Cultural diversity in business doesn’t just make for a winning brand image, it also brings numerous benefits to the business and its core processes. Hiring talented people from a range of different cultures ensures that you are tapping into all talent pools and capitalizing on every niche, not to mention that diversity in the workplace can allow creativity and productivity to flourish.
On the other hand, if you’re worried about your brand’s image in the online and offline world, then cultural diversity can build a thriving company culture that will improve consumer trust and loyalty. It all works together wonderfully and builds a thriving brand and boosts your growth strategy. With all of that in mind, here are the best practices you can use to recruit culturally diverse employee for your business.
Use blind resumes to eliminate subconscious bias
Nobody is saying that you’re prejudiced against any demographic, and nobody is saying that you’re more biased towards one group over the other. But the subconscious can shape and define the actions of your recruiters in unpredictable ways, and there is no telling how they might react when presented with resumes that boast names from vastly different cultures. Needless to say, you need to eliminate all potential bias from the get-go.
One of the best ways to do this is to simply use blind resumes. That way, your recruiters will have no idea who’s coming in for the interview, and will be more open-minded, which will allow them to approach the interview with the company’s best interest at heart. Plus, they will be able to judge the candidate solely on their achievements and expertise, which will ultimately make for the best hiring decision.
Bring order and structure to your interviews
The term “company culture” is one of the most popular terms in the modern business world, as it signifies a unique set of values in the company that all employees share. Well, your company’s culture is rooted in diversity, so it’s not really a single culture, but rather a beautiful symbiosis of many cultural backgrounds. This is why finding the perfect “cultural fit” in your employees is a lost cause, and should be replaced with structured interviews.
To bring structure and order to your recruitment process, take the following steps:
- Make your questions truly relevant.
- Add tangible value to each question, such as points.
- Conduct one-on-one interviews instead of confronting the applicant with a team of recruiters.
- Have your assistant (or yourself) collate all of the data and values for each interview, and then present the interviewer with the best candidate. This will further ensure that no bias is involved in the process.
Use technology to find and get matched with candidates
Technology has weaved itself into every aspect of modern business, and that includes the hiring process. Smart software and matchmaking platforms can nowadays help you discover and get in touch with the best potential employees in your industry – individuals you might have missed if you stuck with the traditional recruitment methods. Take Australia as a prime example of how technology is making recruitment more efficient and effective, especially when it comes to cultural diversity.
In the Land Down Under, professionals from all walks of life who have diverse cultural backgrounds are increasingly interested in the jobs Australia has to offer through specialized employment sites that help them match their skills with prospective employers in their industries. What this means is that not only are tech-savvy generations using technology to find the ideal employer, but that companies looking to diversify their workforce can easily find the best candidates in their fields as well. With that in mind, be sure to extend your brand’s reach onto these platforms as well to allow the top talent to find you.
Bundle all open positions into one large recruitment strategy
Different departments require different recruitment campaigns, right? Well, when it comes to cultural diversity in a company, it might better to bundle all job searches together instead. It all circles back to the problem of cultural bias and the subconscious drivers that influence recruitment patterns and decisions. Simply put, when you’re hiring for one position at a time, you’re more prone to hiring the same type of person.
So inadvertently, you might hire another Hispanic person for your customer service department, and an Asian for your IT department. This is not exactly the definition of diversity. Instead, be sure to group all searches for job positions in your company in order to attract a large number of culturally diverse applicants. You will notice that this will help you bring diversity to every department individually.
Build an employee retention strategy before hiring
And finally, do have a strong employee retention strategy in place before actually hiring any new team members. We are living in a career-hopping day and age, and if you don’t know how to retain your most prized employees, you can rest assured that they will leave you at the first prospect of better working conditions in a rival company. Make sure to build your company culture on the foundation of transparency and honesty, communication and equality, and ethical leadership in order to create a work environment no employee will ever want to leave.
In closing
Cultural diversity is no longer an option in the modern business world, but a necessity. Use these recruitment tips to find the top talent in your industry, inspire them to join your brand, and most importantly, make the best hiring decisions for the future of your brand.
