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Tactics to Achieving Your Diversity and Inclusion Goals

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Jul 3, 2019

A very popular rallying cry for diversity and inclusion initiatives that leads the many blog posts on the topic comes from McKinsey, which found that “diverse companies outperform similar companies by 35 percent.”

But, what about the professionals who are already executing the standard diversity best practices?

Whether you are manning successful or struggling diversity and inclusion programs, or need a shot of creative energy beyond those tried and true standard operating procedures, below are some ideas to help enhance your diversity and inclusion recruitment strategies.

If you are already avoiding gendered language and limiting blog posts to their minimum requirements to attract a gender-balanced candidate pool

You could also …

  • Double-check the story your website tells.
    • Check for the same gendered language you edit in your job postings across your About Us and career hub.
    • Review your case studies and testimonials. Who are you highlighting from your customers, and could those stories be told from more diverse perspectives?
    • Don’t forget design. Candidates spent 60 percent of their time last year browsing employer websites. Do your stock images and animations reflect the diverse candidate pool you want to attract? You can apply your diversity lens to your internal style guide to help maintain a strong presence. 

If you are already attending industry conferences that are diversity-specific, and posting on specialized job boards …

You could also …

  • Take a page from LinkedIn’s book and tweak your campus recruiting to focus on regional events. Re-evaluate the story your website tells.
  • Update your candidate journeys to reflect your thoughtful diversity recruiting efforts. If you have met a candidate via a specific organization or society e.g., “LGBTech,” an easy next step is to tag all of your potential candidates from the event “LGBTech” for easy segmentation. Your handy segments can help you build the invite list for your next Pride event, evaluate the ROI on your event budget, and more.

If you are already reducing the inherent bias in the hiring process with standardized questions and blind resume reviews, you are already lightyears ahead of most companies. But don’t rest on your laurels.

You could also …

  • Automate further in a candidate-friendly way.
    • Use videos as a tool for helpful role overviews and introducing specific team functions while reflecting an inclusive culture. According to Lighthouse Research & Advisory, a hiring manager welcome video makes a candidate 46 percent more likely to consider the job.
    • Use video to standardize your pre-interview screening and testing. Having video records on hand can help you make more qualitative decisions.

And lastly, if you are already recruiting and retaining a diverse talent pool, engagement and inclusion might be your focus.

You could also … track, report, and/or improve your diversity turnover rate. All turnover costs money and if you are already undertaking the above efforts, you know diversity turnover can hugely impact your future diversity recruiting.

  • Use your diversity turnover and exit interview data to identify future flight risks.
  • Support managers with cultural competency training and personalized “stay” plans.
  • Resource employee affinity groups properly. Whether your employee resource groups are assigned a specific budget or resources from the HR team to manage and lead, be sure expectations are set and met to empower diverse staff, not overload them.

Luckily for talent acquisition pros, achieving diversity and inclusion goals rest on the same foundation as all good recruiting. DK Bartley, senior vice president, head of diversity & inclusion, talent acquisition SME at Dentsu Aegis, says “candidate experience is key in D&I recruitment, because if you engage a candidate with an initial message about your values and what the companies stand for, it sets the tone from the very beginning — that D&I is a part of your corporate DNA and pivotal to the company’s success.”

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