Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core concepts in any organization. Discover tips for recruiting a more diverse workforce from activists and experts, leading the way in creating inclusive workspaces.
What is DEI?
DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion are three defining characteristics of your organization’s company culture.
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Diversity describes differences in age, race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, disability, and more.
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Equity is ensuring fair treatment, equal opportunities, equal justice, and equal resources for all.
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Inclusion is what happens when everyone in your group or organization feels welcome, safe, and valued.
Within your company culture, it is imperative to challenge inequality. Diversity isn’t just good for your culture; it’s good for your business. Diverse companies are more innovative, and they produce 19% more revenue (Forbes).
Diversity in Opinions
Stacey Gordon, CEO of Rework Work, is an innovative human capital strategist whose mission is to reduce global talent acquisition and management bias. She hosted Unbias™: Moving Beyond Talk at the HR Virtual Summit hosted by Bamboo HR.
During her session, Gordon says, “We only believe what our eyes tell us, and sometimes we will discount the experiences of others because we didn’t experience it ourselves. And we say to people ‘It really couldn’t have happened that way and maybe you misunderstood,’ because we haven’t experienced it, and we don’t understand it and we don’t have the right framework for even how to hear that.”
She makes an excellent point that we only have our own point of view. We can’t truly understand what another person is experiencing; we only have our own frame of reference to rely on. This is why it is crucial to have a diverse workforce so that there are diverse experiences and opinions to draw from for each situation.
Initial Steps to Recruiting a Diverse Workforce
If you’re looking to include more diversity within your org, start with the job listing. Bamboo HR lists excellent tips for revising your job advertisement to ensure equity in recruiting and to remove any bias in that step of the hiring process. They also recommend stating outright within the ad that your company values diversity and inclusion.
Broaden Your Scope
Look beyond typical recruitment settings. Neogov suggests hosting recruiting events at economically and socially diverse schools, in addition to community groups, government centers, and adult education centers. Think beyond the well-known online job boards and post your ads on boards geared towards more diverse populations.
Strategize
Stacey Gordon, CEO of Rework Work, suggests that it is important within the organization to align on what you mean by diversity, bias, and other critical definitions. Everyone needs to be on the same page when discussing these issues so that there is no confusion between the organization levels. She also recommends creating a strategy. In her session, she emphasized that people jump straight to the action with no strategy, making it difficult for anyone to think you have authenticity.
The Importance of Auditing
Garrison Gibbons was also a speaker at the HR Virtual Summit hosted by Bamboo HR. His session, titled Avoiding the Back Burner: DEI and Belonging Prioritization, incorporated the concept of auditing processes. He recommends the need to audit your current processes and taking stock of what you need to fix today and what can wait. Gibbons states that “Companies getting this right in the next 30 years will survive and companies that don’t will fail. Being proactive and making those changes today is only bettering you for when you go out and hire Gen Z, Gen Alpha and beyond talent – that will drastically look very, very different from the workplace that you work in today.”
The PIC Report
To assist you in the hiring process, we’ve created the PIC report. View a sample and discover how it can assist you in recruiting a diverse workforce here.
Stacey Gordon is the CEO of Rework Work. You can find her work at https://reworkwork.com/category/expertly-speaking/ and take her unconscious bias course at https://www.linkedin.com/learning/unconscious-bias.
Garrison Gibbons is the head of people at Knotch. He can be found at http://www.garrisongibbons.com.
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