Career Guidance, Clients, Workplace Relations

Ensuring a Diverse Pool of Candidates with a Staffing Agency

Servisource

- 1 year ago

5 tips on finding the right homecare provider

Ensuring a Diverse Pool of Candidates with a Staffing Agency

Finding the right talent to fill valuable positions can be a challenge. It is important that staff consist of a variety of different types of people from a mix of backgrounds and experiences including those of different genders, income levels, ethnicities, faiths, and sexual orientations. Knowing what diversity means to you and ensuring a diverse pool of candidates with a staffing agency in order to create an effective outreach plan, is vital.

When you partner with one such as Servisource, we can bring our recruiting and sourcing expertise to help ensure your teams reflect diversity. There are many ways in which working with one for hiring purposes can help guarantee your business has access to all available talent pools.

Inclusive job descriptions

Women talking. Ensuring a Diverse Pool of Candidates with a Staffing Agency.

In order to welcome applicants from many different backgrounds, it is important to create inclusive job descriptions. Biased language must be avoided along with the exclusion of people because of their age, sex, race, ethnicity, social class, or physical or mental traits.

Not only do job descriptors help define duties to potential workers, but they can also be used to demonstrate the values of an organization and promote inclusion in the workplace. It will allow businesses to open up access to new talent pools that may have been previously excluded or discouraged from applying.

Tips for creating inclusive job descriptions:

Use gender-neutral language in job descriptions and avoid over-masculine words such as: ambitious and dominate.
Use plain speech rather than corporate words, which may turn off international applicants.
Highlight flexible working hours and remote work opportunities which are benefits that may help disabled applicants apply.
Use language and images that are culturally appropriate.
Don’t mention race or national origin anywhere in the job description.

Reviewing CVs blindly

At hospitals and other businesses, the goal is to ensure that every patient or client receives the highest quality of service. To make sure this happens, it is essential to have a team of highly qualified and motivated professionals working together in unison without prejudice.

One way to ensure only the most suitable applicants are hired is by reviewing CVs ‘blindly’. This is where personally identifiable information such as: gender, ethnicity or background, is removed from a candidate’s CV prior to being reviewed by an employer, eliminating any potential biases from hiring decisions.

At Servisource, we ensure a fair and objective evaluation of all applicants which means they are chosen based on their skills and qualifications.

Some advantages of ‘blind’ CV reviewing are:

Ensures that the selection process is based on merit rather than on personal characteristics irrelevant to the job.
It widens the pool of potential applicants by increasing diversity and inclusivity.
It promotes equality and fairness within the workplace by reducing discrimination and unconscious bias.
Boosts company morale by allowing a a variety of people to work together in a welcoming environment.

It is best to not make assumptions about a candidate just by reviewing their CV. Certain software tools can eliminate potential biased views when hiring. There are many different software tools that are recommended for this. The way this works is by analysing employee resume data rather than using criteria such as the university someone attended and then identifying resumes of workers who fit that profile.

Did You Know?

The proportion of women working in Irish health has increased from 79 per cent in 2008 to 81 per cent in 2017.

It is important to have a large percentage of females working in the healthcare industry, especially for female health related issues.

Conducting diverse candidate outreach

To ensure you have the best talent who can deliver a culturally competent approach, establishing efficient strategies for reaching out to a range of workers should be at the top of the recruitment list. By actively seeking out new avenues for discovering potential employees, you will create a more varied group of applicants, while ensuring the job receives more attention.

At Servisource, we use an employee referral program which encourages current employees to refer qualified workers from different backgrounds, promoting a culture of inclusivity. When this technique is used as well as the below, they can achieve some very favourable results.

Use a variety of communication channels, such as social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to advertise the position. By targeting specific groups and demographics through online campaigns, companies can attract a wider range of qualified applicants.
Attend job fairs in order to meet potential applicants who would rather discuss the job in person. By networking at events that cater to underrepresented communities, it will allow for face-to-face interactions and help establish personal connections with potential employees.
Link in with professional associations who include diversity as their ethos and have similar views.

Diversity and Inclusion at Servisource

Servisource and CPL were awarded the first ever National Diversity & Inclusion Award – Company of the Year this year. Diversity is a huge aspect of our work culture through activities such as Be Proud Cafés, our awareness days, as well as our Be Proud Newsletters.

As employers continue to strive for more diversity through their hiring process, having access to a wide range of industry-specific talent and experience via an agency is becoming more attractive. Businesses that take advantage of these services often see an incredible return on investment due to the range of different employees and their unique set of talents.

There are numerous benefits to this and businesses should place their trust in experienced agencies who have skilled candidates, ready to work in the right place, at the right time.