Expanding Diversity Initiatives Into Recruitment and Employee Experience

Diversity initiatives are not a new trend, but it is becoming more prevalent and relevant in today’s world. An organization should make sure that they have a comprehensive plan to focus on making diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) a part of their culture. A clear plan helps foster innovation, engagement and increased productivity. Having a DEI strategy is not a simple a task to put into a recruiting program. There also needs to be a sustainable work environment; one that is caring and supports employee wellbeing.

While DEI can be applied to various components such as training and development, branding, community investment and supplier diversity, we will focus on recruitment and employee experience.

Recruitment When determining how to establish a DEI strategy within recruitment, it’s essential to understand your organization's current state. What are the demographics of your workforce? How does it compare to the industry demographics and the available pool of candidates? Answering these questions, along with looking at your current recruitment sources and determining the diversity mix within those, will help guide you on where to go next. You may need to expand or change your recruitment sources to reach a new pool of candidates.

It is essential to be mindful of the job descriptions and postings.

Make sure that the requirements listed in the posting are a true fit for the position. For example, requiring a graduate degree may not be necessary to perform well in the role and could eliminate a whole group of qualified people. Instead of focusing on the number of years of experience needed, focus on the skills required for the position.

Once you have a group of diverse candidates to interview, the interview process should reflect the organization’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture. The interviewers should clearly understand that candidates should be adding to the culture within an organization rather than “fitting into” the organization’s culture. This means hiring people who share the organization’s values, support the mission, and who will enhance the overall employee experience.

Employee experience:

To ensure there is no disconnect between your recruitment team and the rest of the organization, gather information on the employee experience through an employee engagement survey or a diversity climate assessment. These surveys contain targeted questions about overall job satisfaction, attrition rate, and participation rate of employees in organization activities. They will help you measure the experience of diverse employees and compare it against the experience of the general employee population. The results of these surveys may prompt you to review processes and policies and to make changes.

Having an intentional strategy for a diverse and inclusive organizational culture where employees feel comfortable being who they are, feel connected, and valued at work, will bring the top diverse talent to your organization and attract them to stay.

Contact Kiwi Partners' HR Services if you need assistance in with your organization's DEI initiatives or strategy.