EquallyPlaced.com was founded to eradicate unconscious bias and champion fairness within the hiring, advertising, sourcing, and selection processes for all organizations across the UK and beyond.

Through intensive research, we’ve created this step-by-step list to offer you guidance and achievable ways to improve your inclusivity practices.

• Define Diversity & Inclusion for your organisation

It’s crucial to define D&I for your organization. This includes setting goals for the future, and establishing your current position. Identifying any strengths and weaknesses will help to create an accurate plan of action and change.

• Review your job & person specifications

Your job specifications are often a ‘first impression’ to any new or potential candidates. They offer an insight into your business and culture. Tools such as Textio can be used for language proofing, to help you eradicate biased languages in your job or person specifications. As well as this, ensure that any ‘essential’ skills listed on your specifications are minimal, and not exhaustive.

• Candidate Attraction

It’s crucial to ensure that your opportunities are advertised on a variety of platforms, in order to attract a variety of different applicants. EquallyPlaced.com offers an advertising solution which will not only attract a diverse range of applicants, but will also ensure any biases are hidden as the applicant chooses. As well as this, with the importance of culture and D&I rising, it’s recommended to talk about your commitment to D&I in your job specification to allow candidates an insight into your plans, including your flexible working options and information on maternity / paternity. When rewriting your new candidate attraction material, ensure any pictures and graphics throughout the careers websites and specifications include a variety of people, and not a specific industry stereotype.

• Shortlisting

When it comes to shortlisting, it’s recommended to have more than one stakeholder involved in the review of candidates. Blind Recruitment is becoming more and more popular, and is the basis in which EquallyPlaced.com was founded. It allows for all biases to be removed from profiles prior to the shortlist stage.

Note: if blind recruitment isn’t an option, it’s recommended to submit shortlists including a number of minorities, and provide reasoning if that isn’t possible.

• Interviewing

Ensure that your interview panel shows a diverse team, in ages, disabilities, ethnicities and gender. It is important that you structure interviews so that each individual has a fair and consistent experience. It is also further recommended to conduct a variety of interviews, including group interviews aswell as 1-2-1s.

• Decisions

Stress-testing and debriefing any final decisions is key to resulting in the most fair and informed selection. It’s important to challenge any decisions by stakeholders, and ask for reasoning why the final decisions have been made.

• Onboarding

Diversity & Inclusion is an ongoing process, and doesn’t end once the hire is made. It’s important that your new employee has the right experience during their career, and it’s crucial to keep tracking selection data and processes.

Remember, Diversity & inclusion is often a long-term process of change. It’s important to track, monitor and adapt constantly, and ensure that Diversity & Inclusion exists beyond just the recruitment process. For further support or guidance, feel free to contact us on hello@equallyplaced.com