If you aim to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a “diverse slate” recruitment strategy is an excellent approach to fulfill this objective.
Here’s a brief “diverse slate” explanation:
Diverse slate hiring is a talent sourcing strategy that begins with a varied pool of qualified applicants. Furthermore, you will deliberately seek out (and interview) individuals from diverse backgrounds, identities, or experiences.
Maxine Williams, Global Director of Diversity at Meta (previously Facebook), highlighted the significance of diverse slate hiring in 2017:
“The more individuals you interview who differ in appearance or thought from you, the more likely you are to employ someone from a diverse background.”
Tip: Utilizing job description software (like Ongig) that analyzes for unconscious bias is an excellent initial step for a diverse slate approach.
Why is “diverse slate hiring” important?
Diversity in slates is crucial in an environment where merely 7% of tech professionals are Black. Women occupy only 26.5% of executive positions, and only 21.1% of board members at S&P corporations are women. Moreover, women of color hold less than 1% of all CEO roles at S&P firms. These figures underscore the necessity for a diverse slate hiring strategy.
What is the origin of the “diverse slate hiring” concept?
The NFL notably contributed to the inception of diverse slate hiring with the introduction of the Rooney Rule in 2003. This regulation mandates minority representation within coaching staff.
With the implementation of this rule, the number of coaches from underrepresented backgrounds surged from a mere 6% to 22% in just four years. Following the strategic success within the NFL, this approach has been adopted by numerous other American organizations.
In 2022, the NFL even established a diversity committee after facing a lawsuit from former Miami Dolphin Head Coach Brian Flores regarding alleged discrimination and racism in hiring processes.
Which companies have embraced “slate diversity” in hiring?
Two organizations that actively advocate for the effective implementation of the diverse slate approach are Meta’s Facebook and BASF.
Facebook initiated its diverse slate hiring strategy in 2015, and in 2017, the company provided an update:
- the global percentage of women increased from 33% to 35%
- the proportion of women in tech rose from 17% to 19%
- women constitute 27% of all new engineering graduate hires and 21% of all new technical hires
- In the US, Hispanic representation grew from 4% to 5%, and Black individuals from 2% to 3%
BASF‘s commitment to diverse slate hiring aims to elevate the percentage of women in leadership roles to 30% globally by 2030.
Additionally, in 2015, BASF aimed to increase the share of women in leadership positions to 22-24% by 2021. By the close of 2019, they achieved this target ahead of schedule at 23%.
How can you apply a “diverse slate” strategy?
So, how can you commence the application of slate diversity?
Here are some insights from a Harvard report that you might consider first:
1. Consider diversity and your hiring requirements. Diversity is a comprehensive concept. Formulate a robust definition of what diversity signifies for your organization with your team. This includes examining your own biases, both conscious and unconscious. It’s vital to recognize these biases during the hiring process. Finally, evaluate the diversity of your existing team so you can identify the best candidates to fill any gaps. Collect information regarding your workforce’s demographics, particularly race, gender, age, disability status, veteran status, etc. Next, benchmark your organization’s diversity metrics against industry standards and best practices.
Furthermore, as AI becomes increasingly accessible, it is crucial to ensure that your program’s training data remains free of bias. This includes a detailed review of your recruitment algorithms across all candidate channels and interactions. AI can serve as a powerful ally in assessing real-time market insights to pinpoint potential gaps within your workforce and how to address them swiftly. Revisit critical questions such as: “Is my AI hiring for potential or merely relying on past patterns? Do my hiring processes encompass other commonly overlooked factors of inclusion, such as cognitive diversity?
2. Obtain leadership backing. Securing support from leadership teams is a significant factor in the success of your diverse slate hiring initiatives. Here are several methods to effectively gain and maintain leadership support:
Demonstrate how diverse slate hiring aligns with your company’s overall business objectives by illustrating the positive influence of diversity, such as market competitiveness, reduced employee turnover costs, improved employee engagement, and a broadened customer base. Present research, case studies, employee accounts, and testimonials to highlight the positive outcomes of your diversity initiatives.
In addition, clarify to leadership the necessity for the company to adhere strictly to D&I-related legal and regulatory obligations to prevent lawsuits, penalties, and damage to its reputation.
- Involve the management team when formulating your diverse slate policies. Encourage their participation in diverse hiring panels to better grasp how it functions and its significance. Engage them in mentorship programs supporting underrepresented employees, fostering direct involvement.
- Provide diversity training workshops on unconscious biases, inclusive leadership, and the advantages of diverse teams for all leaders. Inclusive intelligence is a crucial leadership skill that organizations should prioritize. This practice involves integrating inclusive practices at work, ultimately leading to a more diverse and engaged workforce.
- Establish a supportive framework. Equip leaders with the resources and tools they require to comprehend and advocate for diversity hiring initiatives, such as access to recruitment and D & I reports.
