How to Make Your Organisation More Diverse Through Recruitment

It’s one thing to want to make your organisation diverse it’s another thing to do it. Our recruitment process discriminates at every stage against diversity. Whilst we talk about making our organisations more diverse, our main tool for change prevents diversity by selecting for people who are most similar to those already within the organisation. 

What is Diversity?

Diversity encompasses the full range of human variation. It reflects differences in our culture, skills knowledge, capabilities and beliefs. It goes far beyond what we can see and is constant and ever changing as people and communities develop grow and change.

Diversity is a Competitive Edge

Evidence from several studies shows that a lack of diverse thinking in organisations can often negatively affect innovation and performance. Research by McKinsey reveals that companies with more ethnically and culturally diverse boards are 36% more likely to outperform those in the bottom quartile. These findings suggest that diverse perspectives foster better decision-making and innovation, leading to improved business outcomes

A study from Korn Ferry also indicates that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams 87% of the time in decision making. This is because diverse teams are more likely to challenge assumptions and think outside the box, which drives innovation and helps capture new markets​

Recruitment: The Key to Improving Diversity

The best way to increase diversity within a organisation is through recruitment. Yet, at every stage most recruitment processes fundamentally work against this goal. Despite our best intentions, the typical methods used in hiring processes create barriers to the inclusion of diverse candidates.

To create diversity, many organisations turn to positive action: essentially trying to create diversity through quotas and checkboxes. However, this approach reduces diversity to a surface level exercise, where it’s all about filling a roster with people who “check the box” of certain visible characteristics, such as race, age, or gender.

However, diversity goes beyond the obvious skin colour or age. It encompasses the rich spectrum of people’s cultures, ways of thinking, education, knowledge, and capabilities.

Recruitment Biases: We Do What Is Comfortable

Why do our recruitment processes fail to promote true diversity? The answer lies in the comfort zones of those running the process. Recruitment tends to be structured to maximise the psychological comfort of decision-makers, look for candidates who “fit” into pre-determined moulds.

We often try to match square pegs with square holes—hiring people who fit perfectly into predefined roles. It makes perfect logical sense. The problem is it is our logic, and our sense. We can only see the world from our perspective.

Diversity isn’t about neatly fit into boxes; it’s about bringing in people with different, perspectives. Fresh ideas and innovation come about when you have round or triangular pegs in those square holes.

The recruitment process fosters a bias toward sameness at every stage:

• Job Descriptions: We start by crafting job descriptions that reflect our existing knowledge, and what we think that people should do. But this often limits the diversity of candidates who can qualify and narrows what the role could potentially become. The use of language and terminology can often narrow down the applicants to people who ‘sound like us’.
• Interview Questions: We set closed questions based on the knowledge and experiences we already possess, further limiting the range of responses. When we set a question we often have a fixed view of what the answer should be. (The ideal answer always reflects our own world view)
• Hiring for ‘Fit’: We look for people who will ‘fit in’ with our existing teams—candidates who won’t need much training and who already share similar experiences, language, and values.
• Assessment: We often assess candidates on how well they align with our expectations. Whether people use the same key words and phrases that we already know. Rewarding those who use the ‘right’ terminology and examples we can relate to. 
• Interview Panel: The people on an interview panel either work with each other very closely or are very similar to us. A panel that are similar often sends the message to the applicants that they are expected to fit in with those similarities and not ‘be different’.

At every step, these often unconscious biases push us toward hiring individuals who are similar to us—people who look, think, and act as we do.

Embracing Diversity in Recruitment: A New Approach

To truly reap the benefits of diversity, organisations need to take a bold step forward. It’s not enough to recruit people who are visibly different from us; we must bring in individuals with different knowledge, skills, and experiences—and, crucially, people who are willing to share and challenge our existing beliefs.

Recruitment is inherently discriminatory. But it’s the how and what we discriminate for that shapes the diversity of people and ideas in our organisations. Instead of focusing on sameness, we need to embrace the differences that will enable new perspectives, creativity and innovation.

How to Create a Diverse Recruitment Process

Here’s how we can build a recruitment process that fosters diversity:

1. Create Diverse Interview Panels:

 An interview panel should consist of individuals with varying perspectives. Ideally, it should include at least three people, ensuring there is enough room for meaningful debate and discussion.

2. Ask Open-Ended Questions: 

Shift away from closed questions that assess how well a candidate’s opinions align with the interviewer’s expectations. Instead, ask open-ended questions that allow candidates to express their unique perspectives.

3. Evaluate How Candidates Disagree: 

A person’s ability to engage in healthy disagreement can be just as telling as their ability to agree. Look for candidates who can present different viewpoints and explain their reasoning.

4. Encourage Problem-Solving:

 Give candidates real-world problems to solve, rather than expecting rehearsed, “correct” answers. Prioritise initiative and creative thinking over confidently telling you the answer you want to hear.

5. Trial Candidates on the Job: 

Have candidates spend time with your team to see how they interact with different personalities. This real-world trial provides invaluable insight into how they will fit into your organisation—not by conforming, but by contributing something new.

6. Lead by Example: 

If you want to emphasise diversity, your interview panel should showcase it. Make it clear that differences are valued, not just tolerated.

7. Leverage AI to Challenge Biases:

 Artificial intelligence can play a role in levelling the playing field, helping to identify and challenge unconscious biases throughout the recruitment process.

Overcoming the Fairness Fallacy

HR professionals argue that interviews need to be “fair.” But is it truly fair if the process consistently favors candidates who think, talk, and act just like the people already in the organisation? Fairness does not have to be sameness.

This sameness is the enemy of diversity, and it limits an organisation’s ability to grow, adapt, and innovate in an ever changing world.

If we want diverse organisations, we need recruitment processes that open the door to diverse perspectives, not ones that filter them out. It’s time to rethink our approach and embrace the differences that can push our organisations forward opening us up to fresh perspectives and making new things possible.

Recruitment is Just the Start.

Recruitment is just the start of a process of fostering diversity to improve your organisation. The bias that organisations have to make every decision as simple as possible, means that diverse perspectives are not explored.  Organisational decision making often simplifies complex issues. This can inadvertently miss the diverse perspectives of staff and service users. By recognising and addressing this tendency, organisations can create more inclusive and effective decisions. Engaging with diversity not only meets the varied needs of staff and service users, but also enhances innovation and organisational success. Making new things possible. 

Conclusion

Diversity in recruitment is not just about ticking boxes or meeting quotas; it’s about transforming the way we think about and approach recruitment. To unlock the full potential of diversity, we must acknowledge the inherent biases in traditional recruitment and actively work to counteract them. Only by doing so can we build teams that truly reflect the wide range of human experience, thinking, and helping us to adapt and thrive in a ever changing world.