Fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) should be one of every recruiter’s goals. It’s a great step to improve the business and ensure overall success for the company. While a massive reform on company values is essential, integrating the use of recruitment software and social media into your strategy will be extremely beneficial, too.
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In this article, you’ll find common challenges to diversity hiring strategies and solutions that your recruitment software and social media can provide. Let’s delve deeper into how those elements intertwine and create a meaningful impact on your efforts in making your work environment a safe space for everyone and anyone.
Common Challenges in Implementing Diversity
Advocating DE&I in the workplace is no walk in the park. That’s why not a lot of organizations are known for it. It’s not because they don’t want to, but because they find it hard to do so.
Many factors come into play, especially when you don’t integrate the utilization of recruitment software and social media.
Ethnic and Cultural Disparity
Having differences is healthy. It usually engages a discussion that sheds light on multiple perspectives and ends up with greater understanding for all. However, it can get messy if you don’t carefully select the employees you bring in.
People from various countries have their respective beliefs, traditions, and mindset. If you recruit blindly, there will be no social adhesion amongst your team and groups will be divided. If you think that it’s only an interpersonal issue, it will also hurt your business’ growth.
The productivity of workers will slow down and, therefore, will produce less output than they ought to. Instead of working together towards a common goal, people will be focusing on their own lane because they don’t like who’s around them. Yikes!
Thankfully, you can use a recruitment software such as Manatal to screen candidates better.
Language Barrier
It’s only given that there should be a universal language in the office where everyone can communicate with each other. However, you must consider that each person has their mother tongue and interprets things differently.
We’re talking about expressions and tones here. What might be funny to others may not be funny for some. What might be “normal” sounding to others may give an angry or bossy tone for some. This applies to body language, as well!
If you’re not careful, people might perceive things in their way and execute tasks wrong. Without a clear guideline and instructions, this will only mess up your operations and internal processes.
Age gap
Generation gaps are no joke. It’s great to have opinions from assorted age groups, but they should have at least similarities in values and personalities.
Otherwise, there will be a huge shift in the workforce-- and not in a good way! Conflicts might arise and uncomfortable demeanors will be apparent. Like the aforementioned points above, it can be bad for the company because of poor productivity and communication.
There are many other elements that pose problems for recruiters in their diversity efforts, but don’t fret! There’s a way around this. Make the most out of your initiative by following the steps below.
6 Ways Your Recruiting Software and Social Media Can Efficiently Promote Diversity in Your Company
Don’t worry too much about the what-ifs and quit thinking about the worst-case scenarios in the office. Your recruitment software and the role that social media plays can be very useful in rolling out your strategies and avoid the aforementioned challenges.
More than optimizing operations physically, such tools and technologies are great in presenting opportunities that can bolster your diversity plans. Here are 6 ways how.
It gives you more time to screen candidates properly
Your recruitment software (Applicant Tracking System or ATS for instance) can help you get candidates better and faster. Especially when you post on social media!
You’ll be able to reach thousands of people with just a single click and applications can come rushing in. You can use saved time to screen job seekers carefully. How? First and foremost, some tools like Manatal have the capabilities to do social media enrichment.
This takes relevant information from an individual’s social media and then builds their candidate profile better. The system’s candidate scoring will help in determining who’s the leading talents perfect for the role.
Once you interview suitable fits, you can do assessments or take your time in getting to know them on a deeper level beyond their resumes. They might be a great addition to the team or they might not be. Either way, this will avoid all the common problems that we’ve listed above.
It attracts the right people through social media
Through your social media, you can post engaging and relevant content that can pique the interest of your target audience.
For example, you post a lot of content about DE&I. This will surely raise awareness among people who value that ideal and would make them more likely to apply. Think of your social media account this way: it’s the products displayed in front of the store. If people like what’s being displayed outside, they will go inside the shop.
That’s how social media works for businesses! You attract what you put out to the world.
It allows you to optimize your job posts
Your recruitment software can come in handy by optimizing your job posts. Using only a few clicks, you can create an impactful job description and spread it to multiple channels easily. We wrote tips about it here.
You can even make use of applicant tracking systems to check reports and analytics. These contain data that can show you where candidates mostly come from and what their demographics are.
Study these carefully and you will be able to pinpoint which is the best platform to focus your attention on. You can fix the tone of your post ad based on these, too. If you noticed that the majority of your applicants are part of Gen Z or that’s what you lack in the company, it makes sense to write in a way that would appeal to this generation-- make it fun and enticing.
Data is king and shouldn’t be overlooked! This will aid in identifying the biggest challenges in regards to fair and inclusive recruiting.
It removes unconscious bias
Such technology helps remove unconscious bias. This is a lifesaver for recruiters because this innate bias can be hard to remove, no matter how hard we try.
With your recruiting software, you can base applicants through candidate scoring. This rating comes from job matches in terms of relevant experience, skillset, educational background, and more. This does not take into account the name, where they are from, what their nationality is, etc.
ATSs only look at the information that matters for you. This will be excellent in promoting DE&I.
It improves your employer branding and company culture
Through your recruiting tool, it can improve your employer branding and promote your company culture. How? Through your career page!
Manatal, for example, allows you to create a career website in a jiffy. With ready templates and easy to interface navigation, you can ensure content that reflects your team’s diversity efforts. You can use photos or videos that will represent what you stand for and what you want to strive for.
You can highlight company values, employee benefits and packages, and even testimonials from workers. All these will help readers have a better outlook on your organization. Who knows? These might just be what they’re looking for in a company!
Don’t forget to use inclusive languages and gender-neutral terms at all times! It might take a while, but having page translations ready will be superb.
It gives your business higher ROI
Last but not least, it gives higher ROI to your business. When it’s all about numbers, this should be one of the key metrics that you’re looking into.
As a company, you would want something that generates income and reduces costs in any way. With all the advantages that your recruitment software and social media can bring to the table, focusing on diversity and inclusion is an investment.
More than a social issue, it’s proven to outperform companies that are not ethnically diverse by 35% according to McKinsey! To put a cherry on top, highly diverse companies, on the other hand, generate 2.3x higher cash flow per employee than those who do not care about DE&I.
These numbers speak for themselves.
Truly, advocating diversity in the workplace can be tough, but the rewards can be sweet. Proper planning, integration of recruitment software, maximizing the power of social media, and executing strategies consistently will be key to overall company success.
You’ll get a better impression in the market, happier employees, and higher revenues compared to when you started. A win-win situation for everyone!
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