How to create an inclusive recruitment experience for candidates

Is your startup on the journey to expansion? If so, you may be starting your hunt for more employees to grow your business. However, how you go about recruiting employees is an important aspect to consider. You need to ensure that you create an inclusive experience if you want to attract the best candidates but also make a great first impression and build up a fantastic reputation. Here is how you can do that.

In order to make the recruitment experience an inclusive one, diverse candidates must be able to view and access the jobs. So, if you typically place job ads on the same sites and sources, you could be limiting your talent pool by attracting people with very specific characteristics. Instead, consider placing them in places where diverse candidates are located to widen the applicant base. For instance, try placing them on large recruitment sites and social networks such as LinkedIn, which attracts millions of people. You could even place them on pages of societies and networking groups that work with and for specifically underrepresented groups.

The job description is one of the first and initial interactions a potential employee will have with your company, so make it count. If the job advertisement is perceived to been too rigid and catered to a specific type of person (e.g., demographic or skillset), the candidate(s) you are looking for may be put off from applying. Tips on how to write an inclusive job description include:

Once you have sourced diverse applicants and attracted themto apply with the job description, the next step is to make sure the application process is smooth, friendly, and easy for them. So, in the application form, similar to the job description, avoid using gender–coded and exclusive words. Ensure that the application is designed in a way that does not cause confusion. Again, highlight the organizations‘ commitment to equality.

When deciding who to shortlist, try to avoid any biases. One of the best ways to do this is by viewing resumes without personal information such as name, gender, age, race, etc. This ensures that a person is not considered simply because of demographic or social factors that they cannot control. Also, have a minimum of two people in charge of shortlisting so that they can challenge any assumptions, bias, or prejudice (unconscious or not) made by the other.