"It is not enough to just successfully recruit a talented and diverse workforce; for organisations to prosper, these employees must also be retained.” (Williamson et al. (2008))
Inclusive recruitment is a critical first step in diversifying and creating an inclusive organisation, but supporting successful candidates to stay is equally important.
A fair recruitment process can support organisations in their aspirations to create a more inclusive environment and ensure they meet their legal obligations by avoiding discrimination throughout each of the recruitment stages.
Inclusive approaches to staff recruitment is a new resource for Advance HE members, as part of our global member benefit theme ‘Creating a culture for Strategic EDI Change’.
In it, each stage of the recruitment process is considered through the lens of inclusive practice. Although each organisation will have developed its own internal process for recruitment, in general terms, the recruitment stages commence with the determination of a business need for a specific role and end with the onboarding of the appointed candidate to the role.
The stages of recruitment are summarised in the table below along with suggested inclusive practices for each stage. Using Inclusive approaches to staff recruitment as a guide, you can compare the suggestions under each of the sub-headings with your current organisational recruitment practices and decide if anything needs to be reviewed or updated to make your recruitment process more inclusive.
Advance HE members can download Inclusive approaches to staff recruitment here
References
Williamson, I O, Slay, H S, Shapiro, D L and Shivers-Blackwell, S L (2008) The effect of explanations on prospective applicants reactions to firm diversity practices - Williamson - 2008 - Human Resource Management - Wiley Online Library