5 Strategies to Build a More Diverse Workforce

The world is a diverse and cosmopolitan place and this works because different people are good at different things. The workplace is no different. Besides the legal ramifications of anti-discrimination legislation, there are various solid reasons why hiring a diverse workforce is beneficial to an organization. These include profitability, employee engagement, and improved business reputation.

There are numerous ways in which one can diversify the workplace through the recruitment process by overcoming bias, standardizing skill requirements and advertising in the correct ways, using the correct terminology.

The benefits of a diverse workforce

Equality laws mandate an organization against discrimination based on gender, race, age, physical ability, ethnicity, or religion but that should not be the only reason for hiring diversely. One study revealed that for every 1% increase in gender diversity, there is a concurrent 3% increase in revenue, whereas higher ethnic diversity can raise company income by 15%. This considerable increase can be attributed to the varied opinions, circumstances, experiences, and perspectives shared by different groups of people, meaning they can relate to a broader scope of customer requirements.

Glassdoor stipulates that 67% of potential job seekers state company diversity as an attractive criterion when looking for prospective employment. This is especially true of minority groups who feel they would be better represented in a diverse workforce. Thus diversity offers a more valuable platform for drawing talent.

Employee engagement also sees an improvement in diverse environments, resulting in further collaboration between employees, better commitment, and greater employee retention.

Thus, it is important, profitable, and favorable to employ a diverse workforce, and there are ways to augment the diversity within the company. Here are five strategies to improve diversity hiring for companies:

1. Implicit Association testing can help assuage personal bias

This type of psychometric analysis can illuminate personal bias, which is important if you’re involved in hiring as these unconscious feelings may influence your choice of staff. Thus, being mindful of these predisposed inclinations can ensure you act intentionally differently by changing the way you think and promoting diversity.

2. Gender stereotyping must go out the window

Gender bias generally manifests in conventionally male-dominated sectors such as technology and engineering where male performance is traditionally overestimated compared to females. A study discovered that on submission of two identical resumes, one with a male and one with a female name, 79% of male applications, as opposed to 49% of the female, were considered for the job. Similar results were found with ethnic sounding names, receiving 50% less callbacks than their white-sounding counterparts.

In order to prevent this from happening, you need to set out standardized objectives that encompass exactly the desired skill set a position requires. Conclude what attributes are necessary and judge each candidate accordingly. This will result in a gender and race blind selection as the focus is on the skills and not the demographic.

Standardizing the resumes can also help remove bias triggers. This could include removing any information that could cause partiality, including:

• Candidate’s name (which could indicate ethnicity)
• Gender
• University attended

In doing so, the hiring process will be based on applicants’ abilities and aptitudes regardless of race or gender.

3. Portraying a diverse image attracts diverse talent

Minority groups are more likely to disengage from employers without diversity-related cues, so it is important to stipulate diversity on various platforms. In your advertisements, you can assert that your company is an equal opportunity employer. Additionally, the company website and recruitment materials should promote diversity with representation of all groups, especially those that you want to attract.

4. Recruiting on the right platform can increase diversity

To discover the reservoir of diverse candidates required, it’s imperative that the organization advertises in the right places. For instance, when looking to grow the number of Hispanic graduates within a company, there is little point advertising at career fairs at institutions with a predominantly black demographic. Knowing your audience goes a long way to ensuring the positions are presented to the correct target. There are various tools to elucidate the demographics on various platforms; for example, revealing which social media and recruitment portals are trafficked chiefly by which group of people.

5. Linguistic gender bias can lead to repelling certain groups

There are online tools that interpret whether job advertisements are gender coded. These “gender decoders” will clarify if the text is feminine, masculine, or neutral, and would appeal to those particular groups based on the language used. Unknowingly, the use of language is almost always subtly gender coded. There are frames of reference and descriptive words that are gender associated and can be off-putting to either sex when used in a job advertisement. Thus it is important to check the language of your ads for gender bias and to resolve any issues.

By minimizing the effects of bias and standardizing the recruitment process systematically, an organization can successfully increase the diversity of its personnel, which has been established to be a lucrative situation.

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