How do you combat diversity recruiting stereotypes?

Diversity recruiting is not only a moral and social responsibility, but also a strategic advantage for any organization. However, many recruiters face stereotypes and biases that hinder their efforts to attract and hire diverse talent. How do you combat these challenges and create a more inclusive and equitable hiring process? Here are some tips to help you.

1 Understand your own biases

The first step to combat diversity recruiting stereotypes is to acknowledge and address your own unconscious biases. These are the assumptions and preferences that influence your perception and judgment of others, often without your awareness. To identify and reduce your biases, you can take online tests, such as the Implicit Association Test, or participate in training and workshops. You can also seek feedback from others, especially from diverse groups, and reflect on your actions and decisions.

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2 Review your job descriptions

The language and tone of your job descriptions can have a significant impact on who applies for your roles. To avoid discouraging or excluding diverse candidates, you should review your job descriptions and eliminate any words or phrases that imply a preference for a certain gender, race, age, or background. For example, avoid using terms like "rockstar", "ninja", or "guru", which can imply a masculine or elitist culture. Instead, use gender-neutral and inclusive terms, such as "collaborator", "expert", or "leader". You can also use tools, such as Textio or Gender Decoder, to analyze and improve your job descriptions.

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Marilyn B.

Talent Acquisition Manager 👩🏽🤝👩🏼 | Early Careers | DEI supporter 💗 | Dyslexic | ADHD
(edited)
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To encourage a more diverse candidate pool will limit the number of responsibilities and qualifications. Studies have proven that the feminine taskforce typically used a job description as a checklist, therefore not applying when lacking a skill. We hope to encourage more people to apply by limiting it to only the essential skills this way.

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3 Expand your sourcing channels

Another way to combat diversity recruiting stereotypes is to diversify your sourcing channels and reach out to more candidates from different backgrounds and communities. You can use platforms, such as LinkedIn, Indeed, or Glassdoor, to post your jobs and search for candidates, but you should also explore other options, such as niche job boards, diversity networks, professional associations, or referrals. You can also partner with organizations, such as universities, nonprofits, or advocacy groups, that support and promote diversity and inclusion in your industry or field.

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Kia MEMAR

Lead Talent Acquisition Partner | DEI&B Global Ambassador
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This is one of the avenues I strongly recommend to take. There are many organizations working with different ethnicities, social groups and/or focusing on filling gender gaps in hiring. Also approaching to specific universities/colleges is an other way to include DEI in recruitment. Partnership with them opens new doors to new candidates that might have less opportunity to go through hiring process due to some biases and stereotypes hiding in the lower layers. This approach also helps companies accessing new funnels of candidates and accelerate their diverse sourcing.

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4 Standardize your screening and interviewing process

To ensure a fair and consistent hiring process, you should standardize your screening and interviewing methods and criteria. This means using the same tools, questions, and metrics to evaluate all candidates for the same role, regardless of their background or identity. You can use online assessments, such as skills tests or personality tests, to measure candidates' abilities and fit objectively. You can also use structured interviews, which are based on predefined questions and scoring systems, to reduce the influence of personal opinions or impressions.

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5 Involve diverse hiring teams

One of the best ways to combat diversity recruiting stereotypes is to involve diverse hiring teams in your process. This means having people from different genders, races, ages, backgrounds, and perspectives participate in screening, interviewing, and selecting candidates. This can help you avoid groupthink, increase your cultural awareness, and improve your candidate experience. You can also solicit feedback from your diverse hiring teams and use it to improve your diversity recruiting practices and policies.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How do you combat diversity recruiting stereotypes?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Understand your own biases

2 Review your job descriptions

3 Expand your sourcing channels

4 Standardize your screening and interviewing process

5 Involve diverse hiring teams

6 Here’s what else to consider

Recruiting

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How do you combat diversity recruiting stereotypes?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Understand your own biases

2 Review your job descriptions

3 Expand your sourcing channels

4 Standardize your screening and interviewing process

5 Involve diverse hiring teams

6 Here’s what else to consider

Recruiting

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

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