There is a lot of talk in the business world lately about the importance of workplace diversity, and more and more companies are starting to invest in ensuring they have a workforce that looks like the world we live in. Acquiring the top talent when hiring new employees should be important for any company, but many businesses don’t recognize the value they create by having a diverse workforce.
Even businesses that have a desire to prioritize diversity often don’t know where to start when it comes to identifying new practices to adopt to improve their recruiting and hiring. Everything from job descriptions to what job sites you use to advertise to the way you sort resumes can affect the type of candidates who apply for an open position. Read on to learn more about what your workplace can do to help promote diversity in the hiring process.
What does workplace diversity mean?
Before we get into the benefits of having a diverse workforce, it’s important to understand what exactly it means to consider diversity when hiring new employees. Consider that diversity in hiring does not mean altering the qualifications or requirements for a given position, but rather taking care to implement procedures and practices that ensure the interview and hiring process is not tainted by any personal biases. Within the United States, the EEOC (U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission) provides guidelines for organizations to follow when designing their hiring practices.
One of the biggest misconceptions with regard to recruiting diverse candidates is that diversity is only being prioritized for its own sake. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, having a more diverse workplace creates a myriad of benefits for employers. The goal when improving your hiring procedures to include a broader range of job seekers is to ensure that all of your processes from screening to the interview itself are carried out in a fair manner, removing the effects of discrimination that can result in the exclusion of qualified candidates.
How can diversity in the workplace help businesses?
Once you understand more about what diversity in the workplace is, it’s time to learn about how it can actually improve your business practices. Diversity in life experience, identity, and background offers the opportunity for a wider variety of perspectives and opinions within your company. This can lead to increased creativity, more innovation, and quicker problem-solving. Having a diverse workforce will also attract more talent to your company, as many employees desire an inclusive workplace.
Even your ability to negotiate and increase your profitability can benefit from casting a wider net when looking to fill job openings. The skills and experiences that different people can bring to your business can add value all on their own. For example, when dealing with intercontinental business, having a staff with experience makes a big difference, especially when it comes to bridging linguistic gaps. If you were looking to partner with an international development company like Alamos Gold in Turkey on future projects, being able to rely on someone familiar with the business landscape in that part of the globe and who can speak the language would give you a big advantage when it comes to closing a deal.
What are the best ways to increase diversity in the workplace?
Once you’ve decided to make changes to improve your inclusion efforts, it can be difficult to know where to get started. Luckily, there are more resources than ever available to educate you on how to identify and work around unconscious biases. Not only that, but there are high-tech solutions to help manage the hiring process in a way that reduces a company’s ability to be discriminatory. Invest in technology that can make the transition to an improved recruiting process, like diverse interview software. Hiring software can help you find the best interviewers to connect with the candidates you hope to recruit and increase your likelihood of being able to create a talented and multicultural office environment.
Making sure that as many people see your job openings as possible is another important part of bringing in talent from different backgrounds. If you’ve never used consider it before, consider a ZipRecruiter free trial to see what a difference it can make in your hiring process. The way you write your job descriptions also matters. Avoid using descriptions that are unnecessarily gendered, be clear about which requirements are essential and which are preferred, and keep the goal in mind of creating interest in the position across a broad range of demographics. Simple tweaks like this can make a real difference in the responses you get to your job postings.
While it has become popular to talk about diversity in hiring, it takes effort and research to identify the best steps you can take within your workplace. However, the benefits of a diverse workforce are more than worth the investment. Increasing diversity in the workplace in a meaningful way doesn’t involve meeting quotas or trying to check off certain boxes. The purpose of creating an environment full of people with different backgrounds and life experiences is that it will ensure your company is better prepared to engage with people from all over the world and more likely to have a staff with the breadth of experience it takes to tackle the most difficult challenges we all face.