How NOT to recruit diverse talent

I hear organisations say they are doing everything they can to make a change with the diversity representation in their workplace but are “still finding it so hard to attract and recruit diverse employees”. When they say this, what they really mean is that they are trying to attract diverse candidates by advertising one person with a protected characteristic - e.g. a BME individual or female - on a poster campaign, in the hope that it will somehow attract people similar to that characteristic to join. If it’s not this, then I hear things like, “We are engaging with non-traditional universities in an attempt to increase our racial diversity.” or “We are advertising in lower social economic regions in an attempt to attract more BME employees.” and this, again, are big issues implying that people from minority backgrounds only attend non-traditional universities and live in lower social economic regions. Furthermore, these types of recruitment strategies only enhance common stereotypes that exist and highlight how we are, unconsciously, applying them to all steps of the recruitment process. 

I also see a lot about 50:50 gender shortlists and blind CVs or some great bias decoding software, which, don’t get me wrong, are all great ways to help minorities from certain protected groups through the first few stages of the recruitment process, but what happens when they come across a setback at a later stage? What if during a face-to-face interview they meet with someone who has affinity bias or is certain about the "type" of person they want for the role? What if a candidate is shy by nature or traditional or has a different culture, and because of that, someone presumes that they are not suited to the organisation’s culture?

I want you to think about job adverts you have seen in the past or even job adverts put out by your own organisations. How many times have you seen, a reference to an organisation being an "equal opportunity employer" at the bottom of a job advert. So many, right? Let me ask you, what is an “equal opportunity employer”. What does that mean? If I turned up to your organisation for an interview and asked you to explain what you mean by that, would you have an answer for me? I can guess, probably not, and if you did it would be the standard, typical and well-rehearsed “We value diversity…” related dialogue. My point here is that, organisations know how to say the right things. They know to include buzz words (and images) on their adverts and in conversations, but they always fall short in finding relatable and genuine reasons as to why they want to recruit diverse talent.  

In recent months there has been a lot of talk about AI and other similar forms of technology that can help eliminate bias from recruitment processes and ensure that we recruit diversity. I’m sure you’ll agree AI and technology is great, however it is only as good at tackling bias or understanding diversity as the people who design it. So, unless you have diverse design teams behind these products you will still have biases in the technology and this is a fact that has been proven over and over again by recent examples of biases in technology that has been developed by some of the biggest organisations, which ill refrain from naming but a quick search on the internet will provide you with many examples. 

Let’s look at what we mean. Think about the psychometric tests that you currently use and the sample group that has been used to determine the outputs. I am sure those groups may not be as diverse as you think. And what about recent advancements in AI where the use of facial recognition software is slowly being used to tackle the biases that exist at the CV sifting stage? Is that truly inclusive? Consider this: an autistic candidate applies for the job and is presented with this great revolution - a facial recognition software to interview them. What happens when they don’t feel comfortable to make eye contact with the camera? Can the technology understand the cause of their behaviour? Or will the AI think that the candidate is not focussed, has poor body language and not paying attention?

Another thing that always throws me is when you are asked to articulate your strengths and skill sets to an interviewer and you’re assessed for that. Now as a BME, culturally the way I have been brought up, we have never been encouraged to shout about our achievements and hence I’ve always “down-played” them. My parents certainly pushed me to achieve all that I could and are the key reason, I am who I am today, but we did all that in a very “hush-hush, low key” way. There was no “OMG my child did this!” or “OMG I did that.” In fact, if anyone of us, so much as boasted about anything at home, my mum was very quick to stop us in our tracks, pin us down as arrogant and made us thank God for our achievements. (I know other BME’s will relate and agree to this – I feel you all nodding!) So, what then? How can we change the recruitment process to accommodate others like me? 

I will never forget the time, I was in an interview many years ago and my interviewer could see I was great on paper, but I was struggling to articulate my expertise because of the points I just mentioned and therefore kept devaluing a lot of my work. Rather than discarding me as not being an eligible candidate, they kept probing me with more structured questions and placed the questions in a way that helped me talk about my successes which then allowed me to go into detail about my experience and then steered the conversation with me. That’s something that will stay with me – and yes, I did get that job!

When we manage to get diverse candidates through so far as an interview, it’s common, as humans, to let our stereotypes come into play. By this I mean, we can start unconsciously making judgements about candidates based on our perceptions. When they give an example/answer to our question and we can’t relate to it, we might feel like they are not the right fit for the organisation. I know! It sounds stupid, doesn’t it? But trust me, it happens. We say we don’t want to employ clones or people that think the same as us, but the reality is affinity bias does exist and some organisations are looking for those that are going to blend into their workplace quickly and efficiently – they are looking for those that match the "cultural fit" rather than respecting an applicant’s difference and hence tend to forget that to survive as business, diversity, innovation and creativity are key. We are not going find those from our mini me's. We somehow value diversity and search for unique people but simultaneously still want answers to questions, to align with how we think. I ask companies who follow this method, what’s the point of recruiting diversity if you want them to think like you?

Interestingly, I also find that some organisations are so keen to do a good job and show the applicant that they are a great employer, they start to sell all the great things they are doing for each diversity strand that they assume associates to the visible characteristics in front of them. This hard sell is the worst thing you could do. It comes across as desperate and yes, people do know you’re doing it! Let me give you a recent personal example. I was headhunted for a non-exec role recently and the recruiter felt my skills in the D&I space would be great for the organisation’s development. During that conversation, they kept repeating how great they are at focusing on the race agenda and how committed they are to it, mentioning all the things they are doing in driving ethnicity-specific change. It’s all great to hear, but why did they not talk to me about the work they are doing in the disability space, for example, or how they are driving their gender strategy? I am a professional in the D&I sector, after all. And we all know D&I is more than just race, right? To me, they saw my colour and decided to sell the role to me that way. 

