Diversity & Recruitment by Salt

Diversity & Recruitment > Integrating Diversity in Your Recruitment Strategy - a Guide

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Diversity & Recruitment

Inclusion

Sonia Bate, founder of EDIT Development and one of Salt’s Diversity Partners, suggests a few ways to ensure diversity and inclusion during the recruitment process. Sonia has been working in leadership development for over 10 years, helping clients grow and build upon their talent pipeline. She is a sought-after speaker on gender diversity in both the private and public sector. See more on www.editdevelopment.com

Are you visibly taking actions to create a sense of inclusion and community both internally and externally? Do you genuinely value approaches from all members of staff and use them to maximise a feeling of belonging?

Accessibilty

Language

Is your website accessible to diverse capabilities? Is your content and recruitment process accessible?

Is your language inclusive? Is the language you use in talent sourcing attracting the talent you want?

Your recruitment processes and pipeline must be inclusive to attract diverse candidates/employees.

Branded language and content should strive to be consistently inclusive.

With 8.6 million people in the UK who are registered as disabled, (making that 14% of the UK population) (Source: DRC), it is imperative that organisations not only ensure greater physical accessibility but accessibility of information. By allowing equal accessibility and consideration to all roles and opportunities on the job market, this move is a prime example of the small steps which can be taken by corporate towards big progress with regards to inclusion and sourcing and retaining top diverse talent.

> Suggestions:

> Suggestions: > Recognise the direct correlation and impact that diverse employees and their inclusion can have in enhancing performance across the board. > Hold learning and development training/resource sessions to build capability and confidence to manage and lead diverse teams. Edit Development has extensive experience in helping organisations to support diverse teams. > Reassess and define where diversity and inclusion sit in the organisational priorities of the organisation. Recruitment strategies will organically follow suit if the internal commitments to diversity and inclusion are evident. > Ensure key performance measurements have an inclusive behaviour layer to drive high performance.

> Suggestions: > Run work streams that generate engagement into creating an accessible business – sometimes soliciting focus groups to understand the ‘real’ story of your business can both provide insight and role models for diversity and inclusion. > Carry out audits to measure accessibility of your business for the internal user and the external user. Edit Development have scalable audits to measure how accessible and how inclusive your business really is. > Invest in technology which will allow your channels to be accessible such as “Speak This Page” Technology: Diversityjobs.co.uk and The Big I.D.E.A. (who patent a standard accessible technology and offer access as part of their membership) allow heightened accessibility to your website with functions including translation, ability to change text size, “Speak this Page” function and the ability to change background colours making it easier for those with acute visual impairment, dyslexia etc to access content.

> Coordinate with your branding and marketing teams to ascertain whether the website content is inclusive and set protocols to ensure future content distributed online and via Social Media is inclusive and not exclusive. > Language and Talent – Consider the values and competencies you value as an organisation. What is the tone of the language used in job specifications and recruitment adverts? Do they appeal and engage to a diverse of thinking and influencing style? There is extensive research to suggest that different styles (masculine and feminine operating styles) are either attracted to, or disengaged with specific language construction on websites and for advertised vacancies. > How do people in the organisation talk about the business externally? This is all about brand reinforcement. Do people advertise your business as an inclusive place to work by their stories in the external world, to clients and to suppliers?

Diversity & Recruitment

The Business Case for Diversity > Europe can expect a shortfall of 24 million people active in the workplace by 2040. If the rate of women active in the workplace reached that of men, then this shortfall would only be 3 million (McKinsey & Co). > Women are the driving force behind more than 70% of household purchases (Catalyst 2009). > Women and BAME are more likely to be hired in organisations who take proactive action including unconscious bias training (Opportunity Now report 2013) > As of 2011, 62% university graduates were female and 40% of total EU workforce is female. > Ethnic Minority Spending Power will top £300 billion this year in the UK (BITC 2013) > 60% of younger workers (Generation Y), say it is not likely that they will stay with their current employers for the remainder of their working life (Rosetta Thurman). > Grey pound is set to hit the £100 billion mark, the spending power of people over the age of 65 (Age UK 2013)

Communication

Are your channels of communication accessible, inclusive and open for employees/prospective employees to engage with you about any issues or thoughts?

Partnership & Membership

In the true spirit of inclusivity, the power of partnership is very important when attracting diverse candidates.

