Diversity, equity and inclusion: How to build a diverse talent pool

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is becoming a top priority for human resources (HR) leaders as numerous studies demonstrate that more diverse organizations perform better than less diverse ones.

An inclusive approach that values the qualities and backgrounds that make individuals unique, such as race, age, religion, disabilities and ethnicity offers a strategic advantage by providing a more holistic and comprehensive view on all aspects of your workplace culture and operations.

Organizations with more diversity in their leadership teams have been proven to be better at problem solving, generate higher margins and profits, and provide greater return on equity. Data from employer-rating site Glassdoor also shows that DEI-centric culture is increasingly becoming a top priority for job seekers. To attract the best talent available, your organization needs to take DEI seriously.

Nonetheless, the vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses fall short of having truly equitable and diverse workforces. A 2022 survey by HR consultant Built In reported that almost 40% of women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of colour) employees feel excluded from decision-making processes.

Building a diverse workforce requires a holistic and process-driven approach to your recruitment strategy. While there’s no single “right way” to incorporate DEI culture in your organization, there are a number of best practices for building a diverse talent pool. Let’s take a look.

Implement policies to remove

The first place to start is with your recruiting and hiring practices. While no company sets out to hire with intentional biases in mind, many recruiting policies suffer from inherent unconscious biases.

Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain qualities or groups of people that are formed outside of a person’s own conscious awareness. To ensure unconscious biases are removed when recruiting, all individuals involved in HR and the hiring process should complete unconscious bias training on an ongoing basis, typically at least annually.

Training can help uncover unconscious bias in unlikely places – and unfortunately, it’s more pervasive in society than we think. For example, one study that examined discrimination in the labour market found that white-sounding names received 50% more callbacks than their African American-sounding counterparts. Consistent retraining is therefore needed to evolve our thinking and ensure all sources of bias are being neutralized.

“Blinding” is another strategy to control unconscious bias. This involves hiding fields, such as name and address, that might give away demographic information of candidates applying for jobs at your company.

Finally, hiring and pay policies should be structured to eliminate unconscious bias. Work with your HR staff to design policies for standardized interview questions and processes and predefined staff levels and salary bands.

The end goal should be to ensure you’ve created a robust set of written rules to make the process of evaluating and selecting candidates as objective as possible.

Broaden your talent channels

Implementing policies to remove unconscious bias is a critical first step, but it’s also largely a passive action. Yes, DEI hiring principles will ensure you’re not discriminating against candidates based on social stereotypes or demographics, but to access the most diverse pool of talent, you’ll also have to go actively looking for it.

A great place to start is with your recruitment marketing. There are a number of excellent diversity recruitment platforms for Canadian businesses seeking qualified job-seekers from underrepresented demographics. Diversity job boards are a fast-growing resource for companies looking to expand their pool of potential candidates. Here are some of the best:

• BIPOC Jobs – provides tools and resources for BIPOC professionals to connect with employers across a wide range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, education, finance, technology, charity, and non-profit organizations.
• Diversity Canada – provides tools and resources for BIPOC professionals to connect with employers across a wide range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, education, finance, technology, charity, and non-profit organizations.
• Equitek – provides tools and resources for BIPOC professionals to connect with employers across a wide range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, education, finance, technology, charity, and non-profit organizations.
• Hire Diversity – provides tools and resources for BIPOC professionals to connect with employers across a wide range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, education, finance, technology, charity, and non-profit organizations.

Along with national job boards, there are plenty of community-based organizations working on the ground to help match diverse job seekers with employment opportunities. Reach out to your local community partners to see if they offer any job placement services or know of organizations that do.

Make your talent recruitment more inclusive

To appeal to the most diverse set of candidates, your outreach should reflect your inclusive approach. Here are a few tips to help expand your reach.

Tailor your job descriptions

Language is important, and your job descriptions should avoid any language that is exclusive or may be off-putting to candidates. Some examples are obvious, but other words and phrases aren’t always as easy to spot.

Textio is an automated tool that uses machine learning and data from millions of job descriptions to help you identify and remove any language that could unintentionally discourage potential candidates.

Engage your employees

Engaging your employees that are BIPOC or have other diverse qualities is a great way to promote an inclusive approach to talent recruitment. Encourage them to share job postings or other content on social media and open the door for them to get involved in expanding the diversity of your talent pool through their own networks.

Be careful not to overly burden your staff with this responsibility – they may find it unfair if they feel they’re expected to do more than other employees – so make participation optional. But generally, if your employees think you are doing the right thing by trying to diversify your workforce, there’s a good chance they’ll be happy to get involved.

Look outside your local area

If you’re struggling to grow your pool of diverse candidates, consider looking for employees in other locations who can work remotely. Expanding your geographic reach will help you maximize the diversity of your talent pool.

Again, there’s no single right way to build a more diverse workforce. But by focusing on implementing the right policies, exploring new talent channels, and approaching your recruitment with an inclusive mindset, you can strengthen your company’s culture and take meaningful steps towards becoming more diverse and inclusive. And as the statistics show, success is likely to follow!