As the words diversity and inclusion have become more prevalent in the media and in HR projects, adopting a relevant strategy for successful inclusive recruitment has become a topic of interest for HR managers. What may seem like buzzwords to some is a challenge for the growth and success of companies. Diversity is a pillar for innovation, creativity, employer brand, and a legal obligation. So why is it important to have an inclusive recruitment? What are the 7 levers to activate to guarantee diversity in your Talent Acquisition strategy?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: What is it?
Diversity in business is the idea that its employees should reflect society. It is generally segmented into two parts: the diversity of our essential characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, physical, etc.) and the diversity of our acquired characteristics after birth (culture, religion, education, experience, values, etc.).
Human beings tend to form homogeneous social groups. He is naturally reassured by what resembles him, which explains the lack of social mix. Other economic and cultural phenomena further accentuate this tendency to surround ourselves with those who are similar to us. Recruitment is no exception. Biases are numerous and diversity-based recruitment puts in place measures to limit them as much as possible.
Equity refers to the elimination of systemic biases and barriers to promote fair and equitable treatment during the recruitment process. Defining an equitable recruitment process involves identifying systemic elements that may bias the success criteria of some candidates. For example, specifying only a certain level of experience rather than skills may unfairly disadvantage women who have had maternity leave.
Inclusion refers to the company's willingness to consider all applicants equally and without discrimination. It also refers to the effort made to make everyone feel welcome and considered during the process. This is achieved through communication materials that represent a greater diversity of profiles. Your career site should illustrate this effort: photographs representing all minorities, inclusive writing, avoiding clichés, etc.
Diversity, equity and inclusion are three complementary elements that must be cultivated in concert to benefit your recruitment strategy.
The importance of adopting a diversity recruitment strategy
A diversity recruitment strategy has already proven its effectiveness in terms of innovation and creativity.
Consulting firm McKinsey has published three studies on diversity: Why diversity matters (2015), Delivering through diversity (2018), and Diversity wins (2020). They all confirm better performance for companies with a more diverse workforce.
McKinsey states that teams with true gender parity financially outperform those that are the most homogenous by 25%. The difference rises to +36% when it comes to ethnic diversity.
The wide variety of profiles recruited encourages innovation, performance and productivity. It offers a wider range of skills and experience. Intercultural management and communication are easier and more efficient.
Differences in viewpoints lead to greater intellectual flexibility in collective decision-making. They avoid bias and allow for better problem solving.
Catalyst's diversity and inclusion study indicates that they have a beneficial impact on four pillars of business health:
- Talent: Diverse organizations recruit and retain more easily
- Innovation and performance: diversity increases productivity, creativity, limits collective bias and increases problem solving ability
- Reputation and accountability: diversity boosts corporate reputation. Equal numbers of Co-Directors are less likely to commit fraud and increase commitment to CSR.
- Financial performance: the study reports better EBITDA and ROI.
As you can see, a diversity recruitment strategy has many benefits on the health and performance of companies.
The legal obligation not to discriminate in hiring
The subject of diversity and inclusion in the workplace is closely linked to the legal obligation not to discriminate in hiring. The French Labor Code is very clear on this subject.
All employees and applicants for employment, internships or training periods in companies are protected by law against discrimination in hiring and at work. The Labor Code(art. L.1132-1) prohibits any distinction between employees based on :
- Origin;
- GENDER;
- morals ;
- orientation;
- sexual identity;
- AGE;
- marital status;
- Pregnancy;
- genetic characteristics;
- membership or non-membership, real or assumed, of an ethnic group, nation or race;
- political views;
- union or mutualist activities;
- religious beliefs;
- physical appearance;
- last name ;
- place of residence;
- health status;
- disability.
But beyond this legal obligation, the company must put actions in place to limit the biases that lead us to get closer to those who are similar to us. In a totally unconscious way, we will more often tend to recruit a person who is close to us, whatever the criterion: education, ethnicity, location, origin, culture, gender, etc.
This phenomenon can be noticed in some companies where it seems that all employees look alike.
The danger of recruiting clones
This general tendency creates a homogeneous whole that locks itself into its certainties and habits.
At the origin, the confirmation bias. Every human being seeks to confirm his or her worldview, opinion, ideas, etc. A person who resembles us and who tells us what we want to hear, will have much more chances to please us.
We often agree with her, we agree on many subjects. If all this can be a sign of a good understanding, it does not guarantee a good recruitment.
In a context where the permanent contract is often considered a straitjacket by company managers, we are afraid of making mistakes. So we look for what we know best, it's more reassuring. A person who has had the same training, the same career path, who is of the same generation, etc.
