Objective recruitment and selection: how to create opportunities for diversity
“We can’t find them” is perhaps the most common “complaint” from organizations looking for diverse candidates. Our standard response: “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results.” We’ve previously written about how you can, for example, craft your job posting with an inclusive writing style regarding gender and culture. Now we’d like to walk you through how to lay a solid foundation from which you can start recruiting “differently.” Will you be able to attract that new group of promising, diverse candidates?
A good start is half the battle
Many organizations place a high priority on diversity and inclusion. However, there is a significant difference between merely talking about inclusion and actually engaging in substantive discussions about what inclusion means across the entire organization. Do you want to implement inclusive recruitment and selection practices within your organization? If so, the commitment to inclusion must be embodied at every level of the organization.
Selecting without bias
To achieve inclusion, you must be willing to have difficult conversations and create a safe environment where everyone feels free to speak up. Inclusion means growing together, and that requires allowing yourself to make mistakes and learn from them. It is essential to bring unconscious biases and stereotypes out into the open. Only by acknowledging them can you begin to make decisions without bias.
Next, you’ll need to work together to define the kind of organization you want to be and why diversity and inclusion are essential parts of that vision. It’s important to ensure this commitment by embedding it in your strategy, vision, and mission, and linking it to your core values.
"Inclusion takes courage"
These processes are not easy. Discussions about diversity and inclusion can sometimes be contentious within an organization. In addition, this process requires you to reflect on your own biases and assumptions about people who are different from you. So don’t be afraid to seek advice as you take your first steps. An external professional not only brings expertise to the table but can also help you hold up a mirror and get the conversation started.
Objective recruitment and selection
Objective recruitment and selection involves making informed decisions based on facts and qualifications, without letting biases or personal preferences influence the process. This means looking beyond your own network and actively seeking out diverse talent. By ensuring diversity within your recruitment team, you ensure that different perspectives are incorporated into the selection process, leading to a more diverse pool of candidates.
Diversity in Recruitment and Selection
A good tip for expanding your network is to look beyond your usual circle. We all tend to connect only with people who are similar to us. With this in mind, can you also make more diverse connections and enrich your network?
The fact that we tend to connect most easily with people who are like us naturally applies to the candidates you want to recruit as well. It’s much easier to feel a connection with an organization when you see yourself reflected in it. In other words: diversity leads to more diversity.
Based on this human behavior—the desire to connect—you can make very deliberate choices about what you share about your organization. Make sure that when candidates search for your organization, they find something that inspires them. For example, by sharing stories or photos that convey an inclusive image.
You can also leverage the diversity within your organization to actively reach a different target audience. Ask colleagues with different backgrounds and perspectives to share a job posting and look around within their networks. This way, you’re leveraging the social capital you already have in-house. That’s why it’s also important to make your recruitment team as diverse as possible; everyone brings their own set of ideas, connections, and channels to the table, allowing you to reach a more diverse group of people.
In short
Make room for diversity, build connections, and showcase the space you’ve created. That’s how you turn “we can’t find them” into a whole range of new candidates with unique perspectives who can help your organization move forward.
Would you like to learn more about this topic or get started with diverse and inclusive hiring? If so, the D&I consultants at Colourful People would be happy to assist you: www.colourfulpeople.nl.
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