Diversity in 2023: Trends and Best Practice

With an increasing number of organisations accepting the business case for diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), in 2023, we’re likely to see a ramping up of business diversity recruitment plans. For those who haven't explored DEI hiring yet, there is no time like the present to do so.

As we’ve mentioned before, in order to hire the best talent, you need to be reaching the best talent. And that relies on accessing as big a pool of candidates as possible whilst ensuring that no one is filtered out or prevented from entering your workforce, for whatever reason, whether it be educational background, race, gender, sexuality or neurodiversity, to name a few.

Organisations that fail to recruit a diverse workforce will fall behind their counterparts since they will not benefit from the diversity of thought, creativity and problem-solving skills that come from employing a broad range of talented people. So, what exactly should employers be watching out for this year on the DEI horizon?

Standardise and remove biases.

A vast body of research shows that the average hiring process is biased and unfair. Everyone inherently has unconscious biases grounded in their own experiences, so it’s unsurprising that these seep into recruitment approaches.

But there are steps you can take to recognise and reduce these biases. Simplifying and standardising the process is a good first step. Research shows that unstructured interviews – which lack defined questions and whereby a candidate’s experience and expertise are meant to unfold organically through conversation – are often unreliable for predicting job success. Largely because interviewers can be heavily influenced on the candidate’s likability rather than their employability.

Having structured questions not only ensures that you are receiving the same practical information, but also helps to minimise bias by allowing employers to focus on the factors that have a direct impact on performance.

The wording of job adverts is another aspect not to be downplayed. Even subtle word choices can have a strong impact on the talent pool. Research shows that masculine language, including adjectives like ‘competitive’ and ‘determined,’ results in women perceiving that they would not belong in in such an environment. On the other hand, words like ‘collaborative’ and ‘cooperative’ tend to draw more women than men. There are software programmes that can help with this by highlighting stereotypically gendered words and providing neutral alternatives. But even a more basic approach – simply asking a wide range of colleagues to review the advert as if they were applying, will likely make a marked difference.

A lack of transparency around salary on job listings also disproportionately affects underrepresented groups, especially women, minority groups and those from a lower socio-economic background, and likely contributes to the gender pay gap. Even if you are wary of listing a set value, displaying at least a salary range will allow candidates increased transparency of your offering.

Educate and adapt.

Despite best intentions of improving diversity, where employers can often go wrong is by implementing policies that they ‘think’ will work and then not understanding why they are not achieving the desired results. Unfortunately, such box-ticking exercises, with the aim to simply give the impression of progress, are not conducive to long-term sustainable change.

Instead, employers need to be open to the idea of educating themselves about what support people might need. For instance, in an interview setting, those with neurodivergent differences might find it challenging to read words with certain coloured backgrounds or need more time to digest big blocks of text.

As an employer, no one is expecting you to know everything – knowledge is formed through experiences, which also means that it has limits! So why not take a diversity training course or do some research around the topics that you aren’t so clued up on? This knowledge will not only give you confidence in broaching the topic, but also help to inform the considerations and decisions you make in your recruitment strategy. And, more likely than not, it will also benefit others who might not necessarily identify as neurodivergent, but who process information differently.

Speak to others in your industry.

Despite the realm of information that exists online, organisations are too often operating in silos, instead of sharing information with one another. Business leaders in this fast-paced world should be looking to learn from one another – if you see an organisation doing well when it comes to diversity, speak to them about how they’ve got there.

If businesses hope to tackle the cross-industry talent shortage, they need to be doing everything to make sure that their hiring processes are not shutting out any section of the workforce – even if that means admitting that you don’t have all of the answers.

Diversity is a consideration for all.

It is clear that a company’s DEI polices are becoming increasingly key in encouraging all candidates to apply for a role. Research has found that 67 per cent of employees consider workplace diversity an important factor when considering employment offers with a new company and 58 per cent of employees wouldn’t apply to a company where there’s a pay gap.

In other words, DEI isn’t just a cause relevant to one group of people or another – it’s valued by all. The attitude that a business has towards diversity is now regarded as barometer as to the climate of the company, its values and attitude toward employees. It’s steadily evolving from a nice-to-have to a must-have, and those continuing to lag behind are likely to very quickly experience a handicap on their ability to keep up with the competition.

Hiring can be stressful, which is where a recruitment partner can help, working to reduce the pressure, ensuring that you aren’t falling into hiring pitfalls and solving your specific talent needs. Get in touch with our team of experts to find out more.