What is Inclusive Recruitment and Why is it Important? test

Inclusive recruitment has a plethora of definitions all over the internet, some concise and some very elaborate. But when you understand what you are trying to accomplish using inclusive recruitment strategies, it becomes easy: mitigate bias and encourage diversity.

 

And why do you need to do that? Because a diverse workforce adds tremendous value to the organization’s reputation and profitability in the long run. Even the growth curve of a great organization often depends on the extent to which they encourage diversity.

 

When you value and encourage diverse opinions, backgrounds, and experience levels, among other diversities, you will be on the track to achieving a diverse work culture.

 

But it does not necessarily mean that you look for a multi-racial workforce just to prove that you encourage diversity. The value of merit must not be compromised. You need to achieve diversity, but not at the cost of quality.

 

So how do you hit the bull’s eye? How do you ensure that you create an inclusive work atmosphere? Read on to discover the top best practices you can use to achieve exactly that.

 

6 Best Practices for Better Inclusive Recruitment

Creating a program to educate the recruiters about bias

Bias happens in many forms, and in fact, in most cases the recruiters are not aware that they are biased - even subconsciously. While the most common biases are about gender, race, or religion, there are less common biases around things like marital status, personal hobbies, and even choice of recreation.

So you need to ensure that your talent acquisition personnel need to be well educated and that they are able to recognize the possibility of bias in the first place. Only then they will be able to avoid subjecting the candidates to it.

Pro tip: Avoid the trap of confirmation bias, that is, hastily judging candidates favorably based on the first impression.

 

Advertise with inclusive job descriptions

This may sound like a tricky one because on one hand recruiters are given a set criteria to shortlist candidates, and on the other hand, they are expected to encourage diversity as well. But it’s really not that complex, because the inclusive job descriptions need to explicitly convey openness to work with people from various backgrounds.

Pro tip: Make sure you pen down that you are an equal opportunity organization and that you do not discriminate on the basis of gender, religion, or race.

 

Don’t restrict your candidate pool

Once the job description is created, you will be hunting for candidates by posting it on various channels. Here, it is very important that you do not limit yourself to just a few job portals but tap into multiple channels including social media. This will ensure that you attract a diverse talent pool.

 

Be flexible while evaluating candidates

This one is supercritical because once you have shortlisted suitable candidates that match your job description, you will invariably find that some of them are not exactly sounding like a perfect fit. However, you need to remember that perfect candidates do not exist, and also keep in mind that candidates who are diverse will only add value - as long as they don’t seem like a bad culture fit.

Be ready to accommodate the non-perfect ones as well, and you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

 

Use recruitment tools to supplement your hiring process

Recruiters are an overworked and thankless community and every opportunity should be used to lessen their burden. Here, recruitment tools (like RippleHire for instance) will come in very handy and make life easier. Making the recruitment process smoother and faster is the goal, and supporting tools will do the job for you.

 

Diversify the recruitment workforce

You can regard this particular strategy as an indispensable one. However, this does not mean that you forget about the merit of the recruiters and form a diverse panel for the sake of it. You just need to ensure that there is a healthy mix of different genders and social backgrounds.

 

Making Inclusive Recruitment Successful

Now that you are armed with the top best practices to achieve an inclusive work culture, here are a few things to keep in mind while implementing these strategies:

1. Make sure that you are clear about the kind of employees you are looking to hire in terms of work ethics and skills.
2. The hiring process needs to be aligned with your goals of inclusive recruitment from the very beginning.
3. Avoid the pitfall of hiring candidates from underrepresented groups just for the sake of meeting the numbers. Instead, balance diversity with merit.
4. Remember: your ultimate goal is not just achieving diversity. It is leveraging diversity to achieve the success of the organization.

All said and done, inclusive recruitment boils down to quality judgment on the part of the recruiters. The human element is what will ensure great hiring decisions, but a great way to reduce the struggles of the overburdened recruiters is to use a recruitment tool, and you would do well to choose RippleHire for this purpose!