Inclusive Recruiting: Tips for all Parties in the Hiring Process

There is no question that 2020 has been a unique and arduous year for recruitment. The focus on ensuring that your organization’s hiring process is inclusive is a widely discussed topic. At Chaloner, this is not a new subject for us. Ensuring inclusivity in every step of the recruiting process is something that has been ingrained in the Chaloner fabric for a long time. However, we are still constantly evolving our practices as we learn from our community, and this is true for our candidates and clients as well.

According to the 2020 Recruiter Nation Survey by Jobvite, “Inquiring about an organization’s D&I initiatives has become more common – one-third of recruiters reported that job seekers are doing so more than they did in the previous year.” Hiring managers and HR professionals alike will hear more questions from candidates who want to know how their organization has been intentional about diversity in recruiting. Similarly, candidates should be prepared to discuss how they have led or contributed to an inclusive recruitment process. While creating and maintaining a diverse workforce goes far deeper than recruitment, it is the interview and selection process that lays a foundation for the future.

If you are in a hiring position, where do you start?

• • Use your staff to identify what questions are important to ask candidates. Gather ideas and resources from a well-represented sample of your employees. Take it a step further by asking your employees what questions they wished they had been asked when they interviewed.
  • Likewise, your existing employees can be a great crowd to source from to figure out what your organization is getting right, and what you could be doing better as far as diversity hiring goes. Conduct a survey and use the results to inform how you craft and plan your interview questions for the future.
  • Use outside resources. DEI consultants, professional organizations and recruitment tools exist for to help you with this very thing. In our world of communications recruiting, DEI is a widely discussed topic. The Communications Network provides a host of forums, content and virtual events that tackle inclusive hiring and equity in the recruiting process.

And if you are a candidate?

• Be deliberate in your preparation. If you have personally experienced the inadequacies that exist in hiring, be ready to talk about it. If you have witnessed it, talk about that too. Be ready to discuss what you did to combat or fix it.
• Don’t be afraid. Say what is important to you about working at an inclusive organization and ask the tough questions. Hopefully your interviewer is asking the tough questions too.
• If you don’t have examples personal examples and this is a new subject for you, don’t punt. Be open and honest, but show your flexibility. Prove how you can be part of the change.
• Educate yourself. There are tons of great resources and articles about DEI. The Muse recently published a great article exploring important questions to think about when it comes to advancing racial justice in the hiring process.

For everyone involved, the key point is to not lose sight of what is important. Ensuring that we all make every effort to source, interview, select and hire with inclusion as a top line priority will lay a great foundation for the future.

Amy Segelin

Amy Segelin, Partner – Chaloner
Amy co-leads the mission driven practice, oversees the operations of Chaloner, builds business and works on national searches in all industries. She has a strong focus on philanthropy, non-profit and mission driven organizations.