Global HR — 10 min
Global HR — 15 min
Inclusive hiring practices are crucial to the success of any organization. They have a significant influence on whether a business is able to attract and retain top talent, foster a positive work environment, and create a rich company culture.
When inclusive hiring practices are not in place, organizations risk missing out on a key source of innovation and creativity.
However, by prioritizing diversity and inclusion, they can ensure that they’re able to tap into the full potential of the workforce and create a more inclusive environment for all.
At Remote, we spoke to 1,250 hiring managers, employees, and business owners across the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, and France to investigate the state of diversity and inclusion in the hiring process in 2022.
Our survey explores what diversity means to businesses, its impact on the workforce, and the difficulties faced when trying to implement an inclusive work environment and hiring practices.
See also: Building a globally inclusive hiring strategy (Webinar)
Inclusive hiring is the process of actively recognizing a diverse range of qualities, origins, and perspectives during the interview and hiring process. It aims to minimize bias and create a fair and equitable process for all candidates.
The goal of inclusive hiring is to create a workforce that reflects the diversity of society, including differences in:
Race
Gender
Disability
Age
Sexual orientation
Socioeconomic background
Inclusivity is becoming more important with 62% of US employees saying that working with people of different races and ages is important. Another 55% of them say the same about working with people of different genders.
Unfortunately, inclusivity isn’t always present in the workplace.
We asked employees across the world whether they’d ever experienced or witnessed discrimination in the hiring process. Nearly five in 10 (49%) said they had experienced it themselves, and more than half (52%) of respondents said they had witnessed it.
See the experiences of job applicants in the hiring process split across the US, France, the UK, Germany, and Canada.
Out of the countries surveyed, the United States has the highest percentage of job hunters who have experienced discrimination in the hiring process, at 56%.
France and the United Kingdom follow in second and third place, both with more than half of applicants claiming to have faced discrimination in the hiring process.
Across all countries surveyed, self-reported discrimination occurs more with male applicants than female applicants on average, with 44% of female applicants reporting discriminatory experiences compared with 52% of male applicants.
Young people appear to be the most vulnerable to workplace discrimination, with two-thirds (69.23%) of applicants between 18-24 having experienced discrimination in the hiring process.
Reasons for this spike could be increased consciousness of issues related to race, gender, and other potential factors for discrimination in younger applicants.
Our investigation discovered that discrimination becomes slightly more prevalent after the hiring process ends, with 55% of employees reporting that they have experienced workplace discrimination and 59% saying they have witnessed it.
Once again, the people who report experiencing discrimination the most are between the ages of 18-24. By gender, 56% of male employees said they experience discrimination at work, while 52% of female employees reported the same.
See below the experiences of employees in the workplace split across the UK, Germany, France, the US, and Canada.
At 59%, the United Kingdom and Germany are the countries with the highest percentage of employees who have faced discrimination in the workplace.
See also: Remote work mental health resource pack
Our unique backgrounds, personal attributes, and life experiences all directly influence how we define diversity and inclusion in the workplace, which explains why the concept means something slightly different to everyone.
To find out how definitions vary from employer to employer, we asked business owners and hiring managers, “What do inclusivity and diversity mean to you the most as an employer?” The top five answers are included in the table below.
Educating employees is deemed the most important for employers, with the most popular answer (37%) being “acknowledging and educating team members on unconscious bias and working to eliminate this within the organization and recruitment process.”
When it comes to setting targets for improving diversity and inclusion, it can be helpful to start with one agreed-upon definition for these terms. Ideally, this is a combination of different viewpoints from people working within the company.
From there, employees can work collectively toward a common goal that meets everyone’s criteria and satisfies several definitions of workplace diversity and inclusion.
Actively seeking out and hiring diverse talent brings a host of benefits to a business, from improved retention rates and happier staff to a better understanding of consumers and improved creative thinking.
See also: How to support neurodivergence in the workplace with remote and async work
To explore the full scope of benefits that diverse hiring practices can bring to a workplace, we asked employers and hiring managers to outline the ways that hiring diverse talent had a strong positive impact on their workforce.
