5 Habits of Highly Inclusive Recruiters

Written By Marlette Jackson

Active and meaningful recruitment is an essential component of a diverse and inclusive workforce. Below, I take a look into some best practices for increasing the diversity of your organization. Keep reading for my five habits of highly inclusive recruiters.

Habit One: Evaluate Job Descriptions for Gendered Language

Habit Two: Strategically Source Applicants through Programs & Partnerships 

  • Strategy : . Consider partnering with local organizations to boost recruitment and placement of particular demographics. Also consider investing  in a ‘boomerang program’ ( invite former top-performing employees who were particularly strong  to apply to higher ranking positions that are currently open) and bolstering employee-referral recruiting programs by including a deliberate message about the business need for a diverse workforce.

  • Science: Employee referrals continue to be employers' top source of hires, delivering more than 30 percent of all hires overall in 2016 and 45 percent of internal hires. Additionally, the Corporate Culture and Boomerang Employee Study by Workplace Trends found that 15% of employees have boomeranged back to a former employee and 40% of HR professionals say their organization hired about half of their former employees who re-applied for a job with them. 

  • Story: HopkinsLocal initiative works with a local workforce development agency to help recruit, screen, and refer candidates from 16 economically-depressed zip codes with the goal to fill 40% of targeted entry-level roles from these areas by 2018. Walgreen’s began their disability inclusion initiative by partnering with organizations that specialize in vocational rehabilitation in South Carolina, and it has resulted in a nationwide effort to staff all of their distribution centers with 20% employees with disabilities. 

Habit Three: Screen Applicants using Evidence-Based Processes

  • Strategy:  Eliminate talk about “culture fit” and focusing on talk about “culture add” or “community”. Consider blind resume reviews for the initial resume screening. Remove the applicant’s name (which can indicate sex and ethnicity), graduation year (which can reveal age), college and address (potential indicators of socio-economic class) and previous company  from the resume and choose instead to focus solely on skills and values. 

  • Science: According to a landmark study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, all else being equal, resumes with “white-sounding” names (the study suggests “Emily Walsh” and “Greg Baker”) got nearly 50 percent more callbacks than those with “black-sounding” names (the study suggests “Lakisha Washington” and “Jamal Jones”).

  •   Story:  Mercy Health West Michigan redesigned their hiring process around objective tests for specific skills and standardized their interview questions to assess pre-determined competencies; they were able to increase the percentage of non-white hires by more than 11% and reduced time-to-fill for their roles by six days and first-year turnover by 6.6%. 

Habit Four: Employ A Diverse Slate Approach to Hiring 

  • Strategy: Strategically seed your pipelines with more diverse candidates. 

  • Science: A study found that the likelihood a woman was hired was 79.14 times greater if there were at least two women in the finalist pool and the odds of hiring a minority were 193.72 times greater if there were at least two minority candidates in the finalist pool. 

  • Story:  Facebook and Amazon employ a "diverse slate approach," a sort of "Rooney Rule" that requires teams to consider minority candidates for coaching and operations-level roles.  The company presents its hiring managers with at least one qualified candidate who is a member of an underrepresented group to fill an open role. 

Habit Five: Engage the Community in Recruitment

  • Strategy: Increase attendance at diversity hiring fairs and host a reverse diversity hiring event that focuses on the demographics of your organization that are underrepresented.

  • Story:  A Reverse Job Fair sponsored by MaxAbility, an employment task force spearheaded by Mayo Clinic and other community partners to place candidates with disabilities, allowed candidates to showcase their skills, work history and volunteer experience on presentation boards similar to the booths that businesses set up at traditional job fairs. Half a dozen interns — more than a quarter of those enrolled in the program — have received job offers as a result.

    Conclusion

    Though I hope these strategies are helpful, they are by no means exhaustive. In addition to the strategies highlighted above, it is important for organizations to continue evaluating their existing recruitment data, and collect direct feedback after implementing new strategies. Equally as critical is using the right metrics to monitor your diversity efforts. Establishing clear, measurable diversity recruiting metrics to track your progress is paramount.

    Before implementing a new D&I strategy, however, it’ll be necessary to create a series of diversity and inclusion trainings on best practices in recruiting, why diversity and inclusion matters, and specific, measurable, and challenging goals recruiters must reach. By educating recruiters on the importance of a D&I Recruitment Strategy and why it’s mission critical, you increase the likelihood that recruiters will follow the guidelines set forth by the new D&I Recruitment strategy.

    But beyond all of this, there is a larger goal organizations must work towards - actively navigating change management. The department responsible for recruiting needs to cultivate a culture of D&I, infusing D&I in its policies, practices, and processes. Continuing diversity and inclusion education even after the training is a great first step in advancing a culture of diversity & inclusion. 

Marlette Jackson
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