Who deals with diversity in your organisation?

Company initiatives are all very well – but we all know that for real change to happen, someone needs to be accountable. Hot topics are very easy to write initiatives, statements and policies about, and then forget to incorporate into meaningful business strategies.  So who’s taking responsibility for the big issues – like diversity – in your business? 

For an increasing number, that’s a dedicated, diversity-focussed role, whether that’s Director or Head of Diversity, or a Diversity Officer, Consultant or Manager. Even in these recruitment-restricted times, when every new hire can be expected to undergo serious thought, there has been a huge growth in hiring into these positions. In the UK, D&I roles have grown 4x faster than HR positions over the previous 5 years, and there was a 33% increase in D&I jobs posted in June 2020 compared to the previous year. 

At a time when there’s also speculation that Covid might negatively impact on this issue, this is hugely encouraging. In August, the Financial Times speculated that Covid’s financial impact will relegate D&I initiatives to being a ‘nice to have’. Workers from lower-income backgrounds may lack suitable spaces to work from home, and remote working, rather than eliminating bias, might foster stereotypes, as all our views of each become (literally) one dimensional.  

And it’s not like changes in conversation over recent years have necessarily had the desired impact, either. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2020 Global Diversity & Inclusion Survey, while 76% of participants stated that ‘Diversity is a stated value or priority area for my organisation’, 33% still felt that diversity was ‘a barrier to progression’. PwC’s own analysis found that 79% of leadership engagement on D&I remains a basic level, only 26% of organisations have leadership D&I goals and nearly 30% still have no D&I leader. 

Appointing D&I leaders is a great step toward driving progress, and may well make a huge impact. But it takes more than just a figure head to drive real action throughout an organisation: it takes systematic willpower, and engagement from the top down. It requires energy and belief from every employee, from the board to hiring managers to staff at the lowest rungs of the ladder. So, what actionable steps can be taken? 

Name blind recruitment. Unconscious bias is a huge factor in how recruiters make hiring choices: most of us don’t make knowingly discriminatory choices, but we are all wired to instinctively choose what is familiar, known to us, and what fits into our existing expectations. (For instance, if every financial director you’ve ever worked with was a 40-something white man, you’re likely to rehire that kind of person.) Removing names from CVs and applications, followed by evaluating interviews against pre-defined capability criteria instead of personal feeling, means you’re focussed on experience and skills instead of subjective qualities. 

I have seen strong evidence of this method working during my time at Capita. We have used anonymised CVS and CV coversheets in our nuclear accounts since January 2019; as a result, in a three-month period, we saw these changes within our agency worker population: 

• A 63% increase in female representation (putting women in the majority) 
• A 30% increase in first names otherwise not found in that workforce (an indicator of being in an BAME group)
• A 168% increase in workers under the age of 25, and 179% increase in workers over 60  

 Quotas. Sure, these can be controversial, and I’m not going to argue that they’re appropriate for every role – but for higher level positions, when you’re likely to be hiring from an already highly experienced talent body, deciding that shortlists need to include a certain number of female, BAME or LGBTQ candidates can drive huge change. Although they haven’t been widely used for racial targets, there’s strong evidence of success when applied to gender. What’s more, setting an example and demonstrating commitment in this way can drive engagement in your business, encouraging marginalised groups to put themselves forward for future positions and invest in your goals.  

Create inclusive conversations. If you’re worried about D&I in your business, there’s only one way to really find out why – and that’s to ask the people affected by it. This might be through open forums for discussion, anonymous methods for reporting issues, or including BAME individuals in workshops that actively seek out solutions. Going out and actively encouraging candid discussions with colleagues might seem like a frightening step, but it could uncover flaws built into your working practices that you won’t uncover any other way. 

Adjust your requirements. A huge number of job adverts still require certain levels of recent experience and often degree qualifications. The first could easily rule out anyone who’s taken a career break; the latter often negatively impacts on those from lower-income backgrounds. Both may well have the potential to excel in roles, but are excluded on arbitrary grounds. Additionally, augmented writing tools like Textio can uncover examples of inadvertently gendered language in job advertisements, that accidentally deters female applicants. 

Diversify your recruitment and HR team. This team is likely to be the gateway, and the point of contact for any and all people-based issues, to your business – and if unconscious bias is paired with blindness to what the causes of poor diversity may be, these team members may not be able to drive the changes you need. Not only are they likely to lean toward candidates similar to themselves and fail to identify ‘low-level’ discriminatory behaviour, your existing workforce may be deterred from reporting any concerns to them.  

The importance of reaching out to the people in your organisation cannot be underestimated – and the best way to achieve that must, ultimately, be through effective HR and diverse recruitment teams. Your HR function interacts with every employee in your business: starting here as a point of focus could lead to waves of change across your business. What matters most, though, is that businesses both listen, and learn. Only real action will deliver the results that are desperately needed.