Giving Back

…and remember, the sense of community must be in theory and practice! The culture you create at work will permeate into the candidate marketplace.

Suggestions: Do you vary the channels in which you reach out to your potential market? What mediums do you use to connect with different demographics? Suggestions: > Role model your strengths as an organisation, your people and your aspirations of creating an inclusive business. By demonstrating this ethos through your organisation’s brand and in practice, you will naturally create a more welcoming environment. > Inclusive language is essential to your communication strategy as well as the channels you communicate through. If you are trying to attract top female talent in tech, use targeted job boards and Social Media channels such as Diversity Jobs, Women in Technology and communicate with organisations such as Business Disability Forum, Employ Ability etc. > Social Media – tweet/like/affiliate yourself with the right groups; this creates your brand’s individual ‘personality’ > Consistency around formal and informal communication is key, do you understand as a business what it really feels like ‘on the ground’? Do you measure engagement and how good you are as business around communication? This starts with the role of individual employees, line managers and the corporate communication structure that supports all.

> Start ‘casting the net wider’ by joining job boards and organisations, which can act as a consultancy on diversity and provide you with access to a diverse candidate pool. Consider your recruitment and development partners > Explore whether your company would benefit by being a member of bodies focused on supporting different diversity demographics. Are you a member of Opportunity Now, Race for Opportunity, Stonewall or The Business Disability Forum, to name just a few? > Taking part in the Workplace Equality Index with Stonewall for example is an effective way to measure your efforts to tackle discrimination and create an inclusive workplace for your lesbian, gay and bisexual employees. Since 2005, more than 800 major employers have taken part in the Index using Stonewall’s criteria as a model for good practice. Stonewall revises the Index criteria every three years. 2015 is the first year of the new Index cycle. g > The UKs most comprehensive gender and race benchmark is a yearly assessment process that is free to members of the diversity campaigns through BITC. The benchmark helps organisations identify strengths and weaknesses by comparing participants to sector peers and by assessment against our diversity and inclusion framework. The follow-up support and advice helps organisations take practical steps to improving their performance. the Workplace Equality Index with Stonewall for example is an effective way to measure your efforts to tackle discrimination and create an inclusive workplace for your lesbian, gay and bisexual employees. Since 2005, more than 800 major employers have taken part in the Index using Stonewall’s criteria as a model for good practice. Stonewall revises the Index criteria every three years. 2015 is the first year of the new Index cycle.

Group activities build solidarity, bringing the diversity of your team to focus on the same solution, creates an internal and external culture which attracts candidates from backgrounds which empathise with an inclusive and creative working style. Working in the responsibly in the communities in which you operate, creating a spirit of citizenship behaviour as business as usual will drive engagement and high performance.

Are you ready for digital transformation?

Salt is the largest digital recruiter in Europe - in terms of head count, revenue, profit and number of placements. We build the teams that enable companies to achieve their digital transformation. In 2013 we helped over 200 clients hire top digital talent. Early 2014 we opened up our APAC operation, Sodium. We are the only digital recruiter that: > Recruits across brands and agencies > Can help with all roles including tech, marketing and creative > Can provide talent in multiple countries > Can help with strategic hires > Can facilitate with volume recruitment > Can help with recruitment strategies that ensure diversity and inclusion Salt is a recruitment specialist dedicated solely to digital. We excel in helping our clients find the talent they need to drive their digital transformation. Finding the right team is one of the key challenges for any business. Salt understands that at every level of an organisation it is the quality of the people that drives success, and we are dedicated to ensuring that our clients hire only the best. We work with our clients to provide a complete digital recruitment service, transforming the way they recruit and ultimately transforming their businesses. We specialise in placing professionals into permanent and contract roles in the following digital areas: > Advertising, Creative & Marketing > Development, Data & Infrastructure > Commerce, Software & Consulting

Want to know how we can help your company? Looking around for your next challenge? Get in touch to hear how we can help:

Digital Recruitment Specialists - EMEA www.welovesalt.com

Digital Recruitment Specialists - APAC www.welovesodium.com

Elliot Dell - Director elliot.dell@welovesalt.com +44 207 928 2525

Tiarne Hawkins - APAC Director tiarne.hawkins@welovesodium.com +61 292201711