Before you start looking for candidates, you need to have a clear vision of what diversity and inclusion mean for your organization, and why they matter. What are the benefits of having a diverse and inclusive team? What are the gaps or challenges that you want to address? How will you measure your progress and impact? Having a clear and shared definition of your goals will help you communicate them to your candidates, and align your hiring strategy with your organizational values and culture.
Before hiring, define what diversity and inclusion mean for your company, and how remote hiring will help. How will you thoughtfully consider both geographic and demographic diversity? In my opinion, remote hiring is one of the best strategies for enhancing diversity. It lets you reach candidates globally, not just those nearby, which naturally broadens your talent pool. This approach is especially inclusive for parents needing flexible schedules, individuals with disabilities, and those with invisible conditions like mental health issues for whom remote work is the only option.
The problem here is by hiring for diversity you focus on race and gender as occupational qualifications. This of course is illegal. You also are betraying your stockholders, board of directors and such. If you are my boss and ask me to make a diversity hire, Im not hiring to get the best bang for your buck. Im hiring for what looks good in a photo. Look at my pic. My pic is the face of everything diversity is against. White, male, hetero, cis gendered. As someone who is neurodiversity it may come to suprise you that getting a Masters was harder for me than someone of a different race or gender. I had to work harder so where is my special consideration?
Diversity goals start with sourcing goals. Train hiring practitioners to source a diverse pool of candidates for the first round of hiring manager interviews. If hiring managers are only conducting first interviews with non-diverse candidates, your recruiting and sourcing teams need to work smarter to bring in qualified diverse candidates. Talk to esteemed diverse leaders in various job function areas to get referrals and tips on communities where you can connect with amazing and diverse talent. Or reach out to me. I lead a community of 8k women and people of color to land high impact roles in tech (product, engineering, customer success, and more), achieving a 97% retention rate in Y1, and 11% promotion rate in Y1.
Before hiring, define what diversity and inclusion mean for your organization and why they matter. Identify benefits, challenges, and ways to measure progress to align your strategy with your values.
Before hiring, understand why diversity matters to your company. Know the benefits, challenges, and how you'll track progress. This clarity guides your strategy and values.
One of the first steps to ensure diversity and inclusion in your remote hiring process is to review your job descriptions and make sure they are free of bias, stereotypes, or unnecessary requirements. Use inclusive and gender-neutral language, avoid jargon or acronyms, and focus on the skills, competencies, and outcomes that are relevant for the role. You can also use tools like Textio or Gender Decoder to check and improve your job descriptions for diversity and inclusion.
Here are some things I would consider when reviewing my job descriptions: Are the job descriptions clear and concise? Are the requirements for the role clearly stated, and are the responsibilities of the role well-defined? Are the job descriptions free of bias? Are the job descriptions written in a way that is respectful of all genders, races, and cultures? Are the job descriptions up-to-date? Do the job descriptions reflect the current requirements for the role?
Build a job description that attracts outstanding and diverse talent by including a "What we give you" section: - Job Title - About the job 👉 What we give you - What you give us "What we give you" is not about compensation. It's about growth opportunity, resources available to be successful, or excellent leaders your new hire will work alongside. Here's an example: What we give you - A proven and well-defined sales process - Leadership and expertise in prospecting, lead gen, growth strategy and go-to-market - Brand validation from customers like Shift and Co Pilot AI - Opportunity to accelerate your career with a top performing sales and growth team Not sure how to build yours? Ask your current team what makes them successful.
Ensure job descriptions are free of bias by using inclusive, gender-neutral language and focusing on relevant skills. Tools like Textio or Gender Decoder can help improve them.
Start by checking your job descriptions for bias. Use clear, inclusive language, avoid stereotypes, and focus on needed skills. Tools like Textio can help.
You have to reduce unconscious bias. You could go as far as to implement blind screening techniques to remove identifying information from resumes and applications. This helps reduce unconscious bias by focusing on the candidates' skills, experience, and qualifications.
Another way to ensure diversity and inclusion in your remote hiring process is to diversify your sourcing channels and reach out to candidates from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. You can use platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, or Glassdoor, but also consider niche job boards, social media groups, online communities, or referrals from your existing employees or network. You can also partner with organizations that promote diversity and inclusion, such as Women Who Code, Black Tech Pipeline, or Out in Tech.
Diversify your sourcing channels by using various platforms and niche job boards. Reach out to different backgrounds, and partner with diversity-focused organizations for a broader candidate pool.