- Implement reverse mentoring where leaders are paired with underrepresented talent. These partnerships could foster a broader diversity of opinions and decision-making processes within the organization and create an environment of transparency. Most importantly, leaders can firsthand experience the obstacles and challenges faced by talent and address these issues with practical solutions.
- Create a dedicated diversity and inclusion team to assist leaders in executing and evaluating diversity initiatives. D&I teams operate as inclusive architects within an organization, guiding diversity efforts. They should provide in-depth analyses and intervention playbooks for maintaining psychological safety and enhancing performance throughout the workforce.
Pro tip: Consider incorporating diversity as a performance metric to encourage greater commitment from leaders and managers.
By integrating diversity initiatives into the fundamental operations of a company, employer branding enhances alongside augmented productivity. Rendering diversity measurable results in a more compelling argument through evidence, such as connecting metrics with organizational ROX (return on experience).
3. Establish precise goals and objectives. After grasping the concept of diversity, HR leaders ought to formulate SMART goals to realize your targeted diversity outcome: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
Examples:
- Boost the representation of women in leadership positions (e.g., director level and above) to 30% within two years.
- Enhance the representation of individuals of color (e.g., Black, Latinx, Asian) in the overall workforce to 10% in two years.
- Ensure all job listings and recruitment processes are accessible to applicants with disabilities within the next six months.
- Elevate the retention rate of underrepresented employees by 15% over the next three years.
- Introduce unconscious bias training programs for talent acquisition teams and hiring supervisors within six months.
- Ensure recruitment interfaces are 100% WCAG 2.2 compliant. This is the current global industry standard for accessibility, ensuring that each candidate experiences an equitable job application process through universal design. In simpler terms, companies will not forfeit valuable talent due to their user interface.
Pro tip: Combining SMART objectives with real-time data accountability fosters an atmosphere of trust and authenticity. Organizations can enhance diverse slate hiring across talent pipelines by examining equity metrics in real time and addressing pipeline leaks promptly.
For example, Aon employed a data-driven approach to evaluate candidates’ core strengths for an engineering firm. By eliminating bias, the engineering company observed:
- 19% increase in hires of women.
- 200% engagement in talent acquisition from underrepresented groups.
4. Recruit diversely.
Broaden your focus and recruit externally to curate diverse candidate pools. Here are various tactics to implement inclusive hiring:
- Source candidates from diverse backgrounds. Collaborate with organizations and institutions that promote diverse groups. Attend job fairs, conferences, and events centered on diversity. Utilize diverse job boards and professional networks to advertise open positions:
Blackjobs.com – highlights the latest well-paying job opportunities for African American job seekers.
Hispano Latino Professional Association (HLPA) – attracts professionals from the Hispanic/Latino Community.
Diversity Job Board – displays job openings from employers targeting minorities, female candidates, and individuals with disabilities.
- Implement blind recruitment strategies and skills-based hiring. To reduce unconscious bias, conceal candidate details (e.g., names, gender, age) from resumes during the screening phase. Utilize blind interview platforms for initial interactions that allow recruiters to engage with candidates via chat, email, or audio calls while maintaining candidate confidentiality. Assess job seekers’ skill sets and expected work performance through skills-based evaluations or challenges. Performance-based trials are an effective way to objectively measure a candidate’s abilities. Incorporating performance-focused challenges during recruitment enables neurodivergent talent to demonstrate their suitability for a position in scenarios where they may struggle with conventional interview inquiries.
Additionally, ensure that your job descriptions are clear and impartial. If you seek to automate this process, Ongig can assist you in crafting the ideal job descriptions…swiftly.
Ongig’s Text Analyzer highlights gender and racial-biased language in your job descriptions and proposes inclusive alternatives to attract more applicants of color. For instance, you can substitute ‘young and energetic’ with a more inclusive word like ‘motivated’ or ‘enthusiastic.’
5. Form diverse interview panels. Assemble individuals who differ from one another when compiling an interview team. This varied team will provide a range of considerate perspectives on candidates’ unique cultures and attributes.
To incorporate different viewpoints, include members from numerous teams, departments, and levels within the organization. Engage ERG members or Diversity and Inclusion committees. If diversity is restricted within your organization, consider inviting external specialists or DEI consultants to partake in the interview process. They enhance diversity standards by enforcing the best global practices in candidate selection. External auditors also lessen the likelihood of groupthink, where TA teams may make irrational or biased choices due to an unconscious yearning for conformity.
After establishing your interview team, rotate members frequently to enable different employees to participate and introduce fresh perspectives. Keep a diverse pool of interviewers available for various hiring processes.
6. Develop structured interview processes. Utilize standardized interview questions to guarantee that all candidates are evaluated equitably:
- Job-related technical questions or practical exercises to assess the candidate’s qualifications.
- Behavioral questions to analyze previous work experiences.