Employers stated the three main benefits of implementing inclusive hiring practices are a widened talent pool, improved employee engagement and performance, and increased creativity and innovation.
Employers should keep in mind that it’s not enough to simply hire diverse candidates; they must also ensure that they are empowered in their positions at work too. Failure to do so would mean the company loses out on the many benefits that a diverse workforce brings.
Despite the many benefits that diversity brings, it’s common for businesses to face challenges in creating an inclusive work environment.
To find out what kinds of hurdles inclusive workplaces have to overcome, we asked our survey group about their experiences. The table below shows the most common challenges that companies encounter on their journey toward creating a more inclusive work environment.
Managing inequitable inclusion is the biggest challenge that UK employers and hiring managers face, with 36% listing this as the difficulty they face the most. Inequitable inclusion refers to the concept that diversity means different things to different people, which we explored earlier in our survey.
This is closely followed by communication issues related to language barriers, slang, colloquialisms and cultural misunderstandings (35%), and the third most common challenge is finding the time to train employees about different ways of thinking and approaching a scenario.
See also: Understanding and supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace
So we’ve covered the benefits and challenges that come with diversity in the workplace. Now the question is, what can you do to make your work environment feel welcoming to everyone?
Keep in mind that inclusivity and diversity are more than just labels. You want to build a strong foundation through meaningful steps, so your diverse culture can thrive.
The general hiring process is as follows:
Identify your company’s needs.
Do a job analysis and create a job description.
Attract candidates.
Screen and shortlist candidates.
Conduct interviews.
Administer assessments and tests (e.g., technical skills).
Perform reference checks.
Choose the best candidate and extend an offer.
Onboard them.
Now, in order to make the recruitment process more inclusive, you can implement these best hiring practices:
The first step to making your workplace more inclusive is to draft a company statement that shows potential hires your commitment to diversity. Here’s a great example of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) company statement from Meta:
“Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.”
Next, review how you write your company’s job descriptions. You might not realize it, but your current job descriptions might be pushing people from marginalized groups away from applying to your positions.
Here’s how you can make your job descriptions more inclusive:
Make your job descriptions as gender-neutral as possible. To do this, you can use pronouns such as they and them, list only the job’s essential functions, and avoid gender-coded words.
Avoid any direct mention of race or national origin in your job description, as well as the phrase “native English speaker,” as this might discourage people of other nationalities from applying.
Ageism is a real problem in the workplace. Sixty-four percent of workers above the age of 50 believe older workers face age discrimination in the office. Even worse, nearly all (90%) of them believe this discrimination occurs consistently.
Creating an inclusive work atmosphere means welcoming people of different ages into your company. Make sure to avoid wording that could imply you’ll reject potential candidates from a certain age category, such as:
“High energy”
“Young”
“College grads”
“Fun”
To create a more inclusive workplace, everyone needs to be on board with the company’s mission. You don’t want an environment in which workers make sexist comments, or an employee is fearful of a coworker who adheres to a different religion than them.
Diversity training can improve employees’ awareness of diversity-related issues in the office and help employees reassess prejudiced beliefs — ultimately making them more welcoming toward others.
Here are some tips for running an effective diversity training program:
Diversity leads to a better work environment for everyone, as it allows for new processes and more ideas. Explain this benefit to your employees.
Do many of your employees belong to a specific religion? Or do you feel like there’s tension growing between the young hires and the more senior employees at your company?
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to the “best” diversity training. Make sure to customize your company’s training materials for your team.
Diversity audits involve keeping a close eye on the attitude that employees have toward each other. It also allows you to identify if any discrimination is taking place and immediately address it.
An effective way to run these diversity audits is through weekly surveys that you can send to your employees via tools such as Slack or email.
Hiring remotely helps to build a more diverse workforce. If your company has positions that can be performed from home, you can hire people in foreign countries under contractor agreements.
