Is the language in job posts gender-coded? Are terms being used that imply or assign particular traits or behaviors exclusively or predominantly to males or females?

How many qualifications are required? While men apply for a job when they meet 60% of the requirements, women tend to only apply when they meet 100%. Consider using alternative language such as “familiarity with” or “comfortable with” to encourage more applicants from both genders.

From which sources are you recruiting candidates? Are you posting broad and wide and including community centers and cultural organizations, colleges/universities and student groups and US and local agencies?

Are you sending the right message by adding a diversity and inclusion statement to job postings? This indicates to candidates your organization is actively seeking a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive company culture. IBM is a great example of how to do this.

Why is inclusion important? Without inclusion, you cannot harness the power of your diverse workforce. Inclusion creates connections and establishes the level of comfort required for employees to openly share ideas and feedback that fuel innovation.

How can you foster inclusion in your workplace?

• Restructure Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Focus on goals and projects (as opposed to demographics) to remove silos and encourage cross-organizational collaboration
• Take an Implicit Association Test: Discover how some of your own biases may impact your working relationships
• Host a potluck: Encourage all employees to share dishes across cultures (tamales/Mexico) and generations (Dunkaroos/millennials)
• Point out interruptions: Women are more often interrupted than men. Pointing out interruptions will draw attention to this and help reduce these occurrences, which will increase inclusivity
• Rotate who runs meetings: Different meeting styles keeps things fresh and offers autonomy to all members of the team

And we can’t ignore what adopting a more diverse and inclusive culture does for your bottom line. According to Deloitte Review, companies with inclusive cultures are

• 2x as likely to meet or exceed financial targets
• 3x as likely to be high-performing
• 6x as likely to be innovative and agile
• 8x as likely to achieve better business outcomes
  
  

Inclusive cultures engage employees. Engaged employees are less likely to leave their companies. Attrition levels decrease reducing costs for organizations. Leveraging your diverse talent by fostering inclusion promotes innovation, growth and profitability. According to the Boston Consulting Group, “companies that reported above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity.”

At Alaant, we 100% agree with Tangible Development’s belief that diverse hiring is more than an equal employment opportunity (EEO) statement, it's a business imperative. We partner with Tangible Development to ensure we are helping our clients fully embrace the importance and benefits of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace to remain viable in today’s global market, it is critical for organizations to harness the power of Inclusive Diversity. So, let’s get to work, contact us.