitment practices. Employers created new positions and KPIs focused on DEI.And yet undertaking changes to improve DEI within your company can feel like an uphill task. Many of these issues are systemic, and not a quick fix. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and not know where to begin. It’s especially tough for one person or a single team to push against a long-standing system and cultural norms.This eBook gives DEI officers, tech leaders, hiring managers, and talent acquisition teams insights into small but mighty tactics and strategies to improve the diversity of their teams and level up DEI hiring across organizations. More

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      Diversity Isn’t Optional: How 3 Talent Leaders Made DEI an Organizational Imperative

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      All too often, organizations treat DEI initiatives as optional—but this approach couldn’t be worse for business.  

      According to McKinsey, gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their national industry median and ethnically diverse companies typically experience a 35% increase in performance compared to homogenous competitors. Similarly, a Boston Consulting Group report found diverse management teams generate 19 times more revenue than non-diverse teams.

      The statistics speak for themselves: diversity is key to business success. But how many companies treat DEI initiatives as a true organizational imperative?

      The unfortunate answer: not enough. “Prominent tech companies have made little progress in their stated goal of hiring more minorities,” notes one CNBC article. 

      For example, many enterprises saw only “low single-digit increases in their percentage of Black employees” from 2014 to 2020. And while the gender and race wage gap is narrowing, access to opportunity and discrepancies in salaries persist for underrepresented tech talent. 

      DEI data

      For example, in our recent State of Wage Inequality in the Tech Industry report, our platform data showed: 

      36.7% of roles only sent interview requests to menThe percentage of positions only sending interview requests to white or asian men continue to drop, but is still a hefty 49%Black women continue to see the widest gap among the demographics analyzed.

      “There is still work to be done in ensuring equitable hiring processes to narrow wage and expectation gaps, and companies must prioritize this effort,” says Hired CEO Josh Brenner. 

      “Post-Great Resignation, companies successful in identifying non-traditional talent, while also ensuring diversity and representation in their candidate pipelines, will be better positioned to drive their businesses forward in a time of increased volatility.” 

      To see what steps business leaders across the country are taking to drive impactful DEI efforts, we’ve compiled actionable insights from Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast. Read on to learn how Match Group, Capital One, and Tech Can [Do] Better work to enact positive change—and how your organization can do the same.

      How Match Group attracts underrepresented candidates

      Expert: Match Group Vice President of Talent Acquisition, Craig Campbell

      Examine your entire hiring process

      To build a pipeline of diverse talent, Campbell suggests baking DEI into every part of your hiring process: from branding to sourcing to interviewing. “Think about what you’re doing to attract the right talent,” he says. “Can you stand on your approach and say it’s end-to-end fair, objective, and inclusive?” 

      Revisit value propositions

      In a crowded marketplace, corporate branding can make or break your recruiting efforts. 

      As Campbell puts it, “Do you present an attractive value proposition to start with, and then are you ensuring that you’re not doing things to diminish your opportunity to convert as much talent as possible? 

      That’s something you can apply in general, and then even more specifically when you start to think about segments like Black or African-American, Latinx, women, and the LGBTQ community. 

      For each underrepresented segment in your organization, you have to take an inside-out approach to determine: Do I have the right value proposition to attract that audience?” 

      Many businesses already use market segmentation for customer acquisition—and the same strategies can be used to attract diverse candidates. “I don’t think it’s a far reach to apply some of that expertise to talent segmentation,” says Campbell.  

      Take a stance on social issues

      Candidates will notice what your company does—and doesn’t—say. 

      As Campbell puts it, “Another part of your value proposition is your position as it relates to social causes. I think that’s a new and emerging component of the value proposition, with candidates asking companies what they stand for and how that shows up in how they do business and support employees.” 

      According to Edelman’s 2022 Trust Barometer, 60% of respondents said they will choose a place to work based on their beliefs and values. 

      Organizations with clear answers and concrete evidence will stand out for their commitment to taking action. “Whether you have a story to tell—or more importantly, a track record—could be the difference between you being more or less competitive,” says Campbell.

