Top tips for attracting more diverse talent

The world of work has evolved rapidly over the past 4 years with many office based staff working hybrid or fully remote. This has opened the door to more flexible ways of working and attracted a much wider talent pool.

It has also increasingly shaped how job seekers view potential employers when applying for roles with around 3 in 4 job seekers assessing an employer’s Diversity, Equity and inclusion commitments before applying.

There are some simple quick wins that employers can take to make the whole recruitment and selection process more inclusive meaning you have a better chance of finding the right candidate for the job and also a better candidate experience.

1. Education and awareness of your ED&I policy, flexible working policy, the law and the need to ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process. Make it part of conversations early on when someone joins and part of managers training.

2. Ensure hiring managers understand the role of bias and how this affects the hiring process in practice

3. Ensure regular and ongoing communication of your commitment to ensure a fair, equitable and inclusive hiring process

4. Regularly review candidate diversity data at each stage to measure how effective and fair your hiring practices are. This includes seeing feedback to assess how they found the experience.

5. Review existing person specification and job descriptions for any words or language that maybe bias and deter certain groups from applying. Is industry experience essential? Is there opportunity to attract talent outside of your industry?

6. Ensure all your recruitment materials include a statement setting out your commitment as an employer to promote equality, encouraging a diverse workforce and eliminating all forms of discrimination and publish this on your website, job adverts and where applicable, ensure this forms part of any contractual agreement with recruitment agents.

7. Remove any irrelevant information from applications/CVs i.e. names, hobbies, universities/college, address and qualifications.

8. Assess existing recruitment channels: how are jobs being advertised? Vary how and where you attract potential candidates to diversify candidate pool.

9. Be mindful of confirmation bias during selection process i.e. looking at candidates’ social media pages to confirm first impressions which may be completely irrelevant to the job.

10. Send out interview questions in advance

11. Use structured interviews with a set of questions clearly focused on the job requirements.

12. Be prepared to challenge: involve staff in recruiting decisions who have not been involved in the initial selection process.

13. Use robust scoring criteria at interview to avoid intuition/gut instinct affecting the final decision.

14. Be mindful of organisational/cultural fit and how this could lead to you recruiting someone like you.

15. Take regular breaks and keep energy levels topped up. Space out interviews, assessments and decisions.