People | Jan 27

How to build an inclusive recruitment process

People | Jan 27

Practical steps to attract diverse talent and reduce bias at every stage of hiring

Dan Martin Small business journalist, event host

Reading Time 6 minutes

Research from the British Business Bank shows that a diverse and inclusive workforce has many business benefits, including providing access to a wider talent pool, boosting brand reputation, improving employee productivity, and increasing staff retention.

Other pieces of research have consistently shown that diversity is a commercial advantage, not a ‘nice to have’. A landmark McKinsey & Company study found that organisations with more diverse leadership teams are significantly more likely to outperform their peers on profitability, while UK SME evidence shows diverse leadership teams are around a third more likely to achieve higher financial performance because they avoid decision-making echo chambers and are better equipped to innovate, understand customers, and scale into new markets.

Traditional recruitment methods often favour a narrow set of candidates with specific educational backgrounds, social connections, and career paths.

To make your recruitment process more inclusive and attract a diverse range of applicants, there are several changes you can make at each stage.

Audit your recruitment process

If you already have a process for recruitment and you’re concerned it isn’t inclusive, audit it to identify any hidden biases and work out how the process can be improved.

Rachel Morgan-Trimmer, neurodiversity expert and founder of FireBird, says: ‘To identify hidden sources of bias, look at demographic data of those who apply for jobs, those who reach the interview stage, and those who receive an offer. If a group is under-represented at each of those stages, you will know where the barriers lie. For example, if there are fewer than one in five candidates who are neurodivergent beginning and getting through the process, it’s not inclusive.’ Offering applicants the opportunity to disclose protective characteristics at the beginning of the process is essential.

Help to Grow: Management Course mentor, business strategist, and coach Alex Coward says: ‘Employers should look at the success metrics for their employees before they look at their recruitment metrics. If there is a hidden bias in who can succeed at a company, it will automatically pull into the recruitment process.’

Write inclusive job descriptions

Create job descriptions and adverts that attract a wide range of applicants and don’t discourage certain people from applying.

Think about the language you use. Gendered, overly corporate, or exclusionary language can put off candidates from underrepresented groups.

Avoid gender-coded words such as ‘rockstar’, ‘guru’, ‘nurturing’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘dominating’. Alex recommends using online tools (such as Chat GPT or Gender Decoder) to check that job descriptions are written in gender neutral terms. ‘These process not just the obvious terms but the sentence structure and adjectives used to make sure they are not creating bias towards masculine or feminine traits’, she said.

Use plain language rather than jargon or complicated acronyms, and write in short and clear sentences to improve readability and accessibility for screen readers.

Consider whether a particular level of education is definitely needed for the job, and clearly distinguish between must-have requirements and nice-to-have skills.

Make the process of applying as accessible as possible, such as not expecting a CV and cover letter plus all the same details entered into a form, or allowing candidates to apply with a video.

Make your talent sourcing more diverse

To widen the reach of your job advertisements, broaden where your roles are advertised.

Partner with organisations and jobs boards that focus on unrepresented groups such as women in technology, ethnic minority individuals, LGBTQ+ candidates and older people returning to work.

You can also work with local cultural organisations, refugee and migrant charities, disability employment services, and groups supporting ex-military personnel.

If you work with education providers such as schools and colleges, think about how you can make that more diverse. You could partner with organisations such as adult education services, apprenticeship, and vocational training firms.

The interview process

There are several steps you can take to make the interview process inclusive.

Alex advised that ‘at all times in the process it should be clearly indicated that accommodations can be provided when asked for’, although Rachel said ‘recognising that everyone has differing needs and meeting those through a systemic and flexible process is more effective and more cost effective’.

An example, she added, is ‘giving all candidates interview questions in advance, telling them who is on the interview panel, and informing them of the dress code’

Be transparent about your interview process, such as outlining how long it will take, how many rounds of interviews are involved and any tasks the candidate will be required to complete. A long, multi-stage process disproportionately affects disabled candidates, parents, carers, or people with additional needs.

‘Breaks during longer assessments benefit everyone, but especially those with chronic conditions and fatigue related disabilities,’ says Alex, ‘and reimbursement for interview travel costs is another way to showcase a great brand, stand out from the crowd, and offer accessibility.’

Interview panels should be created with inclusion in mind too. As well as having diversity across gender and ethnicity, the panel should also be diverse in seniority and thinking styles ‘to avoid echo chambers’.

In addition, Alex says: ‘Create a structured scoring system so that there is standardisation in judgement. Make sure everyone is trained in how to interview and what to look for. This is super important as body language is a huge part of communication but can be misconstrued easily.’

Once interviews are complete, make sure the final hiring decision is made in a fair way. ‘Collect feedback from interviewers independently, not in a group format to avoid confirmation bias and agreement with seniors’, Alex said. ‘Document reasoning for each candidate. The best companies are ones who will share the reasoning with applicants, giving detailed feedback whether they were successful or not.’

For businesses, the benefits of inclusive recruitment are clear.

Rachel says: ‘If the recruitment process has been overhauled effectively, businesses won’t have to worry too much about the final decision, because the individuals will have examined and addressed their own biases. But it takes courage and self-reflection to do this and not everyone is willing or capable. However, the benefits are huge. We know that inclusive workplaces outperform non-inclusive workplaces on almost every metric, particularly financial ones. So it’s worth doing, and worth doing well.’

Dan Martin Small business journalist, event host

Dan Martin is a freelance small business journalist and event/podcast host with over 20 years of experience. He is currently the editor of SMEWeb.com and the host of the Small Business Sessions, the podcast by business network Enterprise Nation which has run for nine series. Dan also works with Bristol Creative Industries, the not-for-profit organisation that supports the city’s creative sector.

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