Recruiting diverse cultures has only proved to help organisations to achieve better targets and build a stronger working environment.

The development of diverse cultures has been going on for decades.

We can go back as far as much as 1910, from the opening of the first gay bar, to the arrival of over 800 people from the Caribbean back in 1948 with HMT Empire Windrush and celebrating its culture, but also embracing a yearly event month defined by the LGBTQIAA+ community.

In December 2003, a structural research paper based on all employees with different ethnicities and backgrounds was introduced by Sean Dwyer, Orlando C. Richard and Ken Chadwick in their publication in the Journal of Business Research.

The publication included the way the study examined the influence of diversity in management on all firms’ performance. It was examined by composing a group of all firm members considered to be managers and officials, adopting contingency and configurational approaches, and gender diversity’s interactions with two key organisational variables (organisational culture and growth orientation) were evaluated against organisational-level performance measures. By supporting these theories, the results suggested that diversity affects the management level and it’s moderated by the firm’s strategic orientation. By the end of the study, including all the details taken out from 1978 to early 2003, they resulted in diversity-performance research by suggesting that before any aspect of gender diversity, race, belief or ethnicity is fully realised, there will be needed an appropriately configured and supportive organisational environment on an ongoing basis.

These discussions led to the government integrating the training in the organisation’s managerial and sub-managerial groups and reluctantly improving their way of distributing this to businesses, from online videos to classrooms, but also other people distributing their knowledge online through different articles and forums.

I’ve decided to be one of them… and to not incline any suggestion to click away, I will do my best to give you the answers on how to integrate more diverse cultures in your group of employees and understand diversity in the best way possible.

Firstly, diversity can be categorised into two: inherent diversity and acquired diversity.

Inherent diversity is a demographic factor, this being tied to race, gender, age, and any other characteristic that is natural to who someone is as a person. The acquired diversity refers to things like education, experience, values, skills, and knowledge, which are more fluid and can develop and evolve over time.

Now, what does diversity recruitment mean and what is the importance of this?

Diversity recruiting is the practice of hiring candidates using a process that is free from bias for or against any individual or group of candidates. The idea is that your team should consist of a variety of people with different backgrounds, types and experiences, including gender, experience, socio-economic levels, race, religion, sexual orientation, skin colour, and so on. It aims to find the best possible candidates, but it’s structured to give all applicants regardless of background, an equal opportunity. Some of the benefits that incline are:

• a broader range of skills and experience;
• increased language and cultural awareness;
• larger and more varied candidate pools.

From a basic point of view, diversity has among us a noticeably substantial influence. From Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014 to Metz & Tharenou 2001 and Gorman & Kmec 2009, all have given us reasons to strongly fight for our human rights and run from being categorised as just a cover. Right? And let’s not forget about the Equality Act, which in my opinion should rule the world!

Many leaders tend to implement this act by only approaching internally to their employees and maybe introducing a ‘must-sign’ condition to their employment papers, nothing that will have an immediate result.

The tendency to be open about what talents is taking part in your business journey can be a challenge. But as with every challenge, there comes an achievement out of it.

1. Audit your job ads

“Focus on things that candidates need to achieve, or what success looks like.”

Gartner’s article mentions an important thing: employee value propositions should be modernised. So why not use a language that describes the success that comes within the role? Sometimes we may gear the language we use in a more specific demographic way without realising it. Instead of focusing on the qualification you need from the candidate, you could implement a language in your adverts that will be clear on what success you offer them and that you are looking to develop client relationships on a corporate level.

2. Look out for new sources

A wonderful opportunity is never hiding or running away from you, so let your talent pool to be made from a variety of candidates from various places. Focus on the source that will deliver the best results.

For example, seek out opportunities to source diverse candidates where they typically hang out. A specific LinkedIn, Facebook group or forum. Allow taking the time to find the people you want to deal with and don’t wait about for them to always find you, like on Indeed. The more time you allow to take the initiative to find these channels, the more likely it is to integrate a diverse talent pool into your organisation.

3. Encourage your employees to use social media to refer to their connections

One way of starting would be to simply ask the employees already on your team to share the job ads with their networks and give them the tools they need to promote the company for you. Overall, their opinion and presence will have a positive impact on the team morale and engagement.

4. Develop a valuable employer brand

Hold the TEDx Talks of your dreams! Perhaps the best way to boost the diversity in your recruitment sourcing is to create an employer brand.

A straightforward way to do this is by simply talking to your employees about the importance of diversity and engraining the values into your company culture.

As you do this, you will develop a long-desired employer brand that is known for valuing diversity and will also develop a whole new level of relationships with your employees. You can:

• record stories of your employee’s background
• create media contents that highlight meaningful words
• challenge your team to create valuable memories of their daily life
• create internal diversity programs that offer internships and have a closure of specific backgrounds

Diverse people will seek out companies who truly value those ideals and getting involved organically is the only way to achieve those benefits.

5. Create new company policies

Implement new scheduling policies to include more religious holidays, community events, and so on. Encourage flexibility in your employees’ work hours that will allow candidates to build a life outside working hours, as well as come in with a smile on their face to work.

It’s also important to encourage your employees to speak up if they think there are certain points that are hindering diversity in any way. It’s the employees’ job to make everybody feel welcomed and having the right policies in your sourcing, is a terrific way to ensure your diversity recruiting strategy is running as it should be.

Continuously find ways to prove inclusiveness and accommodations. Include referred links to your diversity and inclusion policies, so you show the record you are on as committing to as an organisation.

6. Use blind resumes and blind interview processes

One thing a recruitment agency would be with an ideal opinion about this is that blacking out the personal information of a CV (date of birth, specific location, education, and so on) will avoid any bias done on the candidate before this would have the chance to introduce himself.

A blind interview process will apply the same as the resume, but this time it will be based on the communication exchanged with you. By just asking them a blind question through a text message or a recruitment platform of your choice that doesn’t involve sharing personal information, you will have the opportunity to gain an idea about the candidate’s talent.

7. Implement the diversity programme

Don’t be afraid to take ideas from other companies. Reading out ideas from Microsoft, LinkedIn and other big companies that have performed multiple personality assessments and have allowed minority groups in decision making. Obviously, it is wise to take a collective approach and make sure your “majority group” don’t feel like outsiders.

The workforce is one of the biggest promotive influences on people’s lives, making it matter is just one step closer to a successful managerial project.

Do you think you can use any of these points in your recruiting process?

Diversity and inclusion themselves have taken many overloaded approaches, and there are continued manifestations of people being stereotypically different from one another, so if these laws are still enforced, we will always be one step closer to world peace!

Here at Recruit Mint, we take pride in implementing diversity and inclusivity in our recruitment process and always follow its guidelines. We know how important it is for everybody to have their say and we always believe that respect should come from both sides, candidate and recruiters’ perspectives.

If you’re looking to work with an agency that values diversity and inclusion and can help you build recruitment strategies and frameworks to remove any bias from your process, then get in touch today on 01733 802300 or at peterborough@recruitmint.com.

Resources: Wikipedia, Recruitee, Forbes, Gartner, Journal of Business Research