Diverse companies attract 73.2% more top talent than non-diverse companies.
“Diversity” seems to have become a bandwagon every company is eager to jump into. Without any hesitation. To be honest with you, I’m not even mad about it. In fact, I feel like it should have happened already sooner than this.…
However, there is something about this that makes me (and I hope you too) a little agitated. It is the fact that even though a lot of companies have turned to ensuring diversity within their recruitment processes, as well as within workplaces themselves – many still fail to understand why exactly promoting & ensuring diversity hiring is a must.
Take a step back, and critically ask yourself the following question:
Do you know why you are hiring for diversity?
You can focus as much as you want on ensuring diversity. However, if you’re doing it for the wrong reasons, you might as well just not focus on diversity at all.
What you will read in this blog:
- Diversity is not a magic trick
- What most companies are doing wrong
- Using yesterday’s tactics in an attempt to address tomorrow’s problems simply don’t work anymore
- How Equalture can help
Diversity is a continuous process if you want it to be beneficial
Most founders and company leaders don’t have an issue understanding that in today’s fast-paced world achieving diversity is a crucial step to:
- Acquiring and retaining talent
- Building and fostering employee engagement
- Improving overall business performance
However, there are still a few blind spots regarding diversity.
Beyond the obvious – avoiding scandals, meeting diversity quotas, and just sort of just doing what everyone else does. Many companies still fail to understand why exactly they should focus on hiring practices that ensure diversity & inclusion
*drum roll* diversity is more than just a mission statement because awareness without actions means nothing.
Walk the talk. Actions speak louder than words. Well done is better than well said. It is what you do that counts.
There are a thousand different ways of saying the same thing, however, the core message stays the same – without actions, words are just words. This also applies to ensuring diversity is at the heart of the hiring process.
If you want to contribute to driving a real sustainable long-term change, diversity and ensuring diversity throughout the hiring process should be something that is deeply ingrained within the organization. Rather than just something you commit to for a month or two.
What most companies are doing wrong
75% of companies state that DEI is a high strategic priority, however, only 38% of the companies reported some success in creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. So, where does it all go so wrong?
Here is why most companies end up being their own worst enemy when it comes to aligning actions with words.
Jumping on the bandwagon without knowing why
Everyone wants to hire more diverse and inclusive, but a lot of companies can’t really explain why or how exactly they are doing it. “If everyone does it, I should too” is about as deep as the explanations go.
And perhaps it’s not such a bad thing that companies all across the globe have begun to care about diversity.
After all, it’s not only the right thing to do socially, but it moreover has a multitude of benefits.
However, sadly, many companies tend to focus on diversity for the wrong reasons:
- ‘’Because I need to meet a diversity quota.’’
- ‘’Because I need to enlarge my talent pool in this War for Talent.’’
The thing is that companies fail to understand that caring about diversity is more than just making superficial gestures to attract talent and setting up quotas.
Diversity is not only an act of Corporate Social Responsibility but also a proven business case. And quite frankly – it should be everyone’s top priority. But that’s not why most companies start implementing a strategy for diversity hiring. They just do it because they feel like they have to.
What happens when you focus on diversity for the wrong reasons
As we are living through the biggest challenges the recruitment sector has seen – The Great Resignation and The War for Talent – not aligning your words with actions when it comes to DE&I is the most foolish decision you can make.
There are two consequences you’ll be left with:
- Decrease of your talent pool. Candidates not only look at what you are trying to achieve as a company, they will also look at how you do that. The vision/mission is the what, the company’s policies, processes, and culture are the how. And DE&I is a crucial part of the how, as this determines the team composition.
- Losing your employees faster than ever. According to a report by Glassdoor, 76 % of workers prefer diverse companies. So it comes without surprise, that when not focusing on DE&I and aligning words with actions, while your competitors do, your employees will run out of the door faster than they came in. Which will ultimately result in a bad reputation of the Employer Brand,your teams will become less diverse, and eventually, this results in poor financial performances, threatening your company’s existence. And that doesn’t sound like something you’d want, does it?
Long story short – perceiving diversity hiring as some sort of a “tick the box and call it a day” strategy will never be sustainable in the long run.
It’s not something that can have a short-term & one-time solution. It’s like saying you want to cross the river, but then failing to build the bridge. This brings me to my next point.
Using yesterday’s tactics in an attempt to address tomorrow’s problems
Most companies work with dozens of tools, making their lives easier. Calendar tooling, CRMs, internal communication tooling, etc. Now let me ask you this: If you are using various tools to optimize different processes within your company, why are you still using resume-based screening if you are so eager to ensure diversity?
Resume-based screening is the largest contributor to most issues you face in the hiring process, leading to biases, poor hiring quality, and inefficiencies. And ultimately, leading to discriminatory hiring practices, homogenous workplaces, and lack of diversity & inclusion within your teams.
To make real change and progress, it’s about time you understand that using yesterday’s tactics in an attempt to address tomorrow’s problems just simply won’t cut it anymore. Especially when it comes to the initial candidate screening process. And especially, if you want to preach what you practice.
How Equalture can help
Here at Equalture, we’ve built our own set of neuroscientific games – validated assessments, but in a gamified format. With these assessments, you can get to know a candidate on different levels, to objectively and accurately assess someone’s fit with the team, culture, and job. Doing so, we help companies judge candidates based on objective insights that are predictive for job success while eliminating biases caused by someone’s appearance, background, and so on.
Want to try a game yourself?
Ready to walk the talk?
You know where to find us! 😉
Cheers, Anete
