Every organisation seeks to improve diversity in their workforce so that it reflects the wider population and demonstrates them in a favourable light. Achieving this in older more established companies can be challenging, it is something that newer digital tech start-ups are perhaps more capable of. Irrespective of the type or size of company increasing diversity can be achieved by use of Positive Action.
Most countries have equality and discrimination laws that employers must abide by when recruiting, employing and paying staff. In the UK for example this is covered by the Equality Act 2010 which makes it unlawful to discriminate on a host of factors. There have been numerous instances in the past of organisations proactively using ‘positive discrimination’ where they favour candidates from minorities because they are under represented among the employees. This is now certainly an unlawful practice and human resources should now adapt to using what is referred to as ‘Positive Action’ which is actually covered under the conditions set out in ss.158 or 159 of the Equality Act 2010.
Positive action is the deliberate introduction of measures to eliminate or reduce discrimination or its ‘effects’. It is about encouraging people from particular, demonstrably under-represented, groups to apply for jobs. More details can be found on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) website.
It is important to fully understand when it is appropriate to consider using Positive Action in the recruitment and selection process. Human resources should analyse the current workforce and identify if any ‘protected’ groups are underrepresented. If this analysis does identify a need, then steps can be taken to implement Positive Acton initiatives.
- The most important step is to set out actions to encourage talent from disadvantaged groups who generally show low participation to apply for open roles.
- Open roles can be advertised in alternative media that have a higher representation of the targeted groups.
- The job description copy can be altered with Positive Action statements to encourage applications.
- Implementing pre-application training and mentoring programmes can assist in making the application process less daunting.
- If human resources attend recruitment fairs or hold open days these can be targeted to those in disadvantaged groups.
- Implement talent management policies to take account of an individual’s protected characteristic when recruiting or being considered for promotion.
The use of tech hiring tools can make the implementation and management of Positive Action initiatives easier. An ATS (Applicant Tracking Software) system can assist talent managers in eliminating bias and targeting open role advertising more appropriately.
One such company who are game changing the face of recruitment by providing a robust process to deliver more efficient and diverse recruitment is Hire Digital. A start-up recruitment company with a global presence that has invested heavily in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to manage the digital tech recruitment process. Their talent management ATS software platform gives digital talent recruiters a strict criterion for posting job adverts and descriptions and their AI works in such a way that it generates a much smaller more targeted candidate list by using up to 40,000 attributes. They key to this is efficiency, recruiters spend less time generating job advertisements and trawling through hundreds of CV’s to get their shortlist, Hire Digital tech can rapidly access up to 1bn talent globally.
Hire Digital is an AI technology with a human touch that is completely revolutionising the recruitment and selection process. It’s two times faster, 50 % cheaper and ten times more accurate than traditional hiring tech. To find out more speak to Robin Brohl at Hire Digital he is a real person and would love to engage with you and help you streamline your recruitment processes.