If your diversity recruiting approach is drawing in a diverse pool of candidates but you’re having trouble eliminating bias in your screening process, you might take a closer look at some of these strategies.
Use blind resumes:
Recruiters are increasingly utilizing the tactic of “blacking out” any personal information on resumes to eliminate bias in their evaluation of candidates. Names, schools, dates of birth, places of residence, and other information may unintentionally result in a partial assessment of the candidate.
Use blind interviews
Blind interviews, which take place during the first few communications with the applicant, are conducted using the same justification as blacking out resumes to lessen bias. You can conduct these by texting candidates or by utilizing your preferred hiring tool to send them text-based questions. It is encouraged for applicants to reply to these questions anonymously without providing any personal information. While selecting a candidate for further interview, the intention is to remove bias. Because it is much more challenging to completely eradicate any personality and bias when speaking with candidates on the phone or in person, blind interviews are most effective early in the process.
Use AI to review resumes
Ethan Bull, Owner of ProAssisting says, “Using artificial intelligence in your applicant tracking system is one method to ensure that prejudice is completely eradicated from the resume screening process. Use AI technologies to look for specific abilities and expertise that you have pre-programmed into your platform when looking through the resumes of your candidates. As a result, you will obtain a shortlist that is fully impartial and without bias.
Reconsider the criteria you use to screen for
This strategy is related to your job ad audit, in which you reevaluate the attributes you seek in candidates and your communication style. One of the most important aspects of hiring for diversity is constantly evaluating the traits you appreciate in candidates, the reasons you value them, and whether or not your choices are prejudiced. According to James Nathan, Founder of SEO Agency UK “Review your testing and screening procedures and ask yourself if any particular demographics were singled out in the results. You should review your testing procedures in this case. Ask numerous of your pals for their ideas if you’re unsure to get a variety of viewpoints.”
Increasing diversity in shortlisting and hiring
According to Alain Machado, Digital Marketing Consultant at Marketing Optimised, “The most challenging aspect of a varied hiring approach is selecting candidates from the shortlist. You’ll very certainly have preconceived notions about each applicant and these will come into play.”
Here are some alternatives to think about to put a stop to this:
Use an ATS to automate your shortlisting
Your application tracking system (ATS) can help you narrow down your list of applicants to the most qualified individuals. Dayna Carlin, Director at NovoPath, claims the following: “Use the screening tools your ATS provides to identify applicants with the most potential and the most impressive skill set. By using this strategy, you may set aside whatever opinions you might have about certain people and concentrate only on the details important to the job description. By eliminating individuals based on predetermined criteria, you can increase variety. If your talent pool was varied at the start of the selection process, your shortlist must have a diverse group of candidates. If not, the best diversity hiring strategy could be used.”
Seed talent pipelines with diverse candidates
When they are the only members of their group represented on the shortlist of finalists, diverse applicants have a substantially lower chance of being selected. According to Marie Ysais, Founder of Ysais Digital Marketing, “Use the “two in the pooled effect” diversity recruitment method to prevent choice bias. If there are several individuals from the same minority population, the likelihood of one of them being hired increases significantly. Hence, creating a shortlist that purposefully includes a fair number of diverse candidates will level the hiring playing field. Of course, you’ll want to keep your shortlist to those who are qualified. After all, diversity hiring aims to select the most qualified applicant, regardless of race.”
Retain Diverse Candidates By Creating A Comfortable Environment For Them To Thrive
One of the most important things you can do for your company is to make an inviting environment for newly hired staff. The importance of retention cannot be overstated, yet creating a comfortable workplace as the final step is frequently overlooked. Diverse candidates frequently constitute a very small minority for any position. It can be difficult for your new hires to speak out for themselves or communicate their ideas. You must reassure them and offer them a seat at the table.
If you want to be seen as a company that values diversity, you need to do more than put people in seats. Support diversity and foster an atmosphere that will enable new hires to be successful in their roles. One of the first steps in hiring top candidates is having effective applicant communication.
