In recent years, companies have begun to increasingly value diversity in the workplace. With research that shows less homogenous teams perform better on key financial metrics, hiring is a critical process to diversify teams and bring in new perspectives to any company’s culture.
Below are some reflections from an example of hiring process adaptations and recommendations to create a more equitable hiring process. It’s important to note that while creating equitable processes can support an increase in diversity in new hires, focusing on the processes themselves is what will sustainably create long-term guardrails to encourage team members to slow down, notice, and check their biases.
Signal a strong commitment to diversity in any job description
To begin, ensure job descriptions actively encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply. This includes checking an existing description for language that may be unnecessarily or unintentionally exclusive of candidates of certain identities, such as ensuring the use of inclusive pronouns (“they/them” pronouns rather than solely “he/him” or “she/her” pronouns). It also means reducing the reliance on access to certain institutions (minimizing references to “top tier” universities, for example).
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