What is inclusive Hiring?

Diversity is about recognizing the differences we see in people: be it age, gender, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability, education, or nationality while providing an equal opportunity to work, whereas inclusive goes deeper into respecting and valuing these differences and tapping into the unique qualities, attributes, and experiences that each individual brings to the Organisation.

Why Is Inclusive Hiring Important?

• Inclusive recruitment improves the image of the company.
• It improves employee retention rates, which further promotes the positive brand of the Organisation.
• Inclusivity creates the foundation for a diverse and inclusive workforce that also mirrors the customer base.
• Research evidence shows that businesses that have diverse workforces financially outperform the average performers for their industry. 
• An inclusive hiring practice enhances the sustainability and growth of the organization
• Hiring from a global talent pool protects your Organisation from shortages in skill sets and knowledge
• Companies can avoid 

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  adverse impact and disparate treatment These can be damaging to any organization and very costly.

What measures can you take to increase Inclusive Hiring Practices in your Organisation?

Various methods can be used to enhance diversity in an organization, and these include among others:

1. Develop Inclusive Job Descriptions

• you should tailor-make your job descriptions so that any individual, regardless of disability, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, who qualifies for a particular role should feel empowered to apply.
• the Job Title should be free from any hint at gender or industry preference
• avoid using masculine and feminine terms in the job description

1. Making your On-Boarding Process Inclusive

• reiterate your Organisation’s diversity and inclusion policies to reinforce your inclusivity approach to each new hire

• Emphasize your company culture from the outset.

1. Practice Blind Resume Review

This can be done by omitting identification details from resumes upon reviewing. In addition, when reviewing resumes, you should focus on the applicant’s experience instead of emphasizing the college or university attended by applicants.

1. Standardize the Interview Process

Incorporating inclusive recruiting in the interview process can be done in different ways, and this can be done in one of the following ways:

• use structured interview questions during interviews
• conduct interview training that covers implicit bias awareness
• interview panelists should avoid asking questions, not on the interview question framework
• use an agreed-upon  interview scoring sheet
• avoid asking questions that have no bearing on job performance, like: Are you married? And Which church do you attend?
• Use multiple interview panelist and avoid a one-man-band interview by any one of your managers/executive
• Make your diversity and inclusivity policies clear at the interview stage is another means of communicating the Organisation’s commitment to equity

1. Advertising your Jobs.

When advertising your jobs, you need to use different advertising channels to increase your candidates pool and diversity. The advertising channels that can be used include:

• Print media
• Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and whats chat boards
• Job portals

1. Develop a Career Website that is accessible to all candidates.

As an organization, you need to develop a career website dedicated to recruiting people from diverse backgrounds. Such a career website should be easily accessible to any prospective employee and allow the candidates to upload their curriculum vitae easily. Also, make it a point that the language you use is inclusive and clearly states your workplace efforts to provide diversity and inclusion for attracting suitable candidates.

1. Make inclusion a part of your employer brand.

As an organization, you need to find ways to communicate your commitment to inclusion to different applicants. You should make efforts to advise people about your plans for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

1. Provide employees with clear career progression paths.

It is incumbent upon you to alert your employees on the internal growth opportunities. Therefore, there is a need for you to track internal mobility data across different groups of employees. This will give you an insight into the obstacles that work against career progression so that you will come up with strategies to address the same.

1. Establish Multi-faceted interview panels.

This effort can help your hiring team form a well-rounded view of each candidate and gauge different qualities. In addition, having a diverse interview panel can reduce bias and help see candidates from different perspectives.

1. Incorporate technology in your recruitment

The use of technology can help to streamline diversity and inclusivity in your recruitment process. For instance, implement an applicant tracking system with built-in functionality to help reduce bias and assist you in making objective decisions.

Conclusion

This article provides recruiters and hiring managers with the resources and tools to help mitigate biases in their hiring practices and create a more diverse workforce.

Newturn Wikirefu is the Talent Acquisition Manager at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd a management and human resources consulting firm.

Phone +263 4 481946-48/481950/2900276/2900966 or cell number +0784 597343 or email: newturn@ipcconsultants.com or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com.