Diversity and inclusion are important to the health and success of an organization. When we work with people who are different from us, we can accomplish more, are more creative, and have the benefit of different perspectives. So, when we talk about diversity, what are we talking about? Of course, we are talking about things like race and gender and those things we physically see with our eyes, but we are also talking about backgrounds, socio-economic status, belief systems, education, etc.
Are you attracting a diverse candidate pool during your recruiting process? If not, what could you be doing differently? We have some suggestions that may help, and for SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting/Recruiting Marketing customers we will share how you can leverage system tools to enhance your process.
Evaluate Educational Requirements
Do all your jobs require a bachelor’s degree? Many organizations place an emphasis on educational requirements and potentially miss out on candidates who would be a great fit despite lacking that requirement. We are not downplaying the importance of education, but having this requirement can severely limit someone’s ability to grow within an organization. For example, you could have a candidate who has successfully run their own business for many years, but they do not have a bachelor’s degree. You could be missing out on a candidate with excellent leadership skills, who is self-motivated, and is able to problem-solve. These are skills you don’t learn in school. At some point additional education may be needed but are there roles that currently have a heavier emphasis on education than necessary? The evaluation of those roles would be an excellent exercise, and with SuccessFactors Recruiting and Job Profile Builder you can assign specific competencies for your jobs so when you get to the interview process you can efficiently evaluate candidates based on those pre-defined competencies.
Review Job Descriptions
A well-written job description is extremely important. Not only does it need to accurately represent the job, but it should be written in a way that attracts both male and female candidates. SuccessFactors has a job analyzer feature that can be enabled to help you identify words that may resonate more with a male than a female and vice versa. It can also make suggestions as to potential neutral terms to be used instead.
Create Diversity and Inclusion Content Page
Use Career Site Builder to create a diversity and inclusion content page that highlights your organization’s commitment to having an inclusive and diverse workforce. Add in employee stories and photos (forget those stock photos everyone has access to!) What special benefits does your organization have that may attract new candidates? For example, do you have paid parental leave, flexible schedules, etc.? Do you have a program to help veterans? All of these things are attractive to candidates. Be sure to share them, this shows your organization is committed to diversity.
Ensure Your Career Site Meets Minimum Accessibility Standards
Could your career site be a roadblock for someone with a disability? Career Site Builder offers customers the ability to make changes to their career site as needed. A system administrator can make updates quickly and easily, however, in doing so it can be easy to forget about accessibility. Take the time to review your career site to ensure it works well with screen reader technology. If possible, it’s always a good idea to have someone who uses this technology test your site for you and provide feedback on recommended changes.
Take Inventory of Where Jobs Are Posted
Where are you posting your jobs today? Are you intentionally posting them on sites to attract a diverse candidate pool? SuccessFactors offers the Recruiting Posting tool which will allow you to pick and post your jobs to over 3,000 sources without leaving SuccessFactors. Perhaps you will find specialized sites marketing to a variety of candidate pools. Recruiting Posting offers both free and paid job boards, some of which require a contract so be sure to review before posting.
Incorporate Diverse Interview Teams and Provide Consistent Feedback
When interviewing candidates, be sure you have an inclusive and diverse interview team; this provides a better overall experience for the candidate and helps ensure you hire the best person for the job. Also, during the interview process you can use Interview Central in SuccessFactors Recruiting to provide feedback on each interview. Be sure to attach an interview guide in your requisition so candidates are consistently being asked and rated on the same questions. Consistency is important when comparing candidate qualifications.
What other ways are you using SAP SuccessFactors to help with diversity and inclusion? We hope to see SAP continue to innovate around this topic in future releases and when there are more tools available, we will be sure to share them with you.
Have questions about how to enhance your diversity & inclusion strategy with SAP SuccessFactors? Contact us today to connect with one our certified consultants.
