Improve Diversity Recruiting in 5 Actionable Steps!

Most CEOs and recruiters would agree that a diversified workforce helps companies achieve better results. Companies that have diverse teams have 19% higher revenues. Having employees from different perspectives and backgrounds in your group will bring newer and more varied ideas to innovation and solve problems in your company. It makes sense then why more companies around the globe are focusing on improving their diversity recruiting.However, diversity recruiting goes past just improving business results. Diversity recruiting is a noble cause for every business to go for as it has enormous benefits. Building teams from qualified candidates regardless of their gender, race, background, sexual orientation, or socio-economic background is a big step toward accomplishing true equality at the workplace.

Why Is Diversity Recruiting Important?

Workplace diversity is a fast-growing trend in the business world for a good reason. Apart from being a good moral choice, diversity recruiting improves innovation, performance, and productivity. Some of the key benefits of diversity recruiting include the following:

• A broader range of skills and experience on your team
• Increased cultural and language awareness
• More extensive and more diverse candidate pools

These benefits have proven that diverse workforces effectively solve problems, avoid bias mentalities, and drive more creativity and innovation at work. In addition, diversity allows teams to debate the advantages of different methods and come to a possible best conclusion using a much more comprehensive range of information. As a result, your team can make better decisions and achieve the overall best results.

How to Improve Diversity Recruiting

Below are proven-to-work steps to recruit a more diverse workforce:

Review Your Job Descriptions

While job specifications include equal employment opportunities, most recruiters do not often consider incorporating an all-encompassing skill set to encourage more people to apply for the position. In most cases, recruiters write job descriptions with rhetoric that is limiting. Using inclusive language is a foolproof way to get more diverse candidates to apply for your position. In their practice, long-time recruiters have noticed that, unlike men, women are more reluctant to apply for jobs if they feel like they miss out on the requisite job skills. HBR reports that women only apply for jobs that they are sure to meet 100% of the criteria, while men apply for jobs they think meet 60% of the requirements. So, if your job advert says you need someone with six years of experience, be 100% sure you cannot hire someone with five years of experience because you will turn some female candidates away.In addition, studies have found out that the language you use in your job descriptions can attract or turn away candidates from applying. For example, if you want to attract female candidates, avoid using ''masculine-type'' words such as ambitious, challenging, or aggressive.

Eliminate Bias at the Sourcing Stage

Bias can enter the searching and sourcing stage in terms of race, gender, and socio-economic background. A case study found that when most recruiters search for candidates on LinkedIn, they are more likely to view male candidates' profiles regardless of the profession or job role. Arguably in every profession seniority level, there are more males than females.The best way of eliminating bias at the sourcing stage is to learn more about Loxo's diversity filters to help in your quest to eliminate discrimination. A recruiter may now enter a list of female names to search for female candidates. Then they can add other parameters like skills, years of experience or, job titles. Or add ethnic names to reach diverse candidates.

Eliminate Bias in the Screening Process

Bias is most likely to come into play during the screening stage. However, unconscious bias training can significantly help. Empirical evidence reveals that most hiring managers rate males as more competent and hireable than their matching female candidates for STEM positions. Worse yet, women find job adverts that use masculine wording less appealing.To avoid bias at the screening stage, you can also use techniques such as;Blind hiring- This means anonymizing or ''blinding'' the candidate's information from the recruiting manager that can lead to bias. Fortune 500 companies prefer this type of hiring not to judge a candidate based on name, address, etc. Artificial intelligence in resume screening- Using AI technology is another way to remove bias at the screening stage. You can pre-program your system to filter for specific skills and experience and let the AI technology analyze those parameters. AI will help you shortlist the best candidates to improve diversity at your workplace.

Improve Your Diversity Hiring in Your Candidate Shortlisting

Whether the priority is more diversity based on gender, race, ethnicity, or other dimensions, it pays to have a more diversified interview slate. An organization looking to hire more women may not want to bring more male candidates than females in an interview. A study featured on HBR found out that if there are four candidates and three are women, there is a 75% probability an organization will hire a woman. But if there are three males and one female, there is a zero percent chance a company will hire a female.The study also found out that if there are at least two female candidates on the shortlist, the odds of hiring a female candidate are 79 times greater, while the odds of hiring a non-white person are 194 greater. In addition, using AI to automate your shortlisting can help improve diversity recruiting.

Be Careful of What You Do or Say During Interviews

Having a diverse interviewing panel is an integral part of setting the right interview tone. This is an opportunity to assure candidates you hire people like them too. However, it would be best to be careful what you say or do in the interview to improve diversity recruiting. In addition, giving compliments to female candidates in an interview activates a ''stereotype threat,'' and they will do less well in the discussion. Give everybody the best chance to perform well in the interview. Improve Diversity Recruiting With Loxo AIWorkplace diversity is a top priority in the business world today. Diversity recruiting helps a team become more innovative and productive. In addition, a diverse team can make better decisions benefiting the company. Using automation software in sourcing, screening, and shortlisting candidates helps in improving diversity recruiting at your company.Wouldn't you want to improve your diversity recruiting without breaking the bank? Loxo is the AI-powered platform you need for sourcing and recruiting candidates. You will easily attract and recruit diverse top talents in no time while saving your time and resources.Contact us today to schedule a demo.