      Listen to the whole episode

      How Capital One nurtures an inclusive culture

      Expert: Capital One Senior Director of Diversity Talent Acquisition, Kanika Raney

      Prioritize DEI initiatives in onboarding

      At Capital One, Raney is proud to have helped shape a successful onboarding program that sets the tone for company culture and employee experience. 

      “Everyone goes through a day-long training to learn more about our culture and values,” she says. “For us, it’s essential they feel included from day one.” 

      Part of that mission means emphasizing DEI initiatives through the onboarding process—and encouraging new employees to get involved with relevant business resource groups and activities. 

      Onboarding isn’t something that occurs only when someone starts a new job, though. Rather, it happens any time there is a transition—and DEI should be emphasized at each milestone. 

      “That can be when you transfer to a new role, when you get a new manager, if there’s a reorganization, or if you’re returning from an extended leave,” explains Raney. “And companies should have an onboarding strategy for each of these defining moments in an employee’s career.”

      Unburden minority employees

      Far too often, the burden falls on minority groups to cultivate inclusivity within an organization. “More often than not, if you’re the only female or the only Latinx employee at a senior level, you’re going to be tapped on the shoulder every single time,” says Raney. “And that becomes a lot for one person representing one demographic.” 

      Tokenism [to-ken-ism] /ˈtōkəˌnizəm/ noun

      “The practice of doing something, such as hiring a person from a minority group, just to appear to be treating people fairly and to avoid criticism.” 

      To prevent tokenism,  business leaders should own this responsibility themselves rather than relying exclusively on employee groups. 

      For example, Capital One hosted a speaker series to advance authentic dialogue, grow DEI awareness, and promote allyship. 

      “It’s about creating the space for open dialogue and allowing people to join in on a voluntary basis versus putting employees on the spot and making them feel like, ‘I’m the one that has to step up and answer this question,’” explains Raney. 

      Related: Panel discussion: “Close the Gap with Advocacy & Allyship”

      Forget about “culture fits” 

      Rather than hiring candidates who are culture fits, Raney suggests rewriting the script and seeking culture adds. 

      “Why are we trying to force people into a fit?” she asks. “It should be less about, ‘Can you fit into this culture?’ and more about, ‘What are you adding to this culture?’” 

      To that end, Raney emphasizes the importance of training staff to think differently during the recruitment process. 

      For instance, hiring teams might ask: 

      Can this candidate bring an alternative perspective to the organization? In what ways will their original insights benefit our business? If someone is missing a credential, can they learn relevant skills on the job? Are they growth-minded? Do they offer something we didn’t even know we needed? 

      Listen to the whole episode

      How Tech Can [Do] Better leverages critical diversity data

      Expert: Tech Can [Do] Better founder & CEO, Lawrence Humphrey

      Partner with outside organizations 

      Humphrey’s nonprofit, Tech Can [Do] Better, was founded one week after the murder of George Floyd. “We’re all about driving racial equity, and equity more broadly, in and through the tech industry,” says Humphrey. 

      “This was a window of opportunity like none I’d ever seen before, so I thought: How can we turn this moment into a movement where all of the most influential companies in the world have an ear for systemic change? How can we actually make something out of it?” 

      Today, Tech Can [Do] Better partners with innovative organizations to provide data-driven perspectives on how to enact change. “You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” explains Humphrey, quoting a famous maxim. 

      In running reports for tech companies, he helps business leaders identify—and fill—critical representation gaps. A large part of that process is breaking down data by gender, role, tenure, and other variables. 

      “You need to be able to segment the data,” says Humphrey. “It’s not enough to say that 15% of your workforce is Black. Where are the Black folks in your workforce?” 

      By getting granular, you can identify opportunity areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked—whether that’s diversifying the C-suite or rolling out initiatives to improve retention in a certain department.

