How to hire your best diverse team
During my eight years of experience in Human Resources, specifically in teams at multicultural technology companies such as ThoughtWorks and Dell, I know that nothing is more certain than the power of a diverse environment to inspire creativity and stimulate engagement.
A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 57% of recruiters say their talent acquisition strategies are designed to attract diverse candidates.
Nowadays, having a diverse team enables companies to understand and meet the needs of people from different perspectives. These teams encompass a vast range of opinions, knowledge, and approaches from which decisions are made. This facilitates innovation.
When talking about diversity, we have to take into account that there are two main types of diversity — inherent and acquired. Inherent diversity is represented by demographic characteristics such as race, sex, and age — what you are born with. Acquired diversity are the characteristics you have obtained voluntarily, such as education, experiences, values, skills and knowledge. Valuing and acknowledging these differences leads to greater commitment and higher productivity — two of the characteristics that identify our team at Bunny Inc.
We’re a global and inclusive company that truly believes in diversity and equity. Although we are aware of our own imperfections and there’s always room to improve, an inclusive mindset is interwoven into our culture. Because of this, we have adopted some practices that help with attracting, hiring, and maintaining diverse talents. I’d like to share some of those with you.
1) Recognize your own biases.
We all have certain leanings or preferences — often called biases — and we are not even aware of them. Focusing on uncovering your own biases, so that they won’t get in the way of your hiring choices, is one of the principles of an inclusive recruitment process.
Do you tend to “tune out” those with foreign or regional accents? Feel uncomfortable around people with disabilities? Make assumptions about education? The best way to understand your biases is to admit them and understand if your image of the “perfect candidate” is affected by your particular preferences rather than by the actual qualifications needed for the job. According to a Harvard study, through the implicit association test it’s possible to identify your prejudices as well as to foresee a way to prevent them.
So, take the test and start understanding more about your own biases.
2) Adopt gender-neutral language.
According to a study sponsored by Hewlett Packard and published by sources, such as Forbes and Harvard Business Review, men tend to apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, while women apply only if they meet 100% of them.
In order to minimise this gap, when building a description of a new career opening in your company use gender-neutral language that can express with clarity your requirements, without discouraging anyone from applying to your vacancy.
3) Staff for diversity.
To allocate the best “fit” — that missing jigsaw puzzle piece — our first step is to take on the characteristics currently represented in the team. Before hiring any professional, it’s useful for leaders to consider these questions: What are the diversity strengths in my team? How can I build on those strengths? What are the diversity challenges in my area? How can I address those challenges?
Insights on social impact, measurement of strengths and weaknesses, changes that are needed — these are all outcomes that you can obtain with the answers to these questions.
4) Sourcing pro-actively for diversity.
Networking is a continuous activity that can occur anywhere and anytime. To make connections with the diverse communities from which potential candidates may be identified, you should be aware of these resources:
- Organisations representing diverse groups(i.e.; Black Girls Code)
- Conferences, seminars, job fairs, and events (i.e.; Pride Parade)
- Online professional social networking media, such as LinkedIn and Facebook;
- Your own diverse friends, neighbours, and colleagues.
Women in technology, for example, are highly sought-after as employees, and when you’re about to hire one, you are likely to face competition from other would-be employers. Developing a batch of diverse candidates — particularly for more senior level positions and those requiring specific knowledge, such as IT — takes a lot of time.
So, invest your hours in getting to know relevant organisations and communities and finding people that not only can be great diverse talents, but also can connect you to these groups.
5) Form an inclusive interviewing team.
You have reached out to your network and found good candidates. Let’s start their processes, but not before creating a hiring team, selecting interviewers who will be responsible for participating in the selection and providing feedback when requested.
It’s important to consider including people who will bring diverse views, and who represent different cultures and characteristics. For example, when scheduling a pairing interview with a candidate who is a woman, try to form a pair with a man and a woman for that specific conversation. The candidate will feel represented and more comfortable. Same goes for professionals of color or from different backgrounds, religions and cultures.
Recognising yourself in another person, especially when in a tense situation such as a job interview, is proven to grow a sense of belonging, making it easier to conduct the dialogue. Also, creating inclusive hiring teams helps with unintended biases during the process. It adds representativity to the group interview, which makes the decision more clear and open for discussion among team members.
6) Perks are important.
In order to attract and maintain diverse professionals, there are some important perks that your company should value and offer. Specifically for parents and millennials, the flexibility of hours during work days and the ability to work from home, if you live remotely, are extremely important and can ensure work-life integration.
Also, people with disabilities usually need the assistance of a specific software, special health insurance or just a prepared and supportive work environment — from the sensibilization of co-workers to the distribution of desks inside of an office.
At Bunny Inc., we heavily invest in education. We offer the tools and the time to learn and sharpen the skills of our company members. A specific budget reserved for Education helps transform any organisation into a learning instrument. It also improves knowledge management and supports the development of internal professionals.
With every piece of work done, there’s always the opportunity for candid feedback. In our company we value our peers opinions with Braintrusts, a meeting in which any project can be presented and receive candid feedback. In addition, we incentivise team members to attend conferences and to invest significant amounts of time reading about relevant topics.
7) There’s always time to learn.
We hire for diversity because we value the differences between us, especially as a learning opportunity. The possibilities of learning from someone with a different background, color, education, nationality are enormous.
However, diversity alone isn’t enough. If you have a diverse team, but no inclusion is being asked from your employees, the challenge of building a diverse team becomes much harder. Your current team must be open-minded to create an environment that truly accepts those differences and most importantly, understands that you all can thrive through them.
So, before transforming the way your company recruits these candidates, the best option is to have diversity as part of your core values. And this is very important: listen to your employees that already represent diversity inside your organisation. Never talk about them behind their back and base your actions in empathy, starting with representation. Or, search for communities championing diversity and learn what is the best goal, technique or tool that can help you create your own diverse team.
In conclusion, these are just a few tips that can help your workplace become more inclusive and creative. Using a more human-centered approach to recruitment, it’s possible to transform a selection into a memorable experience and modify your culture into a full social immersion, minimising discrimination.
Edition by @EmmyTither
References:
- Society for Human Resource Management — SHRM
- Harvard Internal Study — Recruiting for Diversity
- Harvard Business Review on “Why women don’t apply for jobs unless they’re 100% qualified”
- Forbes on “Act now to shrink the confidence gap”
- FirstRound on “Ebays First Chief Diversity Officer on Humanizing Diversity and Inclusion”
