6 Quick Tips for Hiring a Diverse Workforce

Having a diverse workforce can have many benefits when growing or improving your business. When a group of diverse professionals works together, different viewpoints and experiences allow for innovation and creativity to flourish. Here are 6 quick tips companies can consider when diversifying their workforce:

1. Use diverse recruiting teams
2. Incorporate inclusive language into job descriptions
3. Turn to diversity hiring sites
4. Expand predictors of employee performance
5. Offer workplace policies that appeal to diverse candidates
6. Choose one metric to improve at a time

Use diverse hiring teams

In order to recruit diverse candidates, your interview panel should include diverse people and viewpoints. Using a range of interviewers will bring unique perspectives to the discussion and touch on different experiences. Diverse hiring teams create a healthy, positive interview experience for candidates and makes them feel more comfortable during the process.

Incorporate inclusive language into job descriptions

The language your organization uses in job descriptions can either compel candidates to apply or steer them away. This is why it’s crucial for job descriptions to use gender neutral terms, like "they" and concise language to communicate effectively with candidates. Using aggressive terms, like “dominate” might be less appealing to female applicants, so use terms that are universally appealing. Consider a broad demographic appeal when writing out the benefits that come with the job opportunity so any person would feel positive about receiving those benefits. It’s also best to separate the minimum qualifications from the preferred qualifications so candidates can easily assess their ability to perform the job. This also encourages more candidates to apply who meet the minimum qualifications, which expands your options for potential new hires.

Turn to diversity hiring sites

If your organization isn’t having much luck recruiting diverse candidates on your own, turn to online career centers that specialize in diversity hiring, like Professional Diversity Network (PDN). Sites like PDN make it easy for companies to engage several diverse groups and find the perfect candidate. You can also reach out to minority advocacy groups in your area to connect with candidates and identify local career fair opportunities.

Expand predictors of employee performance

Screening candidates based on skills and attributes in addition to years of experience, college attendance, and lapses in employment will build a more diverse workforce within your organization. Personality assessments and structured interviews will give you the information you need to select the right candidate based on their skills and attributes. Personality assessments can be administered through online forms as a potential candidate applies to the job so you can determine if they would be a good fit for the job. Structured interviews allow your organization to consider more candidates since this interview style is done through recorded answers to a structured question set. All candidates answer the same questions which creates a more objective and fair evaluation process to ensure consistent hiring decisions.

Offer workplace policies that appeal to diverse candidates

Policies like working from home and flexible work schedules are very popular among younger generations, especially millennials and families needing Work/Life balance. One reason why many employees leave their job is because of long commutes, so offering flexible work schedules helps reduce employee turnover, emphasizes Work/Life balance and improves job satisfaction.

Choose one metric to improve at a time

As you assess diversity within your organization, take note of which areas need improvement and tackle them one at a time. Once you have completed that initiative, you can move onto the next. The simplest way to improve diversity is to choose one area for improvement at a time. For example, if you want to diversify your IT department to gain different perspectives and experience on programming and software development, consider recruiting more qualified women to fill your tech-related roles. By bringing in other perspectives and thought processes to create collaborative work environments helps your organization think through challenges creatively to find the best solutions.

Diversity in the workplace is important for company growth initiatives to gain different perspectives on routine projects or tasks. Employing people with unique experiences and skillsets allows your organization to try new things or improve upon processes already in place. Try a combination of these quick tips to see which tactics work best for your organization.