Inclusive practices are a necessary part of the recruitment process, and as an employer you legally must abide by the Equality Act 2010. But diversity and inclusion also have great benefits for your company – increasing retention rates for your employees, improving company culture, and improving your business reputation.
What is inclusive recruitment?
Inclusive recruitment involves ensuring your recruitment process does not discriminate based on protected characteristics, and aims to create a company culture that reflects the diversity of the general population.
The protected characteristics, as outlined in the Equality Act 2010, are:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
Improving your inclusion recruitment procedure involves considering marginalised communities at every stage of the hiring process.
Advertising a job role
When advertising for a job, ensure that you don’t exclude marginalised groups. For example, hiring via prestigious schools, on exclusive industry websites, or through employee referrals can lead to a biased pool of candidates. Try to advertise through multiple channels that people of many backgrounds can access.
Writing your job ad
The wording of the job description can impact the type of people likely to apply. Avoid gendered language or using slang that may be confusing to older candidates or those who don’t speak English as a first language. Furthermore, don’t say that you are looking for a ‘culture fit’ or ‘diversity hire’ as this could negatively impact your application diversity.
In your job ad, include the salary and ideally make it non-negotiable. This is because women and ethnic minority candidates are less likely to negotiate salaries and so can end up on a lower salary than their white male counterparts. Providing flexible working options from day one and mentioning this on your advert can also increase applications from parents or disabled jobseekers.
Application process
Anonymising applications is a good way to ensure your hiring process is diverse and inclusive. Hiding information like names, schools and previous employment dates when reviewing applications can prevent unconscious biases against certain races, classes, or ages.
Offer reasonable adjustments to candidates at all stages. This could include virtual interviews, interviews outside of working hours, extra time, wheelchair access, and more. If you advertise the job as being part of an inclusivity scheme, such as the Disability Confident Scheme, which grants an interview to all disabled candidates that fulfil certain criteria, make sure you abide by this.
Following recruitment, ask candidates for feedback on the recruitment process or if there are extra inclusivity measures you can implement, and encourage unsuccessful applicants to reapply for new roles in the future.
Diversity hiring is about providing the same opportunity to everyone regardless of background, so you can hire the right person for the job. For more hiring advice, check out our other Recruitment & HR blogs.
