Despite the recent turbulence within the tech industry and beyond, DEIB remains a central focus for organisations that are committed to making the best hires.
Although the last 18 months have seen high numbers of layoffs, the tech industry continues to grow, with increasing demand on key roles, according to Motion Recruitments IT Salary Guide. One way for recruiters to circumnavigate the talent shortage is to widen their horizons and look beyond the standard talent pools.
Looking outside of the traditional talent pipeline will not only help recruiters to find the best people for the job, but it will contribute significantly to the company’s DEIB strategy, helping organisations to create a culture of inclusion and belonging as they develop a workforce that accurately represents the diversity of their broader audience and community. Here’s how organisations are boosting their DEIB strategies in 2024.
AI had a rocky start in the world of recruitment, thanks to the scrapped initiative by Amazon which, far from rooting out inequities and unconscious bias, managed to bake in those biases.
Amazon’s computer program was designed to mechanise the shortlisting process, ranking candidates from 1-5 stars based on resumes that had been submitted to the organisation over the previous decade.
What the team had failed to consider is that those resumes were predominantly from men. This meant that the program automatically incorporated male dominance, embedding a significant bias towards male candidates by downrating resumes that included information unique to women, such as attendance or membership of women’s colleges, sports or clubs.
However, the last ten years has seen huge leaps in AI, as well as significant learning from trailblazers such as Amazon. We now know that one of the biggest weaknesses of AI is the weakness of the people providing programs with the initial data, and QA roles have been created to constantly interrogate the data being put into machine learning, as well as the information being returned by programs.
As a result, AI is becoming increasingly influential in the way in which we incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) into our recruitment processes. Its role extends beyond shortlisting candidates and is used by organisations to wipe out bias in language across all media, including website content, job descriptions and regular communications.
COVID 19 saw the ball swing significantly towards home and flexible working, but since then, companies including Apple and Deutsche Bank have started to tighten up on homeworking policies. While office time is undoubtedly valuable, flexible working can yield results in terms of team productivity and wellbeing. In fact, according to McKinsey, flexible working is no longer a privilege for many; it is a prerequisite that some employees are willing to take a salary cut for. Flexible working is important to DEIB as it can support people with additional challenges to succeed in the workplace by accommodating the demands that are placed on them outside of work, as well as cultural needs.
Flexible working doesn’t have to mean losing all sense of cohesion; small moves can offer employees flexibility without impacting operations. Telecommuting days – specific days of the week when everyone can work from home- are a good place to start, as is offering shortened days (e.g. Friday) where it is possible to do so without impacting services. Other options include compressed work schedules and shorter working weeks. Some organisations are trialling flexible working or reduced hours instead of pay rises; an innovative way to save money while testing the impact of flexible working schedules. At the very least, a flexible offering can help organisations to accommodate needs on a DEIB basis, without losing work structure.
At a time where self-reflection is a focal point for many, staff wellbeing is a buzzword. However, staff wellbeing extends far beyond simply checking in on your staff. Happy employees are productive employees. They are more likely to advocate for your organisation and work hard and much less likely to look for a different job outside of the organisation. Staff wellbeing should be a high priority in any climate, but when it means engaged, productive teams and increased staff retention, choosing not to invest in staff wellbeing really shouldn’t be a consideration.
From duvet days to team days, organisation-recommended counselling sessions to regular check-ins, investing in staff wellbeing and mental health will help you to ensure that your teams are happy and productive, and achieve the work-life balance that enables them to achieve their best, in and outside of the workplace.
Strong leaders lead from the front, and bring their teams with them. A good leader doesn’t tell their team what they need every time: they will take the time to listen and understand the needs of their team and help them to get where they want to go. To prioritise DEIB, the attitudes must come from the leaders first. Ongoing training can help to support organisation leaders to ensure that they are sensitive and cognisant of their diverse workforce members’ needs.
In terms of determining needs, staff surveys can be incredibly impactful; they help senior managers to understand their teams’ strengths and challenges within the workplace and allow Human Resources departments to collate the range of employee benefits that different members of staff would like to see. A simple survey can help you to gauge what your employees would find most valuable in terms of inclusion, flexible working and wellbeing. Post-survey analysis will allow you to ascertain the cost and logistical implications of each before further consultation with the entire organisation to determine preferences.
For example, you may not approve a 4-day working week for everyone. But if your team feel that they have been listened to, and their proposals considered carefully, with your reasoning explained, they are much more likely to be satisfied with the original 5-day week, or even a compromise somewhere in the middle. If you bring your team with you, you are likely to meet far less resistance along the way.
2024 is the year of embedding DEIB practices within an organisation. There are no DEIB trends; there are DEIB demands; steps that leaders must take to ensure the equity of their workplace and the inclusion of talent from all walks of life.
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