What is inclusive sourcing?
Inclusive sourcing when hiring for open positions means you diversify your candidate sourcing methods to reach a wider audience. It’s a method of finding the diverse candidates you want instead of waiting for them to find you with your traditional sourcing methods. It uses a strategic approach to find more candidates that support your DEI initiatives. Inclusive sourcing should be a part of a broader push toward making everyone feel included.
Why is inclusive sourcing important?
If you continue with the same candidate sourcing methods you’ve always used, you’ll get the same results. Thoroughly evaluating your process can let you spot the gaps in the plan and identify new potential options. When you practice inclusive sourcing, you often get a wider variety of candidate backgrounds and experiences to add depth to your staff. Diversifying your team can have many benefits, including greater creativity, a broader set of skills and a more engaged workforce.
Inclusive candidate sourcing strategies
Your organization might already have some inclusive sourcing best practices in place, but there’s always room for improvement. Look for ideas that you can add to your existing efforts for an even greater effect. The following methods and strategies can help you expand your sourcing practices.
1. Evaluate your current sourcing strategy
Before you make changes, review your current sources for job applicants. Identify the places you post your jobs and the ways you promote those listings. If you keep metrics on applicant sources, review where you get the most applications from and analyze home much diversity you see from applicants. Use this information to determine what works well and methods that don’t produce the results you want.
2. Set goals and objectives
Decide how you want inclusive sourcing to help your recruitment process. For example, determine how much you want to improve the diversity of the applications or specify how you want inclusion in finding candidates to improve the overall workplace environment. These goals and objectives can help you choose the strategies that will be most effective. Make them measurable, and add a deadline so you can evaluate your progress toward them. If you don’t reach your goals, decide if you need to change them or change your approach to reading them.
3. Incorporate diversity into your company culture
Make diversity and inclusion central to everything you do in your organization. Holding diversity and inclusion training gives employees the tools they need to interact well with all their colleagues. Ensure your managers embrace and reinforce DEI practices in the workplace, because they set the tone for everyone else. Review your company policies to make sure they don’t have anything in them that could unintentionally discriminate against a group or make anyone feel unwelcome. Create a safe environment where all employees feel they can share ideas and take risks. Establishing this type of supportive environment can earn you a positive reputation as an inclusive employer, which can attract more applicants. It can also encourage your current employees to stay put, and reduce your turnover rates.
4. Make job descriptions inclusive
No matter where you post your job descriptions, you won’t diversify your candidate pool if they don’t use inclusive language or if your requirements eliminate large groups of people. Eliminating gender-specific language is an easy way to promote inclusivity. Be careful to avoid requirements that exclude people with disabilities, such as listing a minimum weight the applicant can lift or saying they need to stand all day. Some requirements, such as no facial hair, no head coverings and no visible tattoos, exclude people from certain races or ethnic groups in which those things are part of the culture. It can also be considered discrimination. You can also be specific about your support for DEI initiatives and the celebration of diversity. Comb through your current job descriptions to make them more inviting to all candidates.
5. Diversify your sources
A major part of inclusive sourcing best practices is to broaden your sources for finding candidates. If you only post in one spot, you’re missing everyone who doesn’t search for jobs in that spot. Job posting sites like Indeed are popular, but they’re not the only option for posting and promoting your vacancies.
Creating a robust employment page on your website is one place to start. Incorporate keywords on the page that attract skilled, diverse applicants when they’re searching online. Provide lots of information about your DEI efforts and company culture as well as the benefits and requirements of the position.
Your social media pages also give you a spot to shout out your openings. Since your followers already know and like your company, they might know a job seeker who would fit the culture well. It’s easy for people to share social media posts, which means they could reach a wider audience.
Here are some other sourcing options:
- Referrals from current employees, especially if you already have a diverse workforce that might know other diverse job seekers
- Recruitment agencies
- Your business contacts
- Industry-related conferences
- Job and recruitment fairs
6. Collaborate with diverse organizations
Teaming up with organizations that support diverse communities can be an effective strategy for finding candidates. Those organizations already have a large audience of diverse people, so you can often meet those people with a collaboration. Examples include historically black colleges, fraternities for particular groups and support groups for underrepresented populations, such as women working in the technology field or minorities in upper management. These groups might post job listings or share your work opportunities with their members. You can also learn more about the community to better equip your company to attract people from it.
7. Diversify your entire hiring process
Sourcing is only one part of the process. Implement diversity hiring best practices from initial job postings through the onboarding process to amplify your efforts. For instance, you might use a masked recruiting process where you exclude information from applications that might indicate information about the applicant that could cause a bias. This includes information that could cause you to make assumptions about the applicant’s gender, race, ethnicity, disability status or age. Doing this process lets you focus on the skills without making decisions based on unconscious biases.
8. Change your public persona
You can naturally attract greater diversity in your candidate pool when you establish yourself as a company that embraces differences and implements inclusion and equity practices. Incorporate these ideas into your mission statement, and post about them on social media. Show the current diversity you have on your staff by sharing behind-the-scenes videos from the office. Participate in inclusive events in the community to let the public know your values.
