How to overcome 4 challenges of recruiting diverse talent

Today, most businesses aspire to have a workforce that mirrors the labor market. They want to hire a mix of employees who reflect all talent groups and to avoid excluding anyone because of a difference. They want these things because not only is diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) the right thing to do, but it’s also smart business. Inclusive hiring practices open your talent pool, make it easier to attract and retain top candidates, strengthen your brand and boost the bottom line.

So why do so many organizations’ recruitment practices fall short? Because they go too fast and don’t make the targeted changes necessary for a lasting transformation. Before you can implement inclusive hiring practices with a sustained impact, you need to have the right strategy, process, technology and people—plus a commitment to diversity and inclusion across your organization.

Let’s take a closer look at four of the most common challenges that organizations face when trying to hire diverse talent — and consider how we can turn these challenges into opportunities.

Challenge 1: Sourcing

Organizations often claim that there isn’t enough talent from underrepresented groups in talent pools. But the evidence shows that this just isn’t the case. More women earn college and graduate degrees than men. And, in both the US and Europe, more people of color are attaining higher levels of education than ever before. Instead, the problem seems to lie with organizations and their sourcing strategies.

Here are some ways that you can start building a more diverse talent pipeline:

• Make job ads more inclusive: Limit the job’s requirements to must-haves, and focus on key tasks. Women view “requirements” as absolute, so they tend to only apply to jobs if they meet 100% of the hiring criteria, while men will apply for a job where they meet 60% of the hiring criteria. Also make sure that you’re using gender-neutral language, and include a diversity statement.
• Broaden your referral pool: When the people already in your organization suggest candidates from their networks, you tend to hire people who look the same as your current workforce. Instead, ask for referrals from external networking associations and diversity groups.
• Source from different talent pools: Look for candidates with transferable skills in industries similar to your own or with specialties that complement your work. Don’t always use the same job sites to post your positions.
• Find qualified female candidates through return-to-work programs: It can be difficult for women who have taken a break from the workforce to re-enter the job market. Return-to-work programs are an excellent resource for finding women with experience that makes them well-suited to mid- to senior-level roles.
• Sponsor a networking group: Start or support a networking group or affinity network to support your employees who share social identities. Ways to offer support include backing initiatives and events, offering exposure to senior organizational leaders and donating money.
• Start a diverse internship program: Start filling your talent pipeline early through an internship program that appeals to promising young diverse candidates. Make sure your program exposes attendees to senior talent, so participants can connect with leaders they may aspire to be like.

Challenge 2: Selection

Some organizations have no problem getting diverse candidates into their recruiting process; but they just can’t keep them in long enough — they drop out before they get an offer. If your organization suffers from disproportionate numbers of underrepresented candidates leaving after they’re interviewed, it’s likely that your interviewers may be exhibiting bias.

Bias may be conscious or unconscious and behavioral or structural. If you haven’t coached your interviewers in inclusive hiring practices or if they aren’t using competency-based interviewing techniques, they may judge candidates based on their preconceived notions, allowing behavioral bias to unknowingly creep into their decisions. Or, if you have company practices that are inherently non-inclusive, you may have structural biases in play.

For example, if you require candidates to have a college degree, consider whether it’s really necessary for the role. If you’re looking to measure a person’s competency, behavioral tests likely are a better measure than their grades or degrees.

Here are some ways that you can improve inclusion at the candidate assessment and selection stages:

• Use data-driven assessments: When hiring managers and recruiters set evaluation criteria, it allows personal biases to influence their decisions. But an objective set of criteria can reduce bias in the selection process. Take, for example, Korn Ferry Success Profiles, which set research-backed benchmarks of what optimal performance looks like.
• Use structured interview guides: Interviewing is difficult, and it’s often inconsistent. An interview guide, especially when based on data-driven insights about success in a role, ensures that hiring managers focus on the most relevant questions and avoid questions that are exclusionary.
• Provide interview coaching: Teach your recruiters and hiring managers how to spot biases that may affect their decision-making. Useful tools for mitigating biases include role plays, scenario-based exercises and group discussions.
• Get feedback from candidates: If you want to understand why people are dropping out of your selection process, ask candidates for their feedback. That way, you’ll learn about potential barriers and opportunities to improve.

