9 Tips To Bring Your Diversity Inclusion Operations into Full Swing

1. House that inside your hiring policy

Possibly the first affirmative measure that your organization can take up is embed Diversity Inclusion in the recruitment policy. There is no point in putting out an image that surfacially endorses DnI hiring by having the support framed on workspace walls, written in company newsletters and on websites. If your organization is determined to intake candidates from all walks of life then that should be an integral part of its mission and philosophy.

2. Scale company policy to be more considerate 

Include events, holidays and activities in your yearly calendar that offers a thought for team members from all backgrounds. Offer flexible working hours to lay ground for more time and space to involve with each other as team members. You can also call in open-dialogue meetings and host a welcoming environment wherein candidates with various experience can speak about what kind of collaborative atmosphere will make their productivity reach new heights.

3. Restructure recruitment announcements

Reshape how your organization calls out for new members to the workforce. Rework posts, ads, announcements to increase the ambit of application for the purpose of diversity inclusion. If you happen to have in mind candidates that belong to specific demographics, experience levels or skill sets, design the ADs so that you remain open to applications from a variety of sources.

4. Rewards for referrals, as simple as that

Being supportive to diversity inclusion as a part of identity is noble and humane. And the probably the fastest route to that would be to incentivize referrals to help build a team of personnel with diverse talents. You can begin by rewarding employees who referred to a fresh talent that made the team. Such a program or strategy would leverage the current network and resources and funnel the best of the market right into your company’s intelligence pool.

5. Pro-disability inclusion, anti-discrimination

Let’s face it, the society we are in isn’t readily friendly towards persons with disabilities and choses now and again to avoid the real concern about them. Modern workspaces aren’t too different. Their regular recruitment drives are designed so as to exclude PwDs with the most convincing of excuses. But if you don’t want your organization to be a part of that league anymore, then there is another endeavour that you’d have to take up beyond a PwD welcoming hiring strategy, which is training to deal with what comes next.

Train the current personnel to be mindful of newcomers that are disabled to some or the other extent, train them to not discriminate and exclude PwDs. Here you’d need to mandatorily introduce a new psychological bend to your staff so that it only invites PwD talent but also sustains it. 

6. A segment of budget cut out specially for that

Software, hardware, furniture, signage, assistive devices, etc. all the material that will help the fresh recruit with diverse background wanting to keep a long-term engagement with your organization. And for that, just simple things need to be aligned. For those with visual impairment, a speech to text conversion software and perhaps, braille friendly keyboard attached with large monitors. For those with walking difficulties, you can come up with a workspace readjusted for better accommodation. For those with hearing impairment, even a standard workstation with which they can send messages and emails, would be enough.

7. Audit for safety and maintenance

After having installed all the assistive devices above, comes the concern for their safety and maintenance. Set monthly audits for the safety, repair, service and maintenance of these devices. Observe how well they are actually helping the ones in need and are not lying around for the show of it. Make structural adjustments to workstations so as that PwDs can find comfort enough so that their productivity levels do not get disturbed.

8. Internship programs with broadened reach

Set a minimum target number of seats designated for interns with disabilities for a given year. Such co-op or internship programs will not only encourage but also ensure that your organization gets to interview talent that is ready to become your human resource. Locate your internship recruitment drives in venues where you can put out an open call to community groups and/or people with specific backgrounds and then select the best fit for both, the set target and talent requirement.

9. Equal pay 

This is not new but when has this ever been actually taken up seriously enough? Equal pay would not just encourage diversity but will also make the organization invite great minds that were otherwise kept at bay because of pay discrimination due to unreasonable reasons.