Most modern businesses aspire to assemble a team reflecting the labor market’s demographic diversity. Unfortunately, many employers fall short, sometimes due to flawed hiring and onboarding practices and sometimes because they simply aren’t sure how to source, evaluate, and recruit diverse talent.

Implementing diverse hiring practices requires organizations to fully commit to the principles of diversity and inclusivity and to devise HR strategies that successfully attract diverse candidates and ensure those candidates feel welcome and valued in the workplace. We know such lofty goals are tricky to achieve, so we’ve put together a quick guide outlining the advantages of hiring diverse talent and effective strategies for assembling a steady pipeline of top talent from underrepresented groups.

Why Diversity Is Important in Business

Hiring diverse talent isn’t merely a legal mandate companies must abide by; it’s an essential organizational practice leading to a broader pool of top job candidates. After all, staffing your business with workers hailing from a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic demographics ensures your decision-making process benefits from a variety of perspectives.

Additionally, workplace diversity pays off: Research conducted by McKinsey & Co. determined that companies with a diverse leadership team were more profitable than the competition. On a similar note, Deloitte found that diverse work environments lead to higher rates of employee engagement.

What Is an Affirmative Action Plan, and How Is It Related to Diversity?

An affirmative action plan (AAP) is a management program detailing how a company satisfies federal requirements to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all applicants, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, etc. Although hiring diverse talent is a universal legal mandate, only federal contractors and subcontractors must create a formal affirmative action plan.

Federal contractors and subcontractors must formulate an official AAP if:

• They employ 50 or more workers.
• They are within 120 days of the start of the contract.
• The contract is valued at $50,000 or more.
• They have federal bills totaling at least $50,000 during any 12-month period.
• They serve as a depository of federal funds.
• They are a financial institution that issues and pays U.S. savings bonds and notes.

The Key to Hiring Diverse Talent

We’ve established the advantages of building and maintaining a pipeline of diverse talent, but how exactly does that work in action? The following are three simple steps to ensure your hiring efforts are effective and successful.

1. Establish a company culture centered around diversity.

To truly hire diverse talent, you must begin by establishing an inclusive company culture that genuinely values and supports individuals of all backgrounds. It’s easy enough to claim that your organization prioritizes diversity, but it’s not necessarily easy to do so in actuality.

Fortunately, you can utilize anonymous employee surveys and exit interviews to learn how your workers view your company culture and what changes you can make to improve your level of inclusivity. Then, be sure to promote those practices internally and externally through your website and social media channels. Note that creating a diverse workplace is a top-down process. Your company leadership must talk the talk and walk the walk to ensure diversity becomes an inherent aspect of your culture.

2. Ensure HR practices are inclusive.

Do your recruiting strategies and hiring platforms promote inclusive employment practices? If you want to attract and hire diverse talent, your HR practices should reflect that. For example, it’s critical that your job listings don’t contain discriminatory language. A less obvious step is to curtail the length of your requirements and nice-to-haves lists, as research shows that women frequently choose not to apply to jobs for which they don’t meet 100% of the listed qualifications.

3. Hire individuals from alternative sources.

Job boards are just one of many places to find diverse candidates. Consider building an internal database of potential hires belonging to underrepresented demographics. Generally speaking, if you ask your current staff for referrals, they’ll most likely recommend people from similar backgrounds. Fortunately, reaching out to third-party recruitment agencies and minority-focused professional organizations is a great way to put together a talent pool of diverse individuals.

How Biddle Handles Your Affirmative Action Plan Requirements

Biddle Consulting Group doesn’t hire people to “crank out” AAPs, and if that’s all your organization is after, we are happy to refer you to other companies. At Biddle, we expect our clients to be as dedicated to equal opportunity and non-discrimination as we are. That doesn’t mean your organization has to be in 100% agreement with us, but it does mean that you need to commit to working toward a more diverse and inclusive world.

Our consultants are interested in making sure your organization knows what to do with AAPs and how to get the most out of them. Biddle specializes in helping clients find the balance between all the things their compliance professionals want to do with the reality of what they’ll be allowed to do.

The road to a genuinely diverse and inclusive workplace isn’t easy to travel, but it’s mandatory for any employer that wants to attract and retain a wide range of top talent. Reach out to Biddle Consulting Group, and we’ll help you get started on your DEI journey today.