      Set realistic expectations for DEI initiatives

      “Systemic problems require systemic solutions,” says Humphrey, “and systemic solutions require a long time frame.” It’s important for talent companies to recognize meaningful change can’t occur overnight. 

      Instead, DEI initiatives are an ongoing commitment to building a better workforce. As Humphrey explains, “It’s a little bit of work done for a long time. You can’t expect to just burst through some sprints or an intense one-quarter cycle, and then achieve equity. 

      That’s not how this works. It’s a commitment—and I feel comfortable saying it’s a life-long commitment.”

      Listen to the whole episode

      Here’s What You Can Do to Make DEI a Priority 

      Embrace best practices

      List salary bands. Use technology to reduce bias. Drop requirements for traditional four-year degrees and avail roles to those with non-traditional educational backgrounds, like bootcamps. In our 2022 State of Software Engineers report research, we found in 2021: 

      46% of software engineers had a computer science degree24% were self taught18% have a relevant college degree (ex., mathematics, information technology, data science, etc.)11% participated in a bootcamp program.

      In each case, the percentage increased 1% from 2020, except for “relevant college degree,” which decreased 4%.

      We’ve also seen wonderful results of bootcamp graduates on Hired, such as Paula Muldoon, who transitioned careers. After earning multiple degrees in and enjoying a music career, she joined a program through our partner, Makers, in the UK. She’s now a software engineer for Zopa, a leading financial company. 

      We’ve already seen great examples of DEI on our platform. So much so that we scored employers on our core values of equity, efficiency, and transparency in our first List of Top Employers Winning Tech Talent. Want to make the next list? Draw on these top ranking companies inside for inspiration.

      If you’re ready to follow in these organizations’ footsteps, Hired is here to help. By leveraging our platform’s innovative DEI tools and transparent salary data, we help your company build diverse teams and close critical wage gaps—one hire at a time.  More

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      Want to Hire a Globally Distributed Team? 4 Ways to Get Started

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      In the last few years, more companies have expanded their workforces globally than ever before. Businesses realized the talent pool is no longer limited to their city limits (or even their country’s borders, for that matter) and skilled workers everywhere are getting a shot at working for top employers—no matter where they live. Related: Hired […] More

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      in Talent Acquisition

      A Step-By-Step Checklist To Inclusive Hiring in 2022

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      Many HR departments are attempting to create a diverse workplace in today’s world, but you can’t have diversity without inclusion.
      To construct a diverse team and a modern and attractive workplace culture, HR staff must create an environment that welcomes all individuals and fosters equal engagement and representation.
      In recent years, there has been a significant effort in the UK to fight for equality, to the point that employers are instituting quotas based on gender, BAME, disability, and even sexual orientation.
      There are two significant types of diversity in today’s workplace:
      First, inherent diversity is concerned with qualities such as race, gender, and age. Education, experience, beliefs, skills, and knowledge are all aspects of acquired variety.
      Natural HR has set out to explore our top ideas for making a diverse and inclusive recruitment process a standard element of your people talent strategy in this article.
      What is the definition of workplace diversity?
      It is critical to remember that workplace diversity is defined as when a company understands, accepts, and values differences between people of different races, ethnicities, genders, ages, religions, disabilities, and sexual orientations, as well as differences in personalities, skill sets, experiences, and knowledge.
      What are the benefits of diversity and inclusivity recruitment?
      Having a functional diversity and inclusion strategy that is incorporated into your recruitment workflow will provide your company with various benefits, including:

      Hiring better talent.
      Being able to make more informed business decisions.
      Increasing the performance of your teams.
      Accelerating innovation by allowing different mindsets to collaborate.
      Gaining more decadent customer satisfaction due to high-quality staff.
      Improving company culture with improved employee satisfaction.

