In recent years, an increasing number of organisations have promised to hire a more diverse workforce and have begun to publish their diversity statistics on a yearly basis. At best, the results have been a mixed bag.
With so many companies stating that diversity hiring is one of their top priorities and making good-faith efforts to improve their recruiting methods, our team wanted to learn more about why the outcomes have been so disappointing. What we discovered surprised us: in the early stages of the interview process, unconscious prejudice has the greatest impact on historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
For example, whereas white candidates have a greater passthrough percentage at the very top of the funnel, black and Hispanic/Latinx candidates have a higher passthrough rate across the rest of the funnel: After on-sites, 62 percent of black talent and 57 percent of Hispanic/Latinx talent receive offers, compared to only 54 percent of white talent.
This shows that, at least in part due to subconscious bias, diversity is most commonly an issue in the early phases of the interview process. Despite experiencing greater offer rates at later stages of the interview process, candidates from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups have to work harder to prove themselves than their white counterparts.
Reconsider the requirements for your vacant positions.
According to research, many of the things people include on their LinkedIn profile or résumé have little, if any, association with their future work success.
For example, mandating or being predisposed to four-year degrees from specific universities might lead to privilege. Because non-white people are underrepresented at the executive level, screening for leadership experience might be racially discriminatory.
To avoid this, start by asking yourself, “How can we ensure that our selection is purely based on criteria that are relevant to the function?” Every time you create a new role,
Then, rather than emphasising the candidate’s experience, education, or — if applicable — experience, education, or — if applicable — experience, specify which abilities and qualifications are absolutely necessary for success in the post.
