#Diversity
Ultimately, your goal as an employer is to get as many different perspectives in the room as possible. Here are some suggestions for unlocking the potential of diversity in your team.
Get creative in how you recruit.
Move beyond traditional means of recruitment and broaden your horizons – literally. – Write inclusive job advertisements like this – Hire remote engineers to help you access a wider range of talent – Post your jobs in a variety of places: LinkedIn, Lever, Glassdoor, AngelJobs and well-known job boards are a good place to start – but get creative and use alternatives – Take applications on social media – reach different demographics through multiple means of communication – Hire at job fairs and through meetups – Run your own hiring events where you get to meet candidates face to face – this can also help overcome the challenges and time consumed when getting candidates onsite for one to ones – Partner with organisations that are focused on diverse hiring – Be ready to look beyond traditional qualifications; consider when an applicant may not have had access to traditional education opportunities – Hire professionals who have changed careers (there’s a huge benefit from cross-pollination of workplace cultures) – Interview and hire graduates from tech bootcamps and academies
Make a commitment to diversity as a team.
Achieving diversity is a mindset and it needs to be internalized by the whole team. Make sure everyone is on the same page regarding the importance of having diverse teams – just like Gusto.
It’s a company thing – focus on company culture.
Creating a great environment that actively welcomes and celebrates diversity in workplace will help attract and retain diverse people.
Enable flexible work arrangements.
This will help you attract a variety of people. Flexibility isn’t just about lifestyle. Flexibility allows people who are excluded from the traditional nine to five – for whatever reason – to contribute.
Review your hiring process.
Look into direct hiring practices. Are there any elements that are potentially removing diverse candidates from your pipeline?
SO HOW DOES ALL OF THIS ADD UP?
There are certain attributes of high-performance teams that make them stand out. Diversity is top of the list. It not only boosts team performance – it can lead to better products, better decision making and above average profitability at a company level. The secret is to think broadly about diversity and the benefits it offers you, your team and your business, today and into the future.
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