10 Diversity Recruiting Strategies To Build Innovative Teams

What does your company look like today? How do you want it to look in the coming months or years? To ensure your business thrives, you must find ways to harness the power of an increasingly diverse workforce and create conditions where employees from different backgrounds can succeed. 

Inclusive companies that create cultures where everyone can flourish have specific strategies for achieving such results. Implementing these efforts makes a strong statement about your commitment to employees and opens doors to groups of people that may otherwise fall outside your recruiting efforts. 

The following strategies and tips can help you broaden your pool of applicants, hire the best candidates, and ensure top talent stays engaged and supported.

10 Key Recruiting Strategies

Removing barriers to inclusion and boosting diversity recruiting efforts can lead to better outcomes and may even enable faster hiring practices. To reap these and other benefits, companies must implement and embed strong systems throughout their talent acquisition and retention processes. 

1. Seek a Diverse Talent Pool

Expanding where you look for candidates gives you access to a broader range of skill sets and can increase representation for diverse groups. Consider exploring niche job boards, attending industry-specific conferences, partnering with HBCUs, recruiting from nontraditional backgrounds, and leveraging social media platforms.

2. Partner With Professional Organizations

Building relationships with organizations that focus on career opportunities for underrepresented groups can help you diversify your candidate pool. These partnerships provide access to job seekers who might not have shown up in proactive sourcing or might not be aware of your organization’s openings.

3. Align on Key Criteria Before Opening a role

What will be the roles and responsibilities of a person in the role? What skills and background should an ideal candidate have? By aligning on what the role requires and then focusing on candidates that meet those requirements, you can limit biases that emerge in sourcing and reviewing resumes. 

4. Use Inclusive Language in Job Descriptions

Craft job postings with terms and language that welcome diverse candidates. Avoid phrasing that unintentionally excludes or deters potential applicants, including:

• Gendered speech
• Ageist or generational language
• Racial or cultural biases
• Ableist speech
• Language that portrays a fixed mindset 

Inclusive job listings set the tone for prospective employees and open the door to more qualified candidates.

5. Standardize Interview Questions

Creating a standard interview process and set of consistent questions—also known as a rubric— ensures a fair and unbiased hiring process. It allows for an equitable comparison of responses rather than subjective impressions to help you hire the best candidate for the job. It can also aid in hiring a more diverse workforce since candidates from underrepresented groups are more prone to negative biases throughout the hiring process. 

6. Assemble Diverse Interview Panels

Having a diverse recruiting team conduct interviews can reduce unconscious bias in the screening process. It also allows potential candidates to see themselves represented within your organization during the interview process.

7. Provide Unconscious Bias Training

Educating your hiring team about unconscious bias and how it can affect decision-making helps create a more inclusive recruitment process. Paradigm’s proven unconscious bias training helps employees see and mitigate mental shortcuts that can lead to exclusion.

8. Hold Calibrations Before Making a Decision 

When you’re ready to make a final decision, gather your interview panel to discuss the finalists. Encourage them to focus on each candidate’s qualifications and how they scored on the rubric. Create environments where panel members can respectfully raise questions and help each other address any biases that may emerge, ultimately helping you hire the best person for the role.    

9. Promote Inclusive Culture Across the Board

Ensure your company culture and values support inclusive DEI program initiatives. A welcoming environment where all employees feel they matter is an important factor in attracting and retaining diverse talent.

10. Measure Inclusive Recruiting Efforts

Establish metrics to track the effectiveness of your diversity recruitment strategies. Regularly reviewing benchmarking metrics will help you understand what’s working and where improvements are needed.

Common Practices That Make Diverse Recruiting Hard

Building a diverse workforce isn’t only about what you start doing in hiring—it’s also about avoiding common pitfalls. 

Sticking With Traditional Recruitment Channels

Limiting candidate searches to conventional job boards, recruiters, or networks can limit reach to candidates from underrepresented groups. Traditional methods may diminish applicant quality and introduce too much homogeneity into the org chart.

Deprioritizing Communications That Value Diversity

Diverse employees often look to a company’s website or promotional materials to learn about its culture. Candidates may decide against applying if the business fails to showcase a commitment to diversity and inclusion in its branding. 

Organizations should also avoid overt or performative marketing strategies. Candidates with diverse backgrounds are sensitive to any content they deem disingenuous, which could affect their decision to apply.

Inflexible Work Arrangements

Eliminating flexible working hours, remote work options, or accommodations can exclude candidates with different requirements or lifestyles. In some cases, employees may seek out flexibility or remote work because it allows them to work in a comfortable setting that supports their needs.

Worrying Too Much About Employee Fit

Overemphasis on hiring for “cultural fit” can sometimes lead to “more of the same” regarding team demographics. Focus on culture add instead of culture fit and use a diverse interview panel and inclusive hiring process to help mitigate unconscious bias that leads to less diverse team building.

