How diversity and inclusion can help you attract more tech talent

We are in a new era for our society, and more countries each year fight old fashion and inhuman views on sexual orientation, race, religion, and much more. The business world isn’t different and is also moving with the flow of diversity and inclusion.

But it is not only a trend. Diversity and inclusion can help you attract the best talent out there, increase your productivity and innovation, and many more benefits. Below is how this works and how you will benefit from building a brand of diversity and inclusion.

What does diversity and inclusion mean?

Diversity and inclusion are used interchangeably in many companies, but they are slightly different. Diversity in the business means having a workforce that reflects the difference in the community it operates. On the other hand, inclusion means that employees are treated fairly in the office, and everyone has the same opportunities no matter their differences.

To clarify, diversity is the characteristic that makes individuals unique, and inclusion gives all of them the same access and opportunities. It means companies should have a diverse team in gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, colour, marital status, disability, or any other characteristic that makes us different from other people.

Today’s society is now making an effort to increase diversity and inclusion. It has become apparent that it is a problem because businesses don’t really reflect the community they serve. For example, only 4.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and a study showed that religious content shared on social media could influence US firms into not hiring a candidate.  

See also  3 ways to optimise your digital video strategy to connect with the right customers

Write inclusive job posts

Job posts can tell candidates a lot about a company. Even if we don’t realise it, internalised bias is real, and most of us have them. So, we may make job posts and descriptions with offensive terms or terms that will discourage diverse talent from applying.

But you can solve this issue by using online platforms or agencies that are experts on creating inclusive job descriptions for your open positions. For example, you can already find software that uses machine learning to help you spot language that will narrow your candidate’s pool.

Have platforms for inclusion

People often use the company’s website to apply to job openings, so you should try to have a platform that is accessible to everyone. The same goes for platforms that employees have to use in day-to-day tasks. If you don’t have accessibility features in your platforms, your employees with disabilities won’t use them.

So, it won’t matter if you hire them or not because they won’t even apply through your website. Instead, build inclusive platforms that will help make the process easier for them. You can include a feedback section where candidates and employees can give opinions and ideas on how to improve the experience.

Younger generations expect it

As mentioned above, the world is changing, and younger generations grew up with a more diverse and inclusive mindset. They expect this from others, including the companies they work for. If younger people see that a company doesn’t back up their ideals of acceptance, they probably won’t apply to work for them.

See also  Part 2: How to increase your proposal wins with behavioural and design science

Use your diverse team

You can also use your diverse team to aid in your recruitment efforts. Having people from different underrepresented groups in advertisements will make candidates feel like they could belong to the company. Imagine being a black woman studying cybersecurity, and when you apply for an internship, all the other applicants and the employers are white.

You will probably feel like you don’t have a chance and like you wouldn’t belong in that company even if they hire you. Instead, companies can use their diverse team members to include them in the hiring process to make everyone feel comfortable.

Blind resume selection

Because of internalised bias, we sometimes may don’t be inclusive when selecting candidates to interview. So, you can make blind resume selections where you screen candidates by their skills and qualifications without seeing their names or picture.

This will give a fair chance for everyone, and only the qualified applicants will get an interview. But this does not mean that the bias will go away when you interview the candidate in person. It would help if you or the person doing the recruitment got especial training to identify when they are not inclusive.

Benefits of a diverse workforce

• It will help increase productivity. For example, companies with gender-diverse teams are 15 percent more likely to have more return.

• It creates an environment of innovation. Diverse teams have a different perspective, and this encourages new ideas. For example, imagine a company has a team of mobile developers working on an app for disabled people.

See also  How to get the best from a remote workshop with your creative content agency

How will they know what are disabled people needs if none of them have a disability? The results will be much accurate if they have some team members with the type of disability they are making the app for.

• Things go stagnant. Homogeneous cultures tend to create environments of things being the same. So, employees become afraid of sticking out, which includes not voicing their ideas. Instead, when you have an inclusive team, sticking out becomes the norm, and employees feel comfortable throwing crazy ideas to the table.

• It increases your chances of attracting more top talent. As mention before, your brand will be known as being diverse and inclusive, and more candidates will want to work for you.

• It widens your talent pool. By hiring for diverse talent, you broaden your range to many other cultures and possible candidates that wouldn’t have applied to your jobs otherwise.

In summary

Companies nowadays have to be inclusive of diversity. This includes writing inclusive job posts with words that attract diverse candidates instead of scaring them away and having accessibility features on your platforms. You will be more likely to attract younger talent. And you can use your diverse team for the hiring process to make diverse candidates feel represented.