Diversity and Inclusion is a major issue in the workplace today and is a top priority for recruiters in 2021. So much importance is put on ensuring an organization is made up of different ages, cultures and backgrounds. Getting diversity right will bring fresh ideas, greater creativity and in many cases, higher productivity. But, what are the barriers that stop companies implementing a fully diverse workforce?
Lack of Awareness
A lack of awareness around diversity and the issues it brings may halt the progress of implementing a fully diverse workforce. Being culturally aware is a valuable thing in all walks of life but especially in the modern workplace. Seeing and embracing the uniqueness of all individuals is key to a culturally diverse office and although it may seem like an easy thing to do, some people may struggle. Educating individuals on the importance of differences, cultures and backgrounds – with the help of equality acts, laws and regulations – is a good way to increase diversity awareness around the office.
Leadership Lacks Diversity
Another cause of diversity issues in the workplace is leadership. Leadership teams, even in this modern world we’re living in, often lack any diversity and tend to be dominated by white males. If the leadership team lacks diversity, how can you encourage inclusion at employee level? You can’t. Companies must aim to hire diverse leaders in all areas of the business. This is the only way a whole range of different people can begin to be seen throughout the business.
A Fear of Change and Getting it Wrong
A fear of change is another issue which may halt a company’s progress with diversity. Changing the culture in an organization that is already high performing and successful brings a fear that it may go wrong. This is a valid concern but the overall benefit of having a diverse workforce massively outweighs the fear of change. Being seen as a diverse and culturally aware workplace will be one of the best changes an organization can make.
Improve Diversity with Talent Pipelines
The benefits of creating a diverse workforce are unquestionable. One way of improving diversity in the business is to create a talent pipeline of diverse candidates who are constantly engaged. A pipeline of hire-ready, diverse candidates requires time, skills and capability and above all the right approach to be effective. With Candidate.ID, you can roll out the red carpet to potential candidates with the most sophisticated, personalized nurture experience available in recruitment.
It’s important to maintain a relationship with candidates throughout the entire hiring process – not just when they’re actively being interviewed and considered. Automated email flows nurture candidates throughout the process, ensuring they stay engaged and don’t lose interest in the position. New candidates, previous applicants, lists from events – all can be used in well-crafted email sequences. You can also send automated reminders to keep candidates up-to-date on the next steps like upcoming scheduled interviews and assessments due.
Talent pipeline automation allows you to nurture the people you may want to hire now or in the future, which will generate between 20 and 50% more hires for each of your recruiters.
Talent pipeline software lets you go about your business as normal, but the difference is, every message that is sent to a candidate is loaded with technology which gives constant clues about which candidates to prioritize speaking to, those who are hire-ready.
Recruiters and HR teams need to fill a lot of jobs and in doing so, they pay whatever they need to, to buy speed. But in truth, this is an addiction and there’s a much more sustainable way to acquire speed; that’s automating the build and nurture of talent pipelines.
Your candidate data cost $millions to generate. Make sure it’s a living, breathing ecosystem. Make sure your own talent pipelines are the first place you go to hire diverse talent.
Diversity isn’t just about gender, age or race, it’s also about experience, qualifications, views and beliefs. If you can explore all these different aspects with your talent pipeline, you will build a strong and diverse group for the future.
