Almost of half (45%) of organisations do not feel their recruitment processes make a positive contribution to their diversity and inclusion strategy.
This is according to XpertHR, which found only 55% rate their recruitment and selection practices as effective or very effective at helping their organisation to become more inclusive.
This has highlighted the need for firms to develop and implement practices that would have more of an impact, XpertHR said.
“Businesses are facing ever higher levels of scrutiny over the actions they take to improve diversity and inclusion, with employees and potential employees bringing increased attention to whether or not these actions – including recruitment practices – are meaningful and bring about genuine positive change,” said Michael Carty, benchmarking editor at XpertHR.
“While actions to boost diversity and inclusion are widespread, our research suggests that more needs to be done to make these actions truly effective.
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“Not only could a failure to boost diversity and inclusion in recruitment processes lock out top talent from being selected, it could also affect the organisation’s reputation, as clear commitments to diversity and inclusion are an increasingly important factor for many job candidates.”
Almost all (95%) of the 134 organisations polled say they are taking action to boost D&I at the recruitment stage.
The most common action taken is reviewing job descriptions to ensure they are not biased against people with certain protected characteristics (64%), followed by ensuring their commitment to D&I is a core part of their corporate branding (54%).
Twenty-five per cent use “blind” recruitment, where all identifying information is removed before CVs are reviewed, while 52% offer training to ensure those conducting job interviews avoid potentially discriminatory questioning.
Asked how they attempt reach a diverse candidate pool, 52% say they use a mix of candidate attraction channels, while 50% communicate their D&I strategy to recruitment agencies.
Only 23% talk to diverse communities when deciding on candidate attraction methods.
