Background
A leading multi-national technology company from US identified a lack of diversity and inclusion in their current hiring practices and found that it was affecting their performance. The company aimed to address this issue by developing strategies to attract a diverse pool of candidates, implementing bias-free screening and selection processes, to foster a more inclusive work environment and approached Saransh to revamp their hiring strategy to eliminate this issue.
The Saransh Approach
Understanding the requirements of the company, the Saransh team had to balance the existing workforce with introduction of new members. The first step of the entire transformation was the hiring part, followed by setting up processes for inclusion and team bonding.
- Identifying gaps in the current recruitment process:
Saransh conducted a comprehensive review of the existing recruitment process to identify potential biases or barriers that may hinder diversity and inclusion. This included evaluation of job descriptions, qualifications, and requirements to ensure they were inclusive and free from biased language.
- Revamping existing Job Descriptions and necessary qualifications:
The second stage was to collaborate with the company’s hiring managers and HR professionals, to revise job descriptions, removing any unnecessary requirements that could discourage diverse candidates. Changing the job descriptions, Saransh incorporated inclusive language and emphasized the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion in the job postings.
- Bias-Free Screening and Unbiased Selection Processes:
Changing the hiring process, Saransh helped introduce blind resume screening, where personal information such as ethnicity, gender, social background and age were removed from resumes during the initial screening stage. The hiring managers were trained to recognize unconscious biases and adopt standardized assessment criteria to ensure fair evaluations.
Diversity and Inclusion Training for Managers and Team Leads
Once the hiring process was revamped, the second stage of the process was to inculcate the change in work culture throughout the different stages of the organization. It was decided to bring in this change by training the floor managers and team leads, so that they could pass it further down the line to their team members.
- Mandatory Training Sessions:
Conducted mandatory training sessions for hiring managers to raise awareness about unconscious biases and provide them with tools to foster an inclusive work environment.
- Setting Specific Diversity Goals:
Measurable goals were established to track and monitor the progress of diversity and inclusion initiatives. The changes and adaptations in processes were regularly reviewed to measure the diversity metrics, such as the participation of underrepresented groups and effects of adapted processes.
Outcome
The step-wise transformation towards inclusion brought about a drastic change in the company’s overall performance. In addition, The company’s commitment to creating a more inclusive work environment led to a more diverse workforce, fostering innovation and driving positive business outcomes. Partnering with diversity-focused organizations expanded the company’s reach to underrepresented communities.
Today, the company is proud of actually being a diverse, equal-opportunity company, with a happy workforce of more than 500 employees across 3 countries. The company has saw a spike in their performance growth by more than 20%.