With Equality, Diversity and Inclusion already an urgent topic, we discuss how you can achieve all your EDI goals.
In this blog, we explain how your organisation can achieve your equality, diversity and inclusion goals. We also explore expert strategies for mitigating unconscious bias and building diverse, equitable teams. Implementing an inclusive hiring process is essential, but usually requires a dedicated focus and training programme, to ensure you’re covering every touchpoint across the talent life cycle. Read on to learn how implementing a detailed plan will empower your organisation, help to embed diversity within your culture, and achieve better recruitment outcomes.
The Challenge
Diversity and inclusion can no longer remain as a bullet point on a board agenda with no real action taken to drive the change needed. It can be a complex subject at times, but with a change in your focus, and the development of a planned programme, you can support your recruiters and hiring managers involved with attracting or selecting talent, to ensure they understand, not just their regulatory obligations, but how to deliver an inclusive and great experience for your candidates.
The Equality Act 2010 made it illegal for UK employers to discriminate against candidates based on characteristics like gender, race disability or age. While meeting legal obligations is an important first step, organisations aiming to build truly diverse and inclusive workforces need to go much further. They must address unconscious biases that influence hiring and promotion decisions, impeding efforts to achieve diversity. Tackling both explicit discriminatory practices and hidden biases is critical for meaningful progress in building your diverse, equitable workplace.
Research has shown that diversity provides tangible business results. Organisations in the top quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity are 36% more likely to have above-average profitability (McKinsey). Furthermore, 83% of millennials are more engaged when their organisation promotes and encourages inclusion (Deloitte).
Creating your EDI Action Plan
Look at your candidate journey, identify each of the candidate touchpoints, right from job ads through to onboarding, and build your EDI programme around each of these. You may have individuals within your organisation who can help, or you can use an external partner to support you, or, ideally, a combination of both. Some examples of activities to include in your programme are:
- Writing inclusive job postings – designed to attract diverse candidates.
- Training to ensure individuals can recognise common unconscious biases, like affinity bias, stereotyping and false assumptions.
- Mitigating biases through structured interview techniques, focusing on skills rather than personal attributes.
- Conducting objective candidate assessments – based on skills and ability.
- Understanding what reasonable adjustments are, and when and how you need to include these.
Case Study – Ofcom
Ofcom increased ethnic diversity among new hires by 25% in 2022. Omni has supported Ofcom to build their inclusive culture, while facing some tough hiring challenges, recruiting brand new roles (that didn’t exist anywhere else!). Omni implemented an anonymised data dashboard to track diversity through recruitment, where we set targets, with Ofcom, to expand diverse sourcing and remove bias from job posts. Through focused improvement steps, Ofcom has made significant progress towards their EDI goals and recruited top diverse talent for new positions. Click here to read the Ofcom/Omni case study on building an inclusive organisation.
Take Action
Omni offers specialised consulting, advice and training to help organisations realise the benefits of diversity and inclusion. Our assessment specialists also work in partnership with organisations to develop (and run, if required) assessment processes that meet your EDI goals and focus.
An equitable recruitment process is the first step to achieving long-term diversity and inclusion goals. Get started today – contact Omni using the form below and a member of our EDI team will be in touch.
T: 0161 929 4343
E: insights@omnirms.com
