Interview with Richard Thompson

Tools for diverse recruitment & talent management

A number of strategies for diverse recruitment can be applied for every stage of the talent pipeline for organisations seeking to address their BAME representation.

The most important point  is essential for organisations to recognise there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to managing diversity and inclusion. Each firm needs to establish its own particular business case, instead of assuming that increasing levels of diversity will automatically transform their business performance. Instead, organisations need to design for diversity and with this in mind, some strategies for overcoming bias are listed below.

Firstly, it is only by reviewing the data available that organisations can understand how recruitment and retention is being handled. This means letting the numbers speak for themselves by examining data at every stage of the recruitment and career development process.

Secondly, hold yourself and others accountable.  Promoting open discussion is a key step in making a change and taking a group approach can help point out processes that have become barriers.

Finally, organisations need to review their processes and make sure they are standardised. It was highlighted that this is by far the most effective way to predict performance, and a number of strategies for implementing this across candidate sourcing, CV reviews and interviews were given.

For any individual to progress within an organisation they need to be well connected internally; with a manager who can envision and extract potential; in a culture where the individual can feel themselves.

The 3 key takeaways from this perspective are:

  1. Create a BAME diversity strategy: Take the time to truly understand BAME people’s experiences in your organisation, develop a ‘segmented strategy’ for addressing diversity issues and above all, be user-centric in your design.
  2. Connect BAME people to opportunities: Train managers to mitigate against bias in decision making processes related to recruitment, team design and promotion; Review HR policies and processes through a strategic diversity lens and provide BAME employees with mentoring and leadership programmes.
  3. Empower BAME people to be themselves: Provide BAME employees with the support networks necessary to thrive; Train employees to be aware of everyday unconscious bias and celebrate individual identities in the workplace.