      The inclusive hiring in the workplace checklist
      The tutorial below will walk you through the whole recruitment process, from bringing on a new team member to crafting a job advertisement and interviewing qualified candidates. It will include critical considerations to ensure that diversity and inclusion are prioritized at each stage.
      1. Audit your job adverts to remove bias:
      When it comes to inclusive and diverse recruitment, you can’t look forward without looking back. As a result, the first step you must take is to assess your whole recruitment pipeline to identify faults and begin implementing improvements that will address diversity and inclusivity concerns.
      When reviewing historical job advertisements, you may find a propensity to employ more masculine or feminine language in job advertisements, which may discourage particular groups from applying for specific roles. Based on the findings of this analysis, you may then retroactively apply new conditions to the recruiting procedure to reduce biases in future recruitment drives.
      2. Target sources where diverse candidates are focused:
      It is now easier than ever to recruit applicants from a large skill pool with the Internet’s strength. To that end, sourcing individuals from several sources is a terrific method to diversify your recruitment pool.
      Rather than relying solely on traditional job boards or recruitment agencies, look for chances to diversify candidates through alternative sources such as educational institutions, government agencies, and even rehabilitation centers.
      You might also communicate directly with organizations that focus on specific areas; for example, for a technology post, you could interact directly with women in technology groups to connect with suitable female applicants.
      3. Encourage your employees to utilize their network:
      If you want to hire more of a specific group of under-represented people, reach out to some of your current team members who fall into that category.
      Creating an internal applicant recommendation program is one approach to accomplish this. You will be able to connect with similar candidates from varied backgrounds by utilizing your existing internal pool of diverse workers.
      4. Offer internships targeted at underrepresented groups:
      Offering internships to folks with specialized credentials is a terrific approach to foster up-and-coming talent in your sector. To accomplish this, you may form collaborations with education and community organizations in your area to provide an opportunity to groups that may struggle to take the first steps into the roles you’re recruiting for.
      5. Develop an employer brand that showcases your diversity:
      When developing a brand identity, don’t overlook the significance of diversity and inclusivity. You should encourage employees from various backgrounds to share their experiences with your organization, which you should then incorporate into your employer and recruiting branding.
      Having these stories in place and actively pushing them in your applicant sourcing is a terrific approach to ensure your diversity recruiting strategy is working properly.
      6. Utilize blind recruitment:
      Blind recruitment is one of the most popular trends in the industry. To reduce bias during the first recruitment stage, it takes steps to blackout essential information such as name, age, education, and candidate photos. The idea here is to avoid further discrimination in who you choose to interview.
      7. Rethink what factors you screen for when hiring:
      When determining what your ideal recruit looks like, it is vital to ensure that your possible candidates exhibit the characteristics that your firm values. Throughout the recruitment process, examine how you’re screening candidates and yourself to see whether you’re directing the outcomes towards specific types of people owing to potential bias.
      Chris Bourne is Head of Marketing at Natural HR. Natural HR is a cloud-based HR software for small businesses and organizations looking to improve staff management and pay. 
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      The Great Resignation Now: 5 Ways to Rethink Recruiting in 2022

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      WHAT YOU’LL LEARN The story of the “Great Resignation” and where we are now in 2022 3 key trends to navigate, coupled with our exclusive data 5 strategies to invigorate pipelines, increase efficiency, expand talent pools, and retain talent once they’re onboard About this eBook We’ve taken one of our most popular eBooks for employers […] More