Challenge 3: Attraction

Even if your organization follows an inclusive sourcing strategy and assessment process and has diverse candidates moving through the interview stage, many of these candidates may turn your job offers down. Why might this happen?

There could be a number of reasons that candidates don’t want to work for your company. Are you offering them competitive pay and benefits? Will they have — and do they know about — opportunities for development and advancement? Did they meet anyone in your organization who looks like them?

Candidates can readily pick up on whether your organization is committed to diversity and inclusion; it must be an authentic part of your company culture. And you need to make sure you’re not just telling candidates about your initiatives; you also need to make sure they perceive it at every touchpoint with your organization.

Take these steps to make your organization more attractive to underrepresented candidates:

• Promote career development: While it’s important to ensure that everyone knows they’ll have opportunities to grow in your organization, it’s especially important for candidates who have traditionally faced barriers to advancement. Offer evidence of their potential for career development, such as testimonials from diverse talent in your organization.
• Publish diversity data: Your diversity data signals your commitment to improving DE&I and demonstrates the areas where you can improve. If you aren’t sharing this data, employees may question why you’re reluctant to be transparent.
• Showcase diverse talent: Candidates from underrepresented groups want to know that people like them are succeeding in your company. To provide evidence, set up diverse interview panels and connect candidates to members of relevant employee resource groups for candid feedback about your work environment and culture.
• Offer differentiated rewards and benefits: Your rewards and benefits should consider the needs of different groups of candidates. For example, do you offer childcare leave rather than maternity leave, including leave for paternity, adoption and surrogacy?

Challenge 4: Retention

You’ve hired talented diverse candidates, but they don’t stay at your organization long. You can’t stop at ensuring that your sourcing and hiring practices are diverse and inclusive; the rest of your organization must change as well.

Work toward a culture of purpose and “actionable inclusion” that creates positive emotional experiences for employees as well as candidates, which will improve engagement. Although the talent acquisition team’s responsibilities don’t span the entire business, you can still play an important role in championing diversity, equity and inclusion across the rest of your company.

Take these steps to improve your retention of underrepresented employees:

• Build inclusive onboarding programs: Most new employees decide whether to stay or leave within their first 90 days. That means there’s no time to waste when showing your company’s commitment to DE&I.
• Check in on new hires: Recruiters often check out once their candidate is on board. Instead, they should check in with the new hire 60 days after they’ve started work to see how they’re doing. If they’re struggling, identify how you and others can support them. If they’re doing well, they may become a great source for leads on new talent.
• Support mentoring programs: Give your new employees a greater incentive to stay with your organization by introducing them to mentors. Setting them up with a formal development program can also encourage them by showing them how they can reach their full potential with your organization.
• Champion employee resource groups: Employee resource groups give employees who feel isolated the chance to connect and share experiences with each other. These groups also identify future diverse leaders and support their development. Additionally, they may educate the rest of the organization on diversity-related issues and lead efforts toward greater structural and behavioral diversity.

Next steps to build a more diverse talent pipeline

As a talent acquisition leader, you play a critical role in building a more diverse and inclusive workforce. And you know that while change toward more inclusive hiring practices is imperative, quick fixes aren’t enough. You need to embed inclusive hiring processes throughout the organization and make an authentic, long-term commitment to recruitment strategies.

To learn more about how you can become a DE&I leader in your organization, read our guide, “The DE&I hiring champion.” Then use our handy checklist to assess how inclusive your hiring practices are. You can also contact us if you have further questions about implementing DE&I hiring practices in your workplace.