Crafting a workplace environment that is fair, diverse and inclusive starts with recruitment. Employing a diverse teams means benefiting from a range of thoughts, opinions, skills and perspectives. Our population is diverse so we must accommodate underrepresented groups and ensure that no one is discriminated against in any circumstance. It is important to have a workforce that reflects the world around us.
What is a Diverse Workforce?
Ensuring a diverse workforce means hiring a range of individuals with different characteristics. By encouraging diversity in the recruitment process, your workplace will be a more inclusive place for people of varying age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, education, abilities, and languages. This encourages a more accepting and positive workplace.
Why is this important?
Encouraging a diverse workforce isn’t just about improving brand reputation. There are many benefits proven in having a diverse and inclusive workforce:
- It promotes creativity. Having a broad range of perspectives is helpful to bring diverse and new ideas to the business.
- Businesses which are equally balanced between men and women are 21% more likely to outperform competitors. Having a mix of ethnic backgrounds rose this chance by 33%.
delivering-through-diversity_full-report.ashx (mckinsey.com)
- Diverse teams see a 60% increase in decision making, and when employees feel included, innovation increases by 83%.
deloitte-au-hc-diversity-inclusion-soup-0513.pdf
- A study by McKinsey & Company found that companies who had diverse top teams were the top financial performers.
Is there a payoff from top-team diversity? | McKinsey
- Inclusive teams are more engaged. This also increases employee productivity, collaboration and in turn increases profits.
- Inclusion leads to employees feeling valued and accepted. This leads to employees feeling happier and as a result they stay in the company longer. This improves employee retention cutting employee recruitment costs and employee training costs.
- Diversity in the workplace attracts talent. It improves a company’s brand and reputation and presents a more desirable place to work. 67% of job candidates say that a diverse workforce is important when considering job offers.
Recruiting a Diverse Workforce | Glassdoor for Employers
Tips on Diverse Hiring:
According to Sage, here are some tips to keep in mind when hiring:
- Create a diversity and inclusion strategy
- Know your workforce and identify the gaps
- Consider setting diversity targets in the recruitment process
- Look not only for a culture fit but a culture-add
- Consider bias training programmes to encourage an inclusive team
- Modernise or update your company policies to reflect your values today
- Keep diversity and inclusiveness in mind when writing a job description
10 recruiting tips to increase diversity in the workplace | Sage Advice United Kingdom
A diverse and inclusive team doesn’t happen overnight. It requires the right processes and systems in place to create the best team for your company. Using an outsourcing company like Ally can help you to find candidates who fit your brief and help to ensure a long and short list of diverse candidates. Your dedicated Ally can save you 2 days’ worth of selling time making this process easier than ever for you.