While this is an excellent way to make your workforce more diverse, this approach does come with challenges.
For example, you’ll need to consider which currency you’ll pay your remote contractors in and by which transfer method. Also, you’ll need communication and workload management strategies, especially since these workers might live in different time zones than your own.
Consider using Remote Talent to find highly skilled employees around the world. You can post listings, make data-driven compensation decisions, and hire remote workers with ease.
The benefits you offer to new hires should also reflect inclusion.
Examples of inclusive policies include the following:
The birth of a child is a very busy time for parents. Offer gender-neutral parental leave for the employees in your office.
Allow your religious employees to take time off during their holidays. For Muslim employees, for example, that could mean allowing them to take a break from work during Eid. For Jewish employees, it could mean allowing them to take time off during Rosh Hashanah.
Discrimination can take a toll on a worker’s mental health. As such, it’s important to make mental health a priority in the workplace.
To implement the best hiring practices, you need a way to determine whether your practices are, in fact, inclusive. The easiest way to do this is to ask candidates and hiring managers about their experience.
Applicant diversity: Look at the demographics of your candidates, including their gender, age, race, and more, to determine whether your sourcing strategies are reaching diverse people.
Diversity of candidates who get job offers: Analyze the diversity of candidates who actually get hired to identify any biases or barriers.
Post-application survey: Gather feedback from candidates on their experience with the application process, including the ease of application and clarity of the job description.
Post-interview survey: Get feedback from candidates regarding their experience during the interview stage, including the fairness of the process and clarity of communication.
Onboarding survey: Collect feedback from new hires about the onboarding process, including inclusivity in the workplace culture and ease of stepping into their new role.
Get feedback from your hiring manager or recruiter about the effectiveness and inclusivity of the hiring process. Ask them about challenges they faced during the hiring process, their observations on candidate diversity, and suggestions for improvement.
At Remote, we believe an inclusive work environment is a necessity. We proactively embrace, nurture, and support job candidates and employees of different backgrounds and identities, and we encourage all other organizations to do the same.
To learn more about how Remote embraces diversity in a remote environment — and to borrow our strategies for yourself! — view our public company handbook, which highlights not only our commitment to belonging and diversity but also our policies on remote work, async communication, and even global compensation.
Get started with Remote.
Companies can improve hiring practices by implementing strategies and processes that enhance the effectiveness and inclusivity of the recruitment process.
For example, employers can define clear skill-based job requirements, post job openings on job boards that target diverse talent pools, and use standardized interview questions to ensure consistent evaluation of all candidates.
An effective hiring strategy aims to attract, select, and retain the right talent for your company. Your strategy should include the following steps:
Understand your business and hiring goals to determine what types of candidates your company needs.
Develop qualified candidate profiles that outline the skills, experience, and attributes required for the role.
Create a talent sourcing plan consisting of a mix of sourcing channels, including social media, referrals, and job boards.
Ensure you have an inclusive hiring process where job descriptions and interviews are unbiased and clear.
Train hiring teams to implement effective and consistent interview techniques and evaluation.
In addition to looking at hard skills, employers must also look for a candidate with the right soft skills, experience, and attitude toward the company.
Candidates with the right attitude will often share the same values as your company and show passion and excitement for the role.
The length of the hiring process can differ significantly depending on your hiring strategy, how you source candidates, and the complexity of the role.
Planning and preparation can take 1 to 2 weeks to complete.
Sourcing and attracting candidates can take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks.
Screening and shortlisting can take another 1 to 3 weeks.
Interviewing and assessment can take 2 to 4 weeks.
And, selection and onboarding can take 1 to 3 weeks.
This means the entire hiring process can take anywhere from 7 to 16 weeks.
To ensure your company is implementing fair and unbiased hiring, some of the best hiring practices include creating inclusive job descriptions, implementing different sourcing strategies, having standardized interviews, and providing recruiters with unconscious bias training.
All data collected in this study was based on a survey of 1,250 hiring managers, employees, and business owners across the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, and France in September 2022.
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