    • 125 Shares139 Views

      in Talent Acquisition

      How to Embed Diversity and Inclusion into Your Recruitment Policy

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      The ‘S’ (social) in ESG campaigns is integral to any business, a lack of diversity can negatively impact growth and stifle creativity. Diverse teams generate almost 20% more revenue than those that are lacking in this area.
      Thinking carefully about the specific language used in job adverts, using blind CV assessments, and employing inclusive interviewing techniques can all help businesses embed diversity and inclusion into their recruitment policies.
      With almost one-third of jobseekers and employees have said they would not apply to a company where there is a lack of diversity among its workforce, it’s time that businesses start to scrutinize their recruitment policies.
      Think about the job advert
      Pay attention to the nuances in recruitment communication to ensure what is written is inclusive and unbiased.
      Job adverts should avoid phrases such as “competitive nature” and “aggressively determined” in favor of truthful descriptions of competency, these phrases are also typically ‘male-coded’, so might deter female applicants from applying. Similarly, complex jargon and specialist terms can also overwhelm applicants. Adverts should be as simple and to the point as possible.
      The use of equality and diversity statements in job adverts can aid in creating an inclusive atmosphere from the very start of the recruitment process. One study found that job adverts with an empathetic diversity statement left 71% of potential applicants with a positive impression of the hypothetical employer.
      Similarly, awards such as ‘The Times Top 50 Employers of Women’ can be mentioned on job applicants to reassure minority applicants that they are welcome to apply.
      Blind CV assessment
      The Department for Work and Pensions sent out applications to 1,000 job vacancies with 2/3 containing names typically associated with a certain ethnic group. Results showed that ethnic minority applicants needed to send out 74% more applications in order to generate the same success rate as those with White sounding names.
      Removing names, ages, genders, and postcodes from CVs before they are assessed can remove opportunities for bias to enter the recruitment process. A number of top employers adopt this technique, including the UK’s Civil Service.
      Championing diversity and inclusion is not just about CV blind initiatives. It’s a complex and multifaceted agenda.
      Keeping an eye out for opportunities to learn more about diverse talent pools should be a priority. At Totum Partners, we host a series of successful diversity and inclusion webinars, such as: ‘How to create the most diverse firm in Britain’.
      Inclusive interviewing
      Once a candidate is at an interview, the best way to minimize bias is to combine a number of efforts, there is no magic bullet approach.
      Standardizing the interview questions in a structured manner will allow the employer to focus on the candidate’s skills that will determine their ability to perform the job. Unstructured interviews are difficult to compare, making it more likely that personal factors will infiltrate the hiring decision.
      Sometimes called a “mental shortcut”, affinity bias is common. This means we gravitate towards people who we feel are similar to ourselves. Training modules and workshops are a good way to generate self-awareness of your own biases.
      The importance of succession planning
      Employees should be able to see diversity all the way up an organization. Last month it was reported that 2 in 5 Black employees have left their job because of a lack of diversity.
      Initiatives that only focus on entry-level recruitment leave BME employees without anyone to look up to. Since 2018, among the Fortune 500 boards, of the 974 seats filled by new directors, 80% were by White directors, this is an example of bad succession planning.
      Organizations should consider lateral workplace diversity when looking at how to progress talent internally. Firms that ignore this form of conscious inclusion, will soon be left behind, especially considering the escalating numbers of employees quitting their jobs in the UK in recent months.
      Accountability
      Having awareness of the benefits that diversity brings to the workplace is important, but actions speak louder than words.
      As a recruitment firm, Totum is committed to questioning candidate lists that show a lack of diversity. Feedback on a BME candidate that reads “something was not quite right” needs to be followed up for factual feedback. Too often this behavior goes unquestioned.
      This is embedded into the Race Fairness Commitment that Totum is a part of. The Commitment pledges all members to engage in activities to ensure equal access to opportunities for all candidates.
      Calls for diversity and inclusion will grow louder in 2022. Deloitte’s 2018 Millennial Survey demonstrated that diversity is integral to workplace loyalty, with candidates saying they are more likely to stay with an employer for over 5 years if there is diversity in the workplace.
      Employers must be aware of how to entrench diversity and inclusion into their recruitment policies, or both their business and colleagues will suffer. CV blind assessments, inclusive interviewing, and succession planning should be a staple in any recruitment process in 2022 if businesses want to take this agenda seriously.
      By Deborah Gray, Director at Totum Partners.
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      5 HR Trends to Watch in 2022

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      There’s no denying that 2021 was a wild ride for HR teams, making it tough to predict HR trends for 2022.  Around the world, millions of employees took part in the Great Resignation—quitting their jobs at record-setting rates and leaving companies rushing to fill open roles.  In the months that followed, HR professionals faced a […] More