Top Global Trends in Recruiting: Diversity Hiring

The issue of recruiting for diversity has been front and center for many businesses over the last few years. However, our understanding of what it means to hire for diversity has also evolved as we’ve seen some tactics succeed where others have failed. This year, we are set to see even more fine-tuning of the diversity hiring process with these global trends: 

Diversifying Internally

Despite many company pledges to add more diversity to their teams, we often hear that companies miss their goal because they are unable to recruit and retain enough diverse candidates. What we’ve seen is that companies who focus on bringing all diversity in from outside the company often don’t have a culture that supports their diverse employees once they arrive. Therefore, a key component to diversity hiring is actually working internally to support diversity among your current workforce so that your new arrivals will find a welcoming atmosphere. Afterall, diversity hiring doesn’t work if you expect your new employees to fit into the old mold. Interestingly, when companies start appreciating diversity among their current employees, they are more likely to get recommendations and referrals for people to be recruited.

Changing the Interview Process

Another problem that companies have discovered through their diversity goals is that diverse employees do not all perform well in the traditional interview setting. Not only are these employees harder to locate in the world of resumes, but they may not come from the background of Ivy League schools or activities that you are used to seeing. To be clear, this is not a problem. In fact, that’s exactly the point of diversity hiring. So if you want to make diversity a priority, you may have to reconsider where you go to recruit, how you interact with those recruits, and what type of answers you want from them. We are seeing a spike in soft, informal interviews with a group of team members, as well as job auditions where the applicant performs real-world tasks under supervision.

Going forward, we expect to see both of these trends taking off in order to truly fulfill the demands of a diverse workforce. There is no way to achieve real diversity with the status quo. We have to take a look inside our companies to tear down those barriers and open up to new possibilities full of support and genuine understanding.