Why diversity hiring is important: Elevating your strategies for recruitment

In today's workplace, focusing on workforce diversity is essential. National attention, social justice issues and calls for accountability have quickly brought diversity and inclusion to the forefront of employers' minds. In fact, a report from Gartner found that 35% of HR leaders say diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are among their top priorities in 2022.

As organizations continue to seek out diverse candidates in the workplace, reviewing and improving your strategies for diversity hiring will be a key element in reaching this pool of talent first and recruiting them successfully. We're taking a closer look at the importance of hiring employees from all walks of life and the best recruitment practices for reaching your diversity goals.

Defining diversity in the workplace

Diversity in an organization encompasses the extent of similarities and differences that each individual uniquely brings to the workplace. The range of these distinctions often includes, but isn't limited to:

• National origin
• Race
• Language
• Disability
• Gender
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Religion

Fostering a diverse workforce involves bringing in new employees with differing backgrounds and perspectives — which ultimately elevates your organization in more ways than one.

What is diversity hiring?

It's critical that organizations don't misconstrue diversity hiring as an initiative to bolster brand reputation. Solely creating the perception that you're a diverse company is merely a facade — which does little to help your organization in the long run. It's critical for organizations to implement a diversity hiring strategy that pays more than lip service to the notion of the value that diversity can bring an organization.

True diversity hiring involves the development and implementation of a diversity recruiting strategy that corrects for bias while attracting and recruiting qualified candidates. Moreover, a properly functioning diversity recruitment strategy changes the paradigm value propositions inherent to traditional talent acquisition. It not only considers whether a candidate does or does not meet the minimum qualifications but also through what perspective the candidate approaches their work and whether the organization as a whole benefits from having that added value. Fostering successful initiatives ultimately requires high levels of effort, intention and determination to bring about workplace diversity effectively.

What is the importance of diversity hiring?

Whether talent leaders realize it or not, everyone has biases. This unconscious bias — also known as implicit bias — refers to the social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form without conscious awareness. While many businesses have put efforts in place to reduce implicit bias within the hiring process and company as a whole, Deloitte reports that 39% of employees still claim they're experiencing bias frequently. A thoughtful diversity initiative helps organizations correct these biases, simultaneously supporting marginalized groups while also furthering diversity hiring goals.

The benefits of prioritizing diversity hiring

While mitigating unconscious bias in the hiring process and actively recruiting diverse talent requires time and effort, the resulting organizational benefits will be incredibly valuable. The advantages a workforce with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints can provide include:

• Bringing in unique experiences and new perspectives: Diverse teams strongly promote new perspectives in the workplace, with employees from a wide array of backgrounds contributing their ideas, expertise and experiences. These unique outlooks ultimately lead to faster problem solving and increased creativity throughout the process — according to a report from Harvard Business Review, diverse teams are able to solve problems faster than cognitively similar groups.
• Increasing innovation: Employees with similar life experiences are predisposed to echo similar thoughts and ideas, which hinders workplace innovation. Ensuring diverse voices have an equal opportunity to be heard can unleash powerful insights to help your organization reach its innovative potential.
• Enhancing company appeal: Employers and managers aren't the only ones in search of a diverse workforce — employees and potential candidates are in search of a diverse workplace as well. In fact, 76% of employees and job seekers report a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers, per a report from Glassdoor. Prioritizing diversity recruitment and hiring is ultimately a significant boon to your company's reputation and appeal.
• Providing access to a wider talent pool: With the major workplace transformations that have occurred in recent years, employees are no longer simply looking for a job that pays well. These workers want an environment where they feel accepted and have space to grow. Actively seeking diverse talent and implementing recruitment strategies automatically gives organizations access to a new, well-qualified talent pool.
• Improving employee performance: Leveraging diverse hiring practices creates a work environment where employees are surrounded by a representation of various cultures, ways of thinking and backgrounds — making your teams more comfortable being themselves at work. This, in turn, promotes employee satisfaction and productivity.
• Increasing revenue: Not only is diversity hiring a valuable way to support underrepresented talent but it's ultimately profitable as well. Diverse teams simply perform better, and according to Forbes, companies are 33% more likely to experience industry-leading profitability if their executive teams represent more cultural and ethnic minorities.

Diversity hiring provides companies with access to top-tier talent that can quickly enhance operational efficiency and productivity. Moreover, as policies that promote diversity and inclusion continue to grow in importance in the labor market, employing a diverse workforce will prove to be an invaluable competitive advantage moving forward.

With these benefits in mind, what are the top diversity recruiting strategies that organizations should consider for the most successful outcomes?

Diversity recruiting strategies to consider

It's clear that diverse teams help companies reach new levels of innovation, creativity and revenue. However, for your organization to properly support underrepresented candidates and reap the benefits that a more diverse team can offer, your diversity initiatives should touch every stage of the hiring process — and your recruitment strategies are no exception.

What is diversity recruiting?

Diversity recruitment refers to the practice of hiring candidates while ensuring the process is free from biases against any individual. This hiring practice maintains the aim of finding the most qualified candidate for the position but is structured in a way that gives all applicants an equal opportunity.

While organizations across industries focus on upgrading their workplace diversity, there are a few diversity recruiting strategies to consider — to elevate your organization's talent acquisition and help your hiring team stand out from the crowd.

• Review your job ads: Re-assessing your job descriptions to ensure they speak to a broader range of candidates can go a long way toward attracting talent with more diverse backgrounds and experiences. Best practices include using language geared toward specific demographics of a certain experience level and finding ways to be more inclusive with your job ads overall.
• Utilize your in-house talent to discover diverse connections: The diverse employees that are currently a part of your teams can serve as a useful resource for reaching a new talent pool. A diverse candidate referral program can quickly boost your recruiting efforts while expressing that your company values unique backgrounds and perspectives.
• Keep diversity at the forefront of your employer brand: Job seekers are increasingly in pursuit of companies that showcase their resolve for promoting diversity in the workplace. Upgrading your recruitment strategies might involve fostering an employer brand that clearly demonstrates these values. Incorporate this diversity into all aspects of your brand and encourage employees to spread the company's message — eventually, this mutual goal is likely to attract diverse candidates.
• Target sources where diverse candidates exist: Sourcing candidates from a wide range of places can help organizations reach a new pool of talent. Finding places where these potential employees congregate, such as online groups dedicated to specific demographics and industries, can be an effective way to reach high-caliber candidates that can bring experience and unique perspectives to a role.
• Foster a company culture that supports and promotes diversity: For the most effective diversity recruitment and hiring, DEI should be at the heart of the organization. Implementing company policies that appeal to diverse workers can proactively promote openness and comfort. For example, organizations can get more involved in their communities or change scheduling policies to honor more religious holidays.

Implement diversity hiring effectively with a dependable partner

It's critical for businesses to keep in mind that increasing demographic diversity does not improve organizational effectiveness alone. Instead, the solution lies in a reflective combination of diversity hiring and utilizing this diversity effectively moving forward. While a proper DEI strategy involves a high level of dedication and effort, the results of diversity hiring are incredibly valuable.

Working with a dependable recruiting agency can make a significant difference in reaching your diversity hiring goals, and Beacon Hill has a record of successfully completing large hiring projects across a range of industries. With a commitment to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion, our team offers their experience and expertise to address all of your hiring needs — in any labor market condition.

Want to learn more about working with Beacon Hill Staffing Group to address your talent acquisition needs? Get in touch with us today to learn more.