How to Make the Recruitment Process More Inclusive

Your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy is now one of your company’s most compelling selling points when looking to pique the interest of the modern workforce. And as such, every touch point must demonstrate your commitment to it, starting with your recruitment process.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings.

Diversity refers to the acknowledgement and representation of people with distinct characteristics. In Australia, you are prohibited by law to discriminate based on protected attributes such as age, disability, race, sex, intersex status, gender identity, and sexual orientation in certain public areas, including education and employment.

Equity ensures that individuals have equal opportunities, irrespective of their identity, background, or experience.

Inclusion goes beyond representation and recognition to appreciate these differences and provide a workplace where everyone can excel. An inclusive work environment is where individuals feel they can perform at their best and belong to the organisation without needing to conform or hide their identity.

If you are looking to diversify your workforce and create a more inclusive working environment, then this article is for you!

A Diverse Hiring Team Speaks Volumes

Building a diverse hiring team is, undoubtedly, one of your first priorities when seeking to be inclusive in your recruitment efforts. Invite people from different departments or levels of your company to be part of this group. This will help you harness a range of perspectives and insights that will ultimately enhance your candidate selection process and help reduce bias.

However, building a diverse team alone is not enough; to ensure their success, you must train them to recognise unconscious biases and equip them with the tools to eliminate them. Additionally, consider establishing a feedback system within your recruitment process. By providing constructive feedback to candidates, your hiring team can be sure their decisions are based on objective criteria and not influenced by subjective biases. This will help build trust and promote a positive employer brand, which will help you attract diverse candidates in the future.

Get Creative When Sourcing Your Candidate Pool

Hiring Managers can support a more inclusive recruitment process by exploring new avenues and searching for candidates beyond conventional sources.

Try adding the following strategies to your recruitment campaign.

• Partnering with universities or affinity organisations.
• Participating in diversity-focused job fairs and events to source candidates from various backgrounds.
• Networking with non-profit organisations or diversity-focused job sites.

Extending your reach beyond the traditional channels will help you develop a diverse talent pipeline for immediate and future recruitment needs. Furthermore, this approach will result in better representation across your workforce and foster a more inclusive work environment. An environment that, ultimately, will attract diverse candidates organically.

Optimise Your Job Descriptions

Job descriptions are home to much unconscious bias. Therefore, one of the first places to ensure you're on track to execute an inclusive recruitment strategy is to carefully examine your job descriptions and remove red flags. You must be objective in your review, as some phrases may appear exclusive to some groups.

Terms like strong and competitive can be viewed as male-oriented and may discourage female candidates. To ensure a more inclusive description, recruiters should replace such terms with neutral language like proven and hardworking.

Another aspect to consider while reviewing your job descriptions is to include a comprehensive list of required skills. Of course, attracting candidates well-suited for the job is your primary objective, but front footing with a strict list of skills can sometimes hinder your inclusive hiring goals.

Consider Blind Screening Resumes

Blind screening resumes is an effective strategy to ensure an inclusive recruitment process. By removing any identifiable information that could reveal a candidate's gender or ethnicity, such as name, address, email, etc., your hiring managers can focus on the qualifications and experience presented in resumes rather than any preconceptions about the candidate's background. Blind screening ensures all applicants are given equal consideration regardless of personal details.

These days, using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), you can automate the screening process and filter out qualified candidates based on job requirements.

Employ the Power of AI

During the hiring process, unconscious biases can unfortunately and unwittingly influence a Hiring Manager’s decision-making. However, using AI, your team can immediately identify and remove unconscious biases and objectively evaluate a candidate's suitability for a role.

AI tools are becoming more and more sophisticated in their capabilities. Nowadays, they provide invaluable support for companies looking to assess the fairness of their current hiring practices. By utilising such tools, recruiters can prioritise hiring the most qualified candidates based on their skills and qualifications rather than other factors. Making them crucial for organisations seeking to implement diversity and inclusion strategies in their recruitment process.

Ensure Your EVP Walks Your Talk

To achieve a more inclusive hiring process, your company must prioritise creating policies that speak to candidates from all backgrounds. These policies may include offering flexible working hours, career development opportunities, diversity awareness training programmes, etc. 

By ensuring your EVP is rich in inclusive policies, you can attract a diverse talent pool and promote a more welcoming work environment. This can lead to higher employee retention, increased job satisfaction, and better overall company performance.

Create an Inclusive Workplace Culture 

Companies must strive to create a workplace culture that celebrates and supports diversity and inclusion at every level and in every sense. If applicable, form a group responsible for identifying diversity initiatives and developing DEI policies. Equally, by involving your employees in the conversations, you can ensure your culture reflects the real needs of every team member.

Offering diversity and inclusion training to your employees, including managers and executives, is another excellent measure to help you instill and foster an inclusive work environment. And regularly surveying your team for feedback and assessing the effectiveness of their DEI policies will help you stay true to your goals.

Like your EVP, a company culture that values and promotes diversity and inclusion will help you to attract and retain a diverse talent pool and foster an environment that promotes creativity, innovation and success.

Stake Your Claim as a Thought-Leader

Building an inclusive workplace is crucial for the future success of any organisation. By actively engaging with diverse candidates, developing inclusive policies and nurturing a culture that embraces diversity, you will lead an inclusive recruitment campaign that will capture the attention of the modern workforce and cement your position as a progressive and future-thinking company. 

Here at WOW Recruitment, we recruit for the future. But with the world of employment constantly changing, we know it can be challenging to keep pace with the evolving expectations of the modern workforce. Don’t stumble through the process alone. Give us a call today, and let a WOWzer walk you through it.