Bringing Diversity Together

Bringing diversity together

A seminar at the Recruitment Agency Expo in London addressed the importance of diversity; its title was, ‘How can recruiters attract the most innovative, talented candidates when we have a skills shortage and there is full employment?’ The answer according to Jane Hatton, founder of disability jobs board EvenBreak is simple. Diversity. This is a key policy focus area for the REC and links to a number of our recent reports and campaigns.

Some tips for recruiters when thinking about diversity:

Do things differently – encourage clients to reinvigorate their recruitment processes

Having a diverse workforce isn’t just the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. Research by the Mckinsey Global Institute suggests that closing the gender gap could generate an additional £150 billion in GDP by 2025. This is why the REC has always welcomed greater workplace diversity and believes that recruiters have an important role in helping clients review their recruitment processes. The REC’s report, ‘Increasing Opportunity, Supporting Growth: the role of good recruitment in gender diversity’ put forward several recommendations to help recruiters and business attract a more diverse candidate pool. These included: job adverts in a neutral language and adopting name and context-blind applications.

Think creatively

Recruiters should evaluate their client’s current recruitment practices and advise them on the best steps to take to widen their candidate pool.  It is important to speak to clients about how they can think about job design differently incorporating flexibility into the roles. To increase interest from under-represented groups, it’s also important that different advertising platforms are used. This may also mean less of a focus on CVs. Let’s think creatively about the best way to find the right candidates, as well as forming partnerships with organisations who work on diversity issues. 

Get disability confident

Here at the REC, we have partnered up with the Department of Work and Pensions to promote the Disability Confident Scheme; signing up ourselves and encouraging members to do so also. Disability Confident is designed to help businesses recruit and retain disabled people. We would encourage you to join us and become a Disability Confident Employer today, find more details and sign up here.

Working with employers

Through the Good Recruitment Campaign, we are actively encouraging employers to promote diversity and inclusion in their planning and recruitment procedures. The campaign has now gained over 440 signatories.

APPG Women and Work

We also partner with the women and Work APPG who are this year focusing on intersectionality - how different aspects of social and political discrimination overlap with gender. The APPG are currently seeking submissions to inform their work – to help our submission please do get in touch policy@rec.com. Our work on diversity also fed into their latest report – see here.