The ROI of Hiring a Diverse Workforce

Diversity pays dividends: The money you invest to create a sense of belonging and promote inclusion comes back to your organization through enhanced brand reputation, improved stock performance, and increased profitability. 

Employee Engagement

When employees feel seen and celebrated, they have the mental bandwidth to bring their best effort to the role. 

Companies with diverse workforces and inclusive practices often experience higher team engagement. In one recent study, Paradigm found that employees who think their company values diversity and inclusion are 150% more likely to be engaged at work. 

Profitability

Improved inclusion practices are as good for financials as they are employee experience, making promoting diversity a priority for businesses intent on growth.

Several recent studies have drawn the line between inclusion and profitability. Reports from McKinsey and the Financial Management Journal show that diverse companies perform better than their less-diverse counterparts. 

• McKinsey’s 2023 Diversity Matters report found that gender and ethnically diverse teams lead businesses to financially outperform their peers by 39%.
• A 2024 study published by Financial Management found a positive correlation between employee demographic diversity and future stock returns in US firms. 

Longevity

One of the most impactful working conditions is belonging, and inclusive working conditions lead to better tenure and reduced attrition. 

A recent study from the online coaching platform BetterUp, available through the Harvard Business Review, found that strong belonging correlates with a 50% drop in turnover risks. The same study revealed that high belonging leads to a 75% reduction in sick day use. Belonging gives employees reasons to stay longer and show up more consistently. 

Innovation

Innovation is the fuel for growth. When you create the right conditions for innovation, you improve the output of your employees and teams. 

A recent report from the Harvard Business Review showed that employees who feel safe to share their ideas and speak up on important issues are 3.5 times more likely to bring their full innovative abilities to bear in their daily work.

Performance

Creative thinking and problem-solving are competitive advantages. Evidence supports the idea that diversity in the workplace translates to diversity of thought and perspective. Differing viewpoints can produce creative solutions to novel challenges. 

A 2023 meta-analysis showed that diversity-focused companies improved employee engagement, enhanced creativity and innovation, better decision-making, and increased competitiveness.

How to Retain Diversity After Hiring

Getting fresh talent in the door is just one aspect of hiring managers’ and HR representatives’ work. The real goal is to give employees a reason to stay. 

While every employee is on their own career path, the following strategies for creating inclusive cultures where everyone can do their best work can help you keep top-tier talent within the organization.

1. Inclusive Performance Management

Implement performance review processes that are fair and transparent. Ensure all employees understand the evaluation metrics and the steps necessary to progress in their careers.

2. Benefits Parity

Offer equitable benefits that cater to the diverse needs of your workforce, including health care, parental leave, flexible working hours, necessary accommodations, and mental health support. 

Benefits parity demonstrates a commitment to the well-being of all employees and allows those who need accessibility support or ADA-protected accommodations to perform their roles and feel secure in their work environment. 

3. Career Development Opportunities

Create clear pathways for employee advancement within the organization. Offer mentoring programs, professional development courses, and leadership training to help team members grow their careers within the company.

4. A Culture of Belonging

Cultivate an environment where every employee feels valued and included. Leaders can unlock belonging through regular diversity and inclusion training, celebrating cultural events, and encouraging open dialogue.

5. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Support the formation of ERGs, which provide a forum for employees with similar backgrounds or interests to connect and support each other. These groups can also offer insights into how the company can better serve its diverse workforce.

6. Flexible Working Arrangements

Recognize the varying needs of employees by offering flexible work schedules, remote working options, or part-time positions. This flexibility can help accommodate personal commitments and improve work-life balance.

7. Safe Channels for Feedback

Establish safe and confidential channels where employees can voice concerns, report discrimination or harassment, and provide feedback on diversity initiatives without fear of retribution.

8. Diversity in Leadership 

Strive for diversity at all levels within the organization. Seeing diverse representation in leadership roles not only inspires junior employees but also ensures a variety of perspectives in decision-making processes.

9. Recognition of Contributions

Regularly acknowledge and reward the unique contributions of your team members in ways that respect cultural differences and individual preferences.

10. Community Engagement

Encourage employee involvement with their local communities and causes that matter to them. Supporting social responsibility initiatives can strengthen team bonds while positively impacting society.

Increase Workplace Diversity with Paradigm

The right tools and data make cultivating inclusion in your workplace easier. Paradigm’s platform gives HR teams, hiring managers, and executive employees insights to drive inclusion and training options to build relevant skills.

To see Paradigm in action and discover how it can improve diversity recruiting practices within your organization, talk to a Paradigm expert now. 

January 15, 2025

If you want more information about diversity recruiting, contact us today!