But this reflex poses several problems for companies. They limit their ability to recruit by limiting themselves to specific profiles. And they risk a great disappointment by blinding themselves during the evaluation of the candidate.
Finally, they maintain the same ways of thinking in the company and limit innovation and creativity.
Another problem that is less obvious to perceive concerns the prospects for evolution. A person coming from the same sector will be more likely to want to change direction.
And if you recruit clones, you'll have fewer choices in career change opportunities. If they've all done the same thing, it's hard to offer different paths to everyone.
Clones reinforce the group effect and conformity bias. Having all the same background, they will tend to defend the same point of view. This is why recruiting similar profiles decreases your capacity for innovation.
7 levers for a diversity recruitment strategy
Improve the writing of job offers
The first lever to attract more diverse profiles is to improve the writing of your job offers. Inclusive writing is a first step to make everyone feel concerned and welcomed.
We often see ads written in the masculine with the addition of M/F. It's best to use the middle period for feminine changing words. For example, instead of writing "engineer M/F," prefer "engineer."
We encourage you to provide rich content (photos, videos) illustrating the diversity in your teams.
Focus on the skills required for the position and avoid discrimination based on experience. Is someone with 5 years of experience really more qualified than someone with only 3 years? Reframe this type of criterion by asking yourself what skills you are looking for by indicating 5 years rather than 3 years. Reduce bias by formulating objective criteria.
Diversify your pool of candidates
The lack of diversity in the profiles recruited is often due to the sources of the candidates. We tend to look in the schools we know. The manager will surely indicate the school he or she attended. The advertisement will be published on the same sites that were used the last time, etc.
What we do for convenience and to save time often deprives us of candidate profiles.
Diversify your pool of candidates by starting to vary the platforms on which you publish your ads.
Contact specialized partners, try new job boards, etc.
You can also participate in new job fairs, not just the events organized by the major schools.
Work on your school relationships, taking care to diversify categories, locations, origins, etc.
Adapt your employer brand
Your employer brand must be true to your corporate culture. But it can also be the image of your future project. If you lack diversity, be proactive in your HR communication.
Display diversity in your visuals and content. But most importantly, make sure your marketing is followed through. Diversity and inclusion should not be used as a publicity stunt. They must be translated into concrete actions of hiring and internal changes.
Bring in an external partner to evaluate your communication. Sometimes it's hard to take a step back. Evaluate your corporate values and reframe them to speak to everyone.
Be proactive in your HR policy
Indeed, diversity starts internally. If you want all of your employees to feel welcome, make an effort on everyone's cultural events throughout the year.
Allow some to adjust their schedules to fit their religious calendar, or have events for every occasion.
Religious holidays are often a time of tension if the employee doesn't feel free to discuss them with the employer. Be proactive and ask if he or she wants a schedule adjustment.
Be flexible in your leave policy to accommodate as many people as possible. It's about making everyone feel heard and welcome.
Make your candidate selection objective
In order to protect yourself from hiring discrimination, use a scorecard to recruit on objective competencies.
You can also implement the use of anonymous resumes.
Use technical and personality tests that will allow you to validate certain skills without any psychological bias.
Setting up automatic anonymous questionnaires can be done very easily. You can use a solution like Tally, for example. The application can be synchronized with your ATS (or with a database on Notion).
Automate the sourcing process
One way to reduce bias and discrimination is to automate your candidate sourcing and pre-qualification process .
Use automatic searches based on objective criteria to identify and contact the best profiles.
There are solutions to make an automated approach to your candidates. A simple way is to perform a search (on LinkedIn, for example), then contact candidates automatically (with Neostaff, for example).
Using AI to sort applications
By adoptingartificial intelligence-based tools, you are using technology that allows you to take a step back from the selected profiles.
The Cerebra solution allows you to source and contact candidates according to your specifications.
Assessfirst claims to be able to predict a candidate's success by testing them.
Using AI to sort applications should remain a tool that accompanies you. AIs are also discriminating, contrary to what we think. Because artificial intelligence bases its conclusions on the data that humans have given it.
Researchers have proven that theAI that automatically crops images on Twitter is discriminating. Indeed, the application detects the most important subject to be displayed in the tweet.
But users had noticed that in a group photo, white men were more often chosen than people of color. The root of the problem was the AI's database: it had more white men than people of color. Statistically, then, the AI considers white men to be more "important."
But AI remains an interesting tool to allow you to step back and remain objective.
Implementing diversity recruitment is a process that requires commitment. Your company must create the optimal conditions to ensure maximum objectivity in its recruitment. So that your talented teams feel welcome and fulfilled in the workplace.
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