How do you attract and keep a diverse workforce?

1 Assess your current situation

Before you can implement any strategies to improve your diversity and inclusion efforts, you need to understand where you stand and what gaps you need to address. Conduct a thorough audit of your current policies, practices, and outcomes related to diversity and inclusion. For example, you can analyze your hiring, promotion, retention, and turnover rates by different demographic groups, as well as your employee engagement and satisfaction surveys. You can also collect feedback from your employees, customers, and stakeholders on how they perceive your organizational culture and values. Use this data to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and set clear and measurable goals for improvement.

2 Review your hiring practices

One of the most important steps to attract a diverse workforce is to review your hiring practices and ensure that they are fair, transparent, and consistent. This means that you need to eliminate any potential barriers or biases that might prevent qualified candidates from different backgrounds, identities, and perspectives from applying or getting hired. For example, you can diversify your recruitment sources and channels, use inclusive and neutral language in your job descriptions and advertisements, standardize your screening and interviewing processes and criteria, and involve diverse hiring panels and decision-makers. You can also showcase your commitment to diversity and inclusion on your website, social media, and employer branding materials, and highlight the benefits and opportunities that you offer to your employees.

3 Provide training and development

Another key factor to retain a diverse workforce is to provide training and development opportunities that help your employees grow, learn, and succeed. This includes offering diversity and inclusion training that educates your employees on the value of diversity, the impact of bias and discrimination, and the skills and behaviors that foster a respectful and inclusive work environment. You can also provide cultural competency training that helps your employees understand and appreciate different cultural norms, values, and communication styles, and how to interact effectively with people from different backgrounds and contexts. Additionally, you can offer career development and mentoring programs that support the advancement and retention of your diverse talent, and encourage them to share their knowledge and insights with others.

4 Foster a sense of belonging

One of the main challenges of having a diverse workforce is to ensure that everyone feels valued, respected, and included. This means that you need to foster a sense of belonging among your employees, where they can express their authentic selves, contribute their unique perspectives, and participate in decision-making. You can do this by creating a culture of trust, openness, and feedback, where you acknowledge and celebrate your employees' achievements, strengths, and differences, and address any issues or concerns promptly and constructively. You can also create opportunities for your employees to connect, collaborate, and socialize with each other, such as through affinity groups, team-building activities, and social events. Furthermore, you can involve your employees in your diversity and inclusion initiatives, and solicit their input and feedback on how to improve your policies and practices.

5 Monitor and evaluate your progress

Finally, to ensure that your diversity and inclusion efforts are effective and sustainable, you need to monitor and evaluate your progress regularly. This means that you need to collect and analyze data on your diversity and inclusion metrics, such as your hiring, promotion, retention, and turnover rates, your employee engagement and satisfaction levels, and your customer and stakeholder feedback. You can also conduct surveys, interviews, focus groups, and audits to assess your organizational culture and climate, and identify any areas of improvement or best practices. Based on your findings, you can adjust your goals, strategies, and actions accordingly, and communicate your results and achievements to your employees, customers, and stakeholders.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?