It takes more than just encouraging candidates from all backgrounds to apply for your jobs. You need a comprehensive DEI strategy based on the following steps.
Recruiting for diversity can improve EBITA (a company's earnings before interest expenses, taxes and amortization) by up to 33%. Gartner finds that in a diverse workforce, performance improves by 12% and intention to stay increases by 20%.
In light of these numbers and the social benefits that accompany them, diversity initiatives should be a top priority for any company, regardless of its industry. But this is not the case for many companies, who still, unconsciously or voluntarily, cannot overcome their own ingrained prejudices. That's why we've put together a list of 7 diversity initiatives that companies can take.
The 7 steps to a more diverse and inclusive company
It takes more than just encouraging candidates from all backgrounds to apply for your jobs. True diversity can only be achieved if we adopt a comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategy based on the following steps.
1. Use the broader notion of “diverse”
When people think about diversity, they often think about disparities in gender, race and sexuality. All of these factors are important.
However, you should not limit your definition of “diversity” to them. There are always other differences you should take into consideration, from disabilities to new ways of thinking. Therefore, you should use a broad definition of diversity to accommodate as many lifestyles as possible.
2. Create inclusive policies for your workplace
No matter who you are and what you do, there will always be unconscious biases in your practices. That's why you need to take a close look at your current processes to assess how you can make them more inclusive. The result of this analysis will likely cause you to change and expand your policies.
Be as thorough as possible and consider everything from hiring to promotions. Some opportunities for improvement include in-person daycare, adapted offices, flexible work schedules and the possibility of taking time off on religious holidays.
3. Institute ongoing diversity programs
A truly diverse company doesn't just make a big attitude adjustment at some point and give up. Diversity and inclusion are constantly evolving terms, so your efforts should be too. This means you must have training programs, conversations, and partnerships that continually support the goal of diversity.
4. Seek conscious leadership
One of the best things you can do to increase diversity in your company is to lead by example. This means you must go beyond creating policies and adapting your offices – you need to make inclusion a guiding value for each of your actions. Doing so can inspire managers and employees to follow you and do the same.
What's more, you can also institute ongoing coaching sessions for senior leaders and middle managers to align with this mission, which will increase the visibility of this initiative.
5. Rethink your hiring practices
While step 2 (reviewing your policies) will have you evaluate your current hiring practices, we're covering this separately because it can make a huge difference. That's why you should rethink and keep modifying it.
To ensure diversity, you need to take several aspects into account, including the text of your job advertisements, the way you select candidates and the way you interview them (for example, avoiding one-on-one interviews, as they are certainly subject to one-on-one interviews) . to the interviewer's prejudices, which will not be verified).
6. Don't think of diversity as a quota
There is an unfortunate hiring practice, unfortunately common among many companies, whereby they try to hire multiple candidates to meet a quota. This may make them think that companies just need to hire a certain percentage of women/disabled/elderly people and that's it.
But diversity doesn't work like that. An inclusive company does not think about quotas, as this can lead them to think that a business is diverse, when in fact it is not.
7. Use data to your advantage
Living in the golden age of data must be an advantage when it comes to diversity. This means you should gather as much information as possible about your hiring practices, including how many candidates apply for your jobs, their personal characteristics, their experiences, and how many of them end up at your company.
Using this data and analyzing contextual information can be key to detecting gaps or biases, especially if you compare your internal data with diversity data for your country or region.
Beyond the 7 steps
In reality, being diverse means being innovative, as there are always new ways to increase the diversity of your workforce. So take these 7 steps as a starting point for your own diversity journey and commit to it, as you will be doing yourself, your company and your community a great service.