Interestingly, if they couldn't tell, my race has not changed over the years and my experience, as an individual and professional, make me astute to the challenges that already exist for many organisations and BME employees like myself, and the truth is I have learnt to address and adapt to challenges I face based on my ethnicity. However, the biggest and I repeat, BIGGEST diversity-related challenge I have, is managing a family, I have two children – one is 4 and the other is 2 - and I promise you, maintaining a strong and healthy balance between my family, children, home life and work is the biggest challenge of my life. Now, if this organisation had asked and addressed what was important to me rather than just using my visible characteristics, they could have steered the conversation towards the great stuff they are doing for working parents making the role, and the organisation,more attractive. 

The other blunder we can be prone to making at the interview stage is that, some may think that if we have diversity on the interview panel, it will somehow support diverse applicants and make them aware of how invested we are in D&I. Sorry to burst your bubble again, but this is a myth. From personal experiences, having someone who looked like me on a panel has only ever been detrimental and usually resulted in a more vigorous interview process as perhaps that individual also expects me to also struggle the way they did. Furthermore, the fact that they look like me doesn't mean we have anything in common, in my view organisations would be much better off, educating their interview panels on biases and giving them more confidence to ask different questions. 

Finally, if someone manages to get through to the offer stage of the process, then comes another set of “flawed” next steps. There is always without fail, a conversation around how much an applicant earns currently. I fail to understand why this is relevant. We know research has proved that women and those from minority backgrounds are generally paid less, so why use someone’s currently salary as a threshold to calculate what you’re going to offer them? Surely by doing this, you’re only helping to skew the stats, right? and creating a bigger pay gap. You should be paying them in correlation to their experience and capabilities not what they are currently earning!

Organisations need to take a step back and take the lens off diversity-specific recruitment strategies. Characterises like race, gender, LGBT+, disability etc. are personal to people and so, we must be genuine with our attraction. When we create programmes designed to, for example, recruit more BME employees when advertising and recruiting, just be honest. Please, don’t hard sell – that stench can be smelt a mile away. Instead, admit to why you are running such a said programme in the first place – is it because you have a poor representation and as a firm you know that’s unacceptable or that you value diversity because you understand the benefits it brings for innovation, better ideas and great problem solving. This initiative is your way of changing and challenging the norm. 

We must learn to become better at being genuine and authentic. We should ask questions, be honest and vulnerable. Organisations need to show candidates who they truly are, and interviewers need to do the same too – show candidates who you are as a person. When candidates see the real you and that that’s how you bring yourself to work – they too will feel like they can belong to your organisation. I cannot stress the importance of being honest and how that is such a great tool. Candidates just want to see a company with real people - people that they can relate to. I have never applied to work for a company because it mentioned the word “Diversity” about on a job advert or because someone mentioned it 20 times in an interview. I have worked for a company that is on the journey to strengthen its diversity and wants me to be part of that. A company that is open, aware and accepting of its shortcomings, and in turn finding solutions and taking bold steps to change the narrative on this. Admitting that you are struggling in a certain area of recruitment is not a sign of weakness but is a great strength, and very attractive to diverse talent.

Also, yet again we stress, that you do not shy away from asking questions that might be unique to someone. We are often too careful and always in fear of offending someone that is unlike us, but you may end up unintentionally upsetting someone by not asking. I was speaking to a friend who is in a wheelchair and he mentioned that the worst thing for him is when organisations assume what his needs are, or they go through a whole interview without asking him if he has any challenges or concerns he would like to raise because he is in a wheelchair and the fear of saying the wrong thing leads people not to ask anything. For him, this is very disappointing as he would like to have the opportunity to talk about his needs in a genuine way. 

Not directly linked to the recruitment process, but a personal experience I have where my line manager asking the right questions, was when she had just taken over managing me. One of the first calls we had, she asked me: “How do you like to receive positive feedback? Would you like it if I openly complimented you in front of everyone in a team meeting? Or would you prefer if I did this one to one?” Now, for anyone that knows me, knows I am a living example of that meme where someone says a compliment and the person replies with “Happy Birthday”. 

Growing up in a traditional Pakistani household, you don’t really know what positive feedback is or how to take it. That’s not because all Pakistanis are grumpy, cranky and unappreciative (we’re the coolest, actually) but because culturally you’re conditioned to just be better than the rest and that’s it. There is no congratulating or “making a fuss”. So, for me, being asked a question like this, not only made me respect my manager so much more, but also feel like she actually cared for who I was – and it has stayed with me! She understood that not everyone is the same, and whilst someone she manages might enjoy the occasional limelight, others may not. How simple was it to demonstrate inclusion and respect for me as an individual? Very, which created a real sense of belonging for me.

As recruiters and as an organisation, we need to stop making assumptions for others’ needs or fear asking questions in an attempt to be polite, politically correct or avoid getting it wrong. If you ask with the right intent no one will ever get offended. We need to move from putting people in boxes to actually exploring their unique identity and what matters to them, and that’s the only way you will recruit diverse talent and more importantly retain them! Finally learn from your peers, because we are all here to help each other. Not all organisations are like the above. There are some organisations that have been able to run successful diversity recruitment strategies – investigate those and think about why they worked in creating a sense of belonging.

Written by Asif Sadiq and Sana Butt