With companies starting to focus on college recruiting for the fall, it is imperative that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE+I) embody the brand and stand at the forefront of strategy. Unconscious bias tends to exist in most companies, halting growth potential. By fighting bias and welcoming DE+I, companies will strengthen their reputation and expand their skill sets and qualities. By leveling the playing field and providing each applicant with equitable opportunities and resources, and mitigating bias, brands can focus on the individuals’ skills and the jobs’ requirements.

Understanding Your Audiences

When it comes to supporting a culture of DE+I in recruiting, numerous HR technologies have emerged to aid in the process. By reducing hiring bias at various stages – whether sourcing, marketing, interviewing, or interview debriefs –  DE+I will become part of the company’s brand. Understanding and embracing DE+I requires effort at all levels of the organization, from top to bottom. DE+I technologies can not only aid in talent acquisition, but also in development and retention as brands manage and track key analytics.

Creating an Effective Strategy for DE+I in Recruiting

While effectively incorporating DE+I into brand culture takes time and effort, it is essential for success. As companies start thinking about enhancing DE+I in their workplace, several steps can be taken by starting with recruiting and the overall company culture.

Listed below are some helpful practices:

Leverage Technology to Diminish Bias

As previously mentioned, unconscious bias plays a massive role in hindering efforts to improve DE+I in recruiting. With the help of HR technologies, such as Human Resource Information Systems and ethical artificial intelligence platforms, brands can remove bias across multiple levels of the organization to provide more candidates with fair opportunity.

Track, Measure and Analyze

By managing and collecting DE+I related data, companies can measure, analyze, and truly comprehend their progress. In doing so, companies can continue to improve their efforts by focusing on their concerns and increasing accountability and transparency. These metrics could include sourcing, outreach, candidate, performance evaluation, recruiting events, and location data, all of which can help provide equitable insights to your recruiting efforts and outputs.

Provide Opportunities for Growth

Sharing opportunities with employees and promoting internal recruiting is a crucial part of the DE+I process. Individuals want to join a brand that provides room for growth, development, and by allowing this possibility, DE+I will seep into all levels of the organization, and retention will see massive growth. Think about where you share new opportunities internally, leverage employee resource groups (ERGs), internal nominations, and collaboration platforms (such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Yammer) to share opportunities.

Maintain Diversity at All Levels

From recruiters and interviewers to decision-making and executives, nurturing diversity throughout the organization is essential. Think about both inherent traits (such as race, age, gender) and acquired traits (like religion and geographics); consistency in DE+I efforts will help foster growth and understanding throughout the company.

Make DE+I Part of the Company Culture

The most important step to take in DE+I in recruiting is making it part of the company culture. Diversity, equity, and inclusion should not be siloed in an organization, or topics that are discussed after an incident; instead, it should commonplace for an organization and its employees to reinforce an inclusive and equitable mindset. By providing employees with surveys, training, and an overall sense of belonging, DE+I efforts will go beyond the surface and prove to be part of the brand’s core.

Creating a diverse and inclusive organization is critical for growth and success, providing companies with the upper hand against competitors. While appreciating differing perspectives, skill sets, and qualities, brands must build awareness and understanding within the organization, manage actions throughout the decision-making process, and focus on overall accountability and transparency. Whether it be through people analytics or training and talent development, experts at Clarkston can aid an effective DE+I transformation with our Diversity and Inclusive Insights to Action Platform.

Coauthor and contributions by Rachel Ruth