The diversity of the global workforce is rapidly changing, but are your hiring practices keeping pace? Numerous studies have shown the value of a diverse workforce, yet in a recent survey only 53% of employees think their company is committed to creating a more diverse workplace.
So what is holding companies back from making diversity a priority? For many companies, the idea of developing hiring strategies specifically aimed at increasing diversity seems daunting, but it doesn't have to be.
So What is “Diversity” Anyway?
For many people, that term immediately brings to mind race or ethnicity, and surely those are important factors to consider, but diversity also comes in many other forms. Inherent diversity focuses on factors over which job applicants have no control; things such as race, sex, and age. While acquired diversity focuses on factors such as educational background, job experience, personal values, and specific skills or knowledge. Often these various factors intersect, creating even more complicated layers of diversity which should be considered.
Diversity Drives Profitability
In a series on diversity that has spanned nearly half a decade, McKinsey has explored all the ways in which diversity leads to greater company success. So it goes without saying that companies shouldn’t aim to increase diversity just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it means higher profitability. Companies whose leadership team’s diversity is in the top quartile are 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than those in the bottom quartile.
Tackling the Challenges
For better or worse, many companies avoid the conversation about diversity hiring because they fear it will lead to interpersonal conflict. But like most things, it’s all in how you approach it. For starters, as a hiring manager it’s your responsibility to set the expectation of how you envision your company.
- Work tirelessly to promote inclusiveness and combat stereotypes.
- Encourage constructive debate within your Talent Acquisition teams regarding the value of building teams with a myriad of differences in background, experiences, skill sets, problem solving, etc.
- Share relevant studies about the value of hiring diverse teams.
- Conduct analyses on your inclusion efforts to show how they are paying off in terms of increased productivity, higher employee satisfaction, and increased retention.
Job seekers are becoming increasingly aware of company diversity and in a recent survey, 70% of job seekers polled cited diversity as an important factor when considering companies and job offers.
So you may be wondering then, how can you attract more diverse candidates? Well one more recent trend in recruiting that can greatly improve diversity is video.
5 Ways Video Can Help Diversify Your Talent Pool
- Increased Flexibility
With our increasingly busy lifestyles, trying to align schedules for an in-person interview is difficult. This can be particularly complicated for college students looking for internships since most interviews take place during business hours which often conflicts with classroom hours. Video allows for candidates to submit their interviews on their own time and for employers to then review them on their own time as well.
- No Geographic Limitations
Another limitation of in-person interviews is location. Restricting your talent pool to only those who are within driving distance could have the unintended consequence of overlooking talent in nearby cities or entirely different states. If anything, COVID has been a largely successful experiment in remote work, thereby giving Employers the possibility of attracting talent from just about anywhere. The next outstanding leader at your company may be a recent college graduate from a top university a few thousand miles away. With video interviews, geographic limitations vanish and recruiters can focus on finding the best fit candidate for the role regardless of location.
- Attract Millennial and Gen Z Candidates
Currently, Millennials and Gen Z represent just over 35% of the workforce and that number is projected to reach 75% by 2030. Younger generations live in a world where everything is digital, seamless, and provides instant gratification. This extends beyond just social interactions. Implementing video into your hiring process is a sure way to connect with this particular talent pool, especially when hiring for internships. The expectation of simple, low-friction, high engagement experiences is something younger candidates are gravitating towards even in the professional world.
- Improved Accessibility
Video hiring can open up your job opportunity to those with disabilities. For candidates who are hearing impaired, require the use of a wheelchair, or are autistic, being able to complete their video interview from the comfort of home can make all the difference. It’s imperative that your video hiring platform support ADA accessibility features such as closed captions, so be sure to check on that before deciding on which platform to use.
- Assess Personality and Culture Fit
With video interviewing, your hiring team can significantly reduce the time to hire and better assess candidates for personality and culture fit prior to them walking through the door for an in-person interview. At the same time, candidates get the opportunity to go beyond the impersonal resume and tell employers, in their own words, why they would be a great fit for the role.
Improving your company’s hiring diversity won’t happen overnight but it needs to start somewhere. Make it a priority to outline your company’s diversity goals and then take that vision to the leadership team to collaborate on an actionable plan. It takes work and commitment and the companies that do it right and do it the best get there because the entire team aligns around a common goal. Best of luck and happy hiring!
About the Author:
JobPixel’s Head of Marketing, Ryan Stevens, is a proven entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience playing an integral role in building companies from the ground up. Ryan has a passion for developing strategies to drive significant growth at fast-moving companies. His expertise in crafting and executing on digital marketing strategies has generated well over $500 million in revenue and led to exits in excess of $200 million.
JobPixel is a video-first hiring platform that is transforming the way companies identify, evaluate and hire the best candidates. We are on a mission to humanize hiring - to take the often impersonal hiring experience and make it personal. We believe companies should hear directly from candidates, in their own words, why they would be the perfect fit. With JobPixel, the future of hiring is video.