Great tip is to partner with diversity organizations. There are many diversity organizations that can help you connect with qualified candidates from underrepresented groups. By partnering with these organizations, you can reach a wider range of candidates and build relationships with people who are passionate about diversity and inclusion.
Relying on traditional sourcing channels may limit your access to diverse talent pools. Expand your reach by engaging with diverse communities and networks. Partner with organizations like Women Who Code or Black Tech Pipeline to tap into underrepresented talent pools. Attend virtual career fairs that focus on diversity.
To ensure fairness and consistency in your remote hiring process, you need to standardize your assessment process and use objective and relevant criteria to evaluate your candidates. You can use tools like Skillmeter, Codility, or HireVue to create online tests, assignments, or video interviews that measure the skills, competencies, and fit of your candidates. You can also use structured interview questions, rubrics, or scorecards to reduce bias and increase transparency in your decision making.
Assessments are a major way to remove bias. I always recommend to outline the criteria and have a rubric along with scorecards. Determine the weight of the score in certain areas of the criteria as well for each position. Having a rating scale will allow you to attach a # to how well you think this person will perform rather than someone’s opinion. Different assessments are needed based on the role so consult with your hiring team to determine which one is best. Finally, keep it consistent by having the same people perform the assessment evaluation or even use technology. This will make certain the results are also consistent.
Depending on the role one thing we’ve found very effective is a written assessment at first round, instead of a CV screen. This way you can design questions that map to the capabilities in the job add and avoid unconscious bias towards specific school and backgrounds. It also allows for caregivers to manage the answers at their own convenience (as well as the recruiter). One watchout - it can be a big ask to complete a set of questions before any sense of fit. We’ve moved to doing 1 screening question before sharing a bigger set. In the email we send in between we try to stress the candidate has made it through a selection step.
To minimize bias in hiring, standardize your assessment process. This means creating a uniform set of criteria and using the same evaluation tools for all candidates. Develop a scorecard for evaluating candidates based on specific skills and competencies relevant to the role. For instance, use technical assessments or work samples to objectively measure candidates' abilities. Implementing a structured interview process, as used by Google, can also help reduce unconscious bias and ensure fair evaluations.
Another tip to ensure diversity and inclusion in your remote hiring process is to involve diverse stakeholders in your hiring team, such as managers, peers, or mentors. Having different perspectives and opinions can help you avoid groupthink, challenge assumptions, and identify potential biases or blind spots. You can also use tools like Slack, Zoom, or Loom to facilitate communication and collaboration among your hiring team, and to provide feedback and support to your candidates.
Involving stakeholders who align with your company mission and support DEI in your organization are extremely important. Remember though that no matter who it is, there are still hiring guidelines and trainings that need to take place before they are apart of the process. I have worked with several organizations where some people on the hiring panel had no idea why they were there or even how they were making a contribution. Make certain everyone knows their purpose and how they are adding value to the hiring process and you’ll be successful.
Include diverse people in your hiring team to avoid bias and groupthink. Use tools like Slack and Zoom to collaborate, share feedback, and support candidates.
Create a hiring panel with members from various departments and demographics. For example, if you're hiring for a marketing role, include team members from sales, design, and customer support in the interview process to get a holistic view of the candidate’s fit for the team. Include a range of voices in your hiring process to ensure diverse perspectives are considered. This can be achieved by involving team members from different backgrounds in interviews and decision-making.
Finally, to ensure diversity and inclusion in your remote hiring process, you need to foster a culture of belonging and make your candidates feel welcome, valued, and respected. You can do this by showcasing your organizational values, mission, and vision, sharing stories of your diverse and inclusive team, and highlighting the benefits and opportunities of working remotely. You can also ask your candidates about their expectations, preferences, and needs, and accommodate them as much as possible.
I interviewed for an accelerator that sent interview questions ahead of time, typed them in the chat, offered the chance to turn the camera off when needed, and invited me to think through answers before responding. Most inclusive interview process I’ve ever seen!
There are so many types of diversity! Age Racial Cultural Disability Sex / Gender Increasing the diversity of your applicant pool has multiple benefits. Here are a few: 76% of employees and job seekers said diversity was important when considering job offers (LinkedIn Learning). According to McKinsey, The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.
We’ve gone as far as encouraging candidates after introductions to close their cameras. This is a useful tool for someone who isn’t comfortable with a webcam. We also encourage putting the questions by writing in the chat and helping candidates set up their tech prior if needed. All these additional steps add on to what was said above.