- Situational questions to gauge the candidate’s problem-solving capabilities and how they would handle hypothetical work scenarios. These illustrate the candidate’s practical skills, particularly soft skills that are essential for workplace resilience and interdepartmental collaborations.
- Standardized questions to assess the candidate’s fundamental qualifications and cultural contributions. Questions should be evidence-based to prevent biases that could arise from interpersonal interactions. Preferably, there should be a centralized system or matrix for objective evaluations, such as a Likert score. Quantitative scoring maintains professionalism in assessments, avoiding subjective remarks that might sway the final decision.
Establish evaluation criteria and a scoring system to appraise candidates’ responses impartially.
7. Educate Hiring Managers and Recruiters. All HR team members should undergo unconscious bias training. This instruction addresses various prejudices, biases, and stereotypes, aiding in the revelation of biases that may affect employment choices.
Talent Dimensions provides inclusive recruitment, selection, and hiring education to help you understand D & I better and its significance in the workplace. It will assist you in evaluating your current recruitment practices and discovering methods to enhance inclusivity. You will also acquire skills focused on inclusive recruiting and selecting top talent.
As organizations increasingly recognize the importance of inclusion and diversity, cultivating stronger inclusion intelligence within the company has become essential. This means that TA teams must constantly enhance their skills and acquire specialized methods required to mitigate or prevent diversity-related conflicts in the workplace.
even prior to their manifestation. These could encompass participating in advanced-level courses on cognitive biases and fostering connections with marginalized individuals in specialized talent communities.
8. Define KPIs. To assess if your tactics are effective, you must evaluate them. Therefore, it’s essential to set benchmarks to derive tangible outcomes for your recruiting methods. Some of the most prevalent metrics are:
- Assess the quantity and proportion of underrepresented talent at various phases of your recruitment process: applications, interviews, offers, and hires
- Examine the diversity of your talent pool to ensure that a varied array of applicants is considered for advancements
- Evaluate your diversity recruiting channels, such as social media, job platforms, and career fairs, to determine which avenues are most productive in attracting varied talent.
Consistently evaluate your diverse hiring statistics to pinpoint areas needing enhancement and modify strategies accordingly. Proactive data management ensures candidate equity throughout the pipeline, allowing TA leaders to effectively identify and address diversity discrepancies.
9. Create reporting frameworks. Develop monthly, quarterly, or annual reports to assess the advancement of your diversity hiring initiatives. The data can be located in your ATS or recruitment analytics tools. Regular audits empower teams to continually identify obstacles and improve interview processes.
After generating the data analytics reports, share the insights with your leadership team, staff, and external collaborators. Hold managers and leaders responsible for achieving diversity objectives through performance reviews and incentives.
If feasible, teams should contemplate automating talent pipeline management to precisely monitor drop-off rates for specific demographics at various stages of candidate handling. This facilitates predictive interventions if necessary.
AI-driven automation also offers a comprehensive analysis of intersectional data. This enables TA teams to uncover subgroup experiences (e.g., BIPOC women) for a more detailed approach to diverse slate hiring.
10. Continuously enhance and refine your diverse hiring approach. Conduct surveys and interviews with candidates and new hires regarding the hiring experience. In your analyses, seek patterns or trends that indicate areas where the process is succeeding or struggling in terms of diversity goals.
Based on the feedback and analyses, modify your hiring procedures as necessary. This may involve updating your job descriptions, altering interview questions, or employing different sourcing channels. Leverage artificial intelligence tools to enhance your unbiased hiring practices.
Revise your diversity objectives and strategies according to feedback, progress, and evolving business needs.
Pro tip: For comprehensive insights, consider gathering feedback from pre-hiring and withdrawn applicants. This approach provides better clarity on the unique challenges encountered by job seekers at various application stages. Furthermore, it’s vital to continually refresh your JDs (rather than once annually) in real-time where possible for optimized engagement and conversion.
Why I penned this?
Ongig empowers your diverse slate hiring by removing biases from your job advertisements, allowing you to attract a varied pool of candidates. Text Analyzer also efficiently accelerates JD creation through an intelligent templating feature, perfect for scaling at the enterprise level. Request a demo to see it in action today!
Acknowledgments:
- Recruiting for Diversity (Harvard Whitepaper)
- Facebook Diversity Update: Cultivating a More Diverse, Inclusive Workforce (by Maxine Williams, Meta)
- BASF aims to enhance female representation in leadership roles (by Antje Schabacker)
- How Effective is the Diverse Slate Approach to Recruitment? (by Katica Roy, Pipeline)
- Does Diverse Hiring Yield Results? (by Manasi Patel, Lattice)
- IT snapshot: Ethnic diversity in the technology field (by Galen Gruman)
- What is Inclusive Intelligence?: Transforming the D&I Landscape (by Billy Vaughn)
- Five Innovative Strategies to Cultivate a More Diverse Talent Pipeline (By Aon)
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2