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Webinar Recap: What’s Next for Inclusive Hiring?

Although the global economic downturn has caused many organizations to pause or slow down hiring, we’re actually still seeing an influx of questions relating to inclusive hiring. Organizations that are still hiring are wondering how to do so remotely while remaining inclusive to all demographic groups, whereas organizations that have paused or slowed down hiring and are wondering whether now might be a good time to focus on upskilling recruiters and hiring managers so they’re equipped to hire inclusively when things pick back up.  

On May 12th, Paradigm’s founder and CEO, Joelle Emerson, hosted a webinar to discuss some of the barriers we’re seeing with regards to inclusive hiring, and some strategies and tools organizations can adopt in today’s environment. 

What We Heard From Attendees 

Polls throughout the webinar gave us quantifiable insights into where different organizations are in their talent acquisition efforts: 

  • The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on hiring, but it hasn’t stopped it completely: 17% of attendees have paused hiring, 51% have slowed down, 27% are at about the same level, and 5% have increased hiring. 
  • The shift to remote work, combined with the slowdown in hiring, is creating new priorities for organizations: creating remote processes was top-of-mind for 34% of attendees, 46% are thinking about the remote candidate experience, and 51% are concerned about the recruiting team’s time & engagement. 
  • The most common strategy attendees use to limit bias in interviews is structure: 78% use set questions, and 62% require interviewers to write down feedback. Less than half—40%—are using rubrics, and 29% limit offline conversations between interviewers. 

Candid conversations and questions throughout the webinar also highlighted some of the biggest coronavirus D&I challenges we’re hearing about from organizations:

  • Remote interviews are prime for bias, particularly with video showcasing parts of candidates’ lives that would have been previously unknown.
  • Getting buy-in from the broader organization on inclusive practices can be a challenge, particularly for “high-volume” positions. Pro-tip: inclusive processes are also fundamentally scalable processes—you can hire more effectively and efficiently if you invest the time up front! 
  • Scaling learnings about inclusive hiring and upskilling teams is particularly challenging right now, when many folks are remote. On the webinar, Joelle shared effective, affordable tips including using online diversity and inclusion training, pre-briefs, toolkits, and email reminders. 

You can download the webinar here for more tips from Joelle on overcoming barriers to inclusive hiring throughout three key steps of the hiring process: Resume Reviews, Interviews, and Candidate Debriefs. We’ll also share a blog in the coming week’s with a deeper dive into inclusive remote hiring AND onboarding—watch this space. 

May 13, 2020

If you’d like to discuss how Paradigm can help you foster a more inclusive hiring experience, contact us today!