“It’s just a job” is a phrase you don’t hear much these days. In survey after survey, workers use terms like “purpose,” “meaning” and “connection” when describing their ideal role and employer. They’re driven not only by financial incentives, but also by value —and they want the companies they work for to reflect those values.
Fostering an inclusive workplace culture can help you expand the pool of candidates who want to work at your company. Also, hiring people with different perspectives on business issues can make your company more innovative and customer-centric. Here are some questions to consider:
How can the design of our hiring process contribute to candidates feeling valued and represented?
How can we empower managers and leaders to be accountable for their impact and effort?
What technologies are we employing to address every inflection point of the talent management cycle, especially in relation to hiring?
Does leadership track quantitative aspects of our workforce (awareness, connection, empathy and mutual respect) as much as they track the qualitative ones (demographics, promotion rates, retention)?
Set up your team to succeed
Your strategy to create an inclusive workplace culture may flounder if hiring managers commit to it half-heartedly or if they lack the knowledge to draw up and implement best practices.
To avoid the first scenario, encourage leadership to give the program their full-throated support. Getting buy-in for your initiatives from hiring managers and other key players will be easier if the C-suite leads the way. To address any knowledge or skills gaps, give your teams the training they need.
To avoid the second scenario, your human resources (HR) team may be able to hold virtual sessions with company managers covering topics like inclusive communication and counteracting unconscious bias that can inform managers’ job postings and interviewing processes.
If your HR group is small, arrange for them to get up to speed on inclusion by accessing online certification programs offered by many universities and business schools. If you need to scale up your program quickly, consider hiring a dedicated resource who will already be well-versed in these areas.
Expand your networks and hiring regions
To broaden your talent pools, consider forming strategic alliances with organizations dedicated to enhancing opportunities for underrepresented groups.
Hybrid work further enables companies to connect with candidates from different geographic, socioeconomic, cultural and abilities backgrounds.
Review your job descriptions
Rewrite job descriptions to remove any biased language and include gender-neutral language. Also, think about what kinds of statements could attract future candidates instead of turning them away. Your team may need special training to identify problematic or exclusionary language, and access to AI-powered software that flags and replaces biased phrases.
Collaborate with the company’s strategic alliances to post your job descriptions in various locations. After the description is posted, monitor and track the overall talent pool and adjust your hiring strategies accordingly.
Keeping inclusion central to your recruitment strategy is a critical step toward creating a welcoming workplace. Best of all, it’s a virtuous circle—the closer you get to your goals for inclusion, the more likely you are to attract talented, values-driven candidates from all backgrounds.
Learn more about how companies can build an inclusive corporate culture that makes a difference inside and outside the workplace.
Read about Robert Half's commitment to creating and advancing a workplace culture of inclusion.
