“Diversity and inclusion issues can’t be solved by simply holding one D&I training, a much deeper look needs to take place within the entire organization and this should be a continued effort.”
Today, it is generally accepted that the problem of homogenized organizations is largely systemic in nature. Rather than focus on this from an individual level, I believe we can use technology in areas that are typically seen as a hindrance.
HR software can help you remove some biases from the hiring process, such as gender preference, favourable treatment to fellow alumni or ex-colleagues as well as discrimination against the disabled, pregnant women, older candidates and physical attributes, such as piercings, body art and religious symbols.
There are many metrics we can track and they fall into 3 very different categories, we call them the 3 Rs.
Recruitment
Tracking the diversity of the talent that our recruitment effort attracts
Analysing where the churn is process
Representation
Pay gaps
Diversity amongst the team or specific departments
Diversity among senior management
Tracking the promotion rate of team members from underrepresented groups
Retention
Employee retention for women and underrepresented minorities
Employee engagement
Let’s tackle each R, with Recruitment first.
There is a myth that one common reason for the lack of diversity is that the talent pool is not diverse. Organisations are not actively searching for underrepresented candidates because many companies see the current method of recruitment as effective. More effort needs to be done to include pro-diversity language in job descriptions and remove bias in the recruitment process whether that be blind CV screening for example
Unconscious bias can have a significant impact on hiring and, as a result, many companies are investing in tools that randomize and “anonymise” resumes and applications. This allows recruiters and management to assess each candidate based purely on their qualifications and independent from such factors as gender and ethnicity.
You can also analyse pay equity, group management and a variety of other factors that grant insight into the effectiveness of D&I policies in the workplace.
It is very hard to appeal to diverse talent without a diverse staff as underrepresented candidates want to see other people like themselves represented in the company. They want to have the confidence that they will belong, that they cannot only contribute and have an impact but flourish and build a career. However, when organisations can’t point to past successes or provide examples, there’s a justifiable amount of scepticism among applicants of colour.
Here are some other ways you can leverage technology to reduce biases and improve diversity at your workplace:
- Look at recruiting platforms that let you create a customized online test as the first step in the hiring process, so you can narrow down candidates without bias.
- Use social media more often to post career openings and reach a wider, more diverse candidate pool.
- Rate candidates on their potential—nurturing and allowing them to challenge themselves can increase retention.
- Try tools such as Applied which provides unbiased recruitment tools that help businesses implement a fair and inclusive hiring process
Representation & Retention
We can use data to outline what representation looks like within an organisation and use data showcasing the demographic composition within your company. One of the oddities that arise with this is the following next action of benching-marking where we have our diversity numbers and we benchmark it against the industry or industry average to outline how far we have to go. I disagree with this approach, the reason being is in most cases we are comparing data against companies who are no better than our own.
It is not always easy to collect and analyse diversity and inclusion data & gathering sensitive personal data must be done carefully. When working with data on gender, race, sexual orientation or religious beliefs, for example, a company must be able to prove that it is doing so to assess its diversity and inclusion efforts, such as equal opportunities and treatment of staff.
In these instances, the EU says, diversity monitoring – if done right – can aid evidence-based policymaking against “discrimination, inequalities and exclusion”
Retention data can only show how an employee left, but a cohort analysis can reveal the reasons e.g. how race and gender play a role in turnover by showing interactions that support an inclusive and diverse workplace or actively work against it.
Organisations can’t rely on their HR management systems, as these were never designed for analysis. To leverage employee data for insights, business leaders must have a way to extract insights from their data quickly and correctly so they can make better decisions. This is best achieved with the support of an analytics platform that can perform side-by-side employee comparisons is especially important for informing diversity and inclusion strategies.
Collecting in-depth information on diversity and inclusion is essential for understanding the unique problems your company faces to inform an effective solution, however, this is not an immediate fix or a shortcut by any means of imagination. Once we have the data it can provide us with an unbiased image of our company, in part, the journey starts at this point as this is where change needs to come into effect by the senior leadership team.
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