Diversity is here to stay.

Workplace diversity means many things to many people. In the traditional sense, it’s about a balance of gender, races, ethnicities or sexual orientations more representative of the general population. For some of us, it’s a focus on capturing different workplace values, like communication styles, work ethics and motivators. Whatever the reason may be, recruiting for diversity remains a top priority across the industry. 

As with any hire, it requires a conscious prioritization and strategic approach. To help, we’ve simplified it to 3 easy to remember guidelines:

Culture 

A company culture that promotes a diverse workforce is at the root of a successful diverse recruiting strategy. You’ll need to make sure that everyone (even outside of recruiting) is committed to promoting an inclusive culture. Think about a diverse candidate’s entire recruitment process and every person that could have an impression on his/her experience – ensuring everyone shares this objective can have a significant impact on a candidate’s decision to work for your organization.

In addition, build relationships with cultural groups and organizations that work with diverse communities. Fostering these types of relationships can open doors to a network of potential candidates as well as help develop a culture that thrives on diversity.

Competencies 

The best way to prevent discriminatory hiring practices is to standardize your hiring process. On a job to job basis, define what core skills and competencies your ideal candidate should possess. This way you can focus on tangible and measurable aspects of the candidate, like their ability to perform the tasks necessary for the job. By defining the job before looking at candidates, you’ll remove any bias, subconscious prejudices or gut feelings from the equation.

This way, you increase your chances of building a workforce that is as diverse as it is qualified.

Collaboration 

Don’t be a lone wolf. A diverse hiring team will hire a diverse workforce. By involving other members of your hiring team and receiving feedback from multiple sources, you minimize the chance of discrimination and bias. While factoring in various assessments, still be mindful of fact-less decisions, usually including words like feel, think, believe, etc. Make sure that each team member can back his/her ranking with facts and evidence.

While there is no “one size fits all” approach, making an conscious effort in these three categories will help build the framework for a proactive diversity recruiting strategy.

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