The key to hiring for true diversity rather than just ticking a box

Over my twenty plus years as an executive recruiter, it has been interesting to watch the evolution of the debate around diversity in the workplace, especially at a senior executive level.  What was once regarded as nice to have, has now become in many instances mandatory.  On multiple occasions we have been engaged by ASX100 companies specifically to headhunt women for key appointments to meet a gender diversity target.

Now diversity extends far beyond just gender to include sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, people with disabilities and increasingly people from an indigenous background (especially at board level).  I’m certainly a big advocate for diversity and highly encourage our clients to step beyond their traditional avatar of what makes a good employee.

However it’s also essential that there is a commonsense approach to ensuring that even when hiring for diversity, the appointed candidate is equally well credentialled based on merit.  These people definitely exist.  The challenge becomes how to find and attract these people to your organisation.

A real world example:

A few years ago I was at a gender diversity debate dinner, one of only a handful of men in a room surrounded by at least 150 women.  It would be fair to say there was a lot of heated commentary about the “patriarchy”, the “glass ceiling for women” and similar statements.  So I decided to do a bit of an investigation.

In the previous month, we had recruited four c-suite roles (CEO, CFO, COO etc.), three of which were for Not for Profits.  In every instance, the client had specifically said that they would love to employ a woman.  Across the four roles, we had 800 unique applicants to our advertisements.  What percentage of these do you think were women?  Seven percent!  Fortunately, we are headhunters, so we are not reliant on ad response to fill our vacancies.

If women truly want these opportunities, yet aren’t applying, then what’s going on?  This is definitely a generalisation, but if a female candidate reads an advertisement that calls for 10 criteria and she believes she only has seven or eight, she often won’t feel it’s worth applying.  On the other hand, if a man reads the same advertisement and believes he only has three, he’ll think he’s absolutely the best candidate for the job! (Once again, yes, I know I’m generalising however it is a consistent scenario).

What’s the answer?

If you legitimately want to hire for diversity, you need to accept that you are very unlikely to get the right quality and quantity of candidates (whether that’s gender or otherwise) from purely advertising.  You need to headhunt these people because they are generally in higher demand, not actively looking and may be reluctant to apply based on my comments above.  Internal recruiters are incapable of headhunting (due to needing to disclose who their employer is), plus passive candidates may legitimately have concerns regarding confidentiality.

Headhunting used to be an expensive exercise, however fortunately there are companies now that can offer you headhunting solutions at a fraction of the price of traditional firms.  It’s definitely worth exploring.

Secondly, become completely clear about what you are employing this person to do.  What does success look like in the role?  What are the quantifiable key deliverables you are looking for over the first three, six, twelve months and beyond?  Hire people who have done it before, done it well, and are motivated to do it again.

Don’t fall into the trap of hiring people purely to achieve a diversity target.  Employ the best person, who also happens to bring diversity to your team.  This is how to build and maintain a truly success company and culture.

A final word

If you are “male, stale and pale” like me (i.e. a white bloke over 50), don’t worry.  There’s still plenty of room for us.  When I first started in recruitment there was definitely a belief from employers that once people were of a certain age, it significantly impacted their employment prospects.  I would comfortably say now that for 19 out of 20 assignments we take on, the employer does not care how old someone is, as long as they still have plenty of energy and enthusiasm for the role.  This will only increase as our workforce continues to grow older in the future.

Hiring for diversity is an excellent thing.  Hiring exceptionally talented people who have proven key achievements and transferable skills is also a great thing.  Hiring policies that include both attributes, versus one or the other, is where the gold lies.  Do this consistently and you will have an amazing business.

Written by Richard Triggs.
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