Diversity is incredibly important to the overall health and productivity of a workplace. But for many managers, the entire notion can be tricky. It isn’t as easy as attending diversity classes and trying to be a better person. There are a lot of things to consider when making a diversity-driven hiring plan for your business.
You can adopt behaviors that will help you make more diverse hiring decisions without falling into negative traps. Here’s how.
Replace Quotas With Blind Hiring
There was a time that human resources embraced quotas as a method for hiring more diverse candidates. But in the end, it became just as harmful a practice as the initial problems that led to its inception. Today, blind hiring is recommended. The idea is to hide all demographic information from the hiring manager, so they make a decision based entirely on the skills and achievements.
Create a More Diverse Hiring Pool
Of course, if you’re only pulling candidates from a few select sources you’re going to see a much more homogeneous pool to begin with. The key to changing this is to increase your outreach and recruit from multiple sources. Look within the community to increase the avenues from which you’re pulling candidates.
Consider Hiring for Diverse Mindsets
There has long been a trend of companies hiring for “fit.” But in most cases, “fit” means “like me,” which doesn’t promote diversity. Instead, it’s important to change the culture of what fit is for your company. If fit means opening up your workplace to people with all different backgrounds who can bring new ways of thinking and problem-solving skills to the table, you’ve got a pretty good cultural fit to begin with.
Create a Welcoming Environment
Of course, hiring more diverse candidates is only the first step. Next, you need to make sure you have a workplace that encourages them to be themselves, work hard, and feel appreciated. This means making sure your existing team is truly welcoming to them. Sometimes this can be achieved by creating mentorship programs between established and incoming employees. They can teach one another. It also means taking action if undesirable behaviors surface in the workplace.
Do you want to ensure the fairness of your diversity program? Contact Harvard Resource Solutions, Staffing Agencies in Detroit MI, to learn more today.
