As a new startup, there’s a lot of pressure to do well in your industry. You are up against some of the top dogs, who have both financial power and a wealth of experience behind them. Trying to compete with these companies is a challenge. While you shouldn’t compare yourself to others, what inspires you is often what those are doing around you.

Diversity is important within any business and any department. You should be proactive in finding talent, not just for those who can do the job but also to represent the diversity that we see in society.

When you start making hires from all the same gender or ethnicity, you create problems for yourself. Here are some helpful tips for diversifying your talent as a startup.

Make sure your company culture is inclusive

You can nurture and diversify the business from day one as a company. How? Through its company culture. The representation and dynamics of a company culture are all built by those who are already a part of it. Your current employees, whether you or a handful of people, need to set the right tone regarding company culture.

Without inclusivity in your company culture, you lack representation within the company. You might end up unintentionally segregating certain groups from your business. You might see that among the applicants you have applied for the job, 

If the job advert lacks diversity in its applications, then this could indicate that the company culture isn’t entirely inclusive in how you believe it to be.

Attracting diverse talent takes effort from all those involved in the company, mainly within the recruitment team. Gather feedback and understand the effectiveness of your interviews with those who didn’t get the job. There’s a lot you can learn from these individuals about how to improve your efforts.

Create goals surrounding the recruitment of diverse talent 

Goals are essential because they allow for motivation and hold you accountable for promptly achieving them. With that in mind, you should create goals that are driven to recruit more diverse talent.

Until now, you might only have yourself in the company or a few staff members who have been with you since the startup’s inception.

Having goals that aim for more diversity within your recruitment drives will likely result in a more diverse selection. Hopefully, by the time you’ve hired half a dozen more staff, you’ve got a workforce that’s incredibly diverse across all talents.

Always take stock of your position regarding diversity and inclusion. Make sure that all the roles are filled with equality in mind. The gender pay gap is still a problem in many fields of work, so it’s good to try to lead by example by providing everyone with equal pay when they do the same job.

Provide training for team members responsible for recruitment

Unconscious bias is something that can creep in when it comes to recruitment. While you’d hope that your team members who already exist within the business, including yourself, aren’t biased in their opinions towards certain groups, ethnicities, or genders, training is helpful to have available.

With the proper training, you can help tackle common problems within recruitment and ensure all team members responsible for it, are leading with less or no bias when it comes to making their selections.

It’s also important to remember that not every person has experience recruiting and, therefore, needs to be trained accordingly. 

Be proactive in searching for diversity to stock up your talent pipeline

Diversity is something that you need to be proactive with. You can’t rely on diverse talent to come to you, especially as some of that talent might not have the same connections or access to the jobs you are advertising.

Being proactive and searching for diversity yourself as a company is helpful when stocking up that talent pipeline. Whether you’re looking to hire right now, sometime in the near future, or way further down the line, seeking diverse talent and having them in your line of sight is helpful not only for creating a more diverse workforce but also for your future success.

Continue to find the places where the underrepresented can be found. Provide an inclusive platform for applying for jobs and trying to network where you can to find more talent for your business now and in the future.

Structure your interview process

When recruiting for diversity, ensure that your recruitment process is structured so that each candidate receives the same treatment.

If the interview is not structured well and remains fluid, you might miss the opportunity to ask some of your candidate’s relevant questions.

By setting up a structure for the interview, every candidate will get a fair chance, and it will also help avoid any bias that may naturally creep in from time to time.

Creating the same set of conditions for each candidate is helpful and a great way of ensuring fairness for all those interviewing for the role itself.

Work with minority organizations and groups for recruitment 

The lack of diversity in a workforce and companies, in general, is often because those minority groups are being overlooked. They don’t have the same opportunities as others; whether it’s their background or the lack of equipment or knowledge, they have to get to a point where they can apply for your job.

Working with minority organizations and groups is a great way to diversify your workforce. By sponsoring institutions supporting people from these underrepresented groups, you’re helping build up those individuals who will hopefully secure a job in a company like yours.

Building those Relationships with such organizations is highly important and incredibly helpful to help bridge the gap between those struggling to get into jobs due to who they are and where they come from. You might also find that specific online platforms can help you find talent from places you didn’t think possible, like offshore engineers in other countries.

Check that all job descriptions are inclusive

Job descriptions are an important part of the recruitment process because the wording of the advertisement can often determine whether the right candidate applies or does not.

If you make the job description seem too complex or out of the candidate’s wheelhouse, you might be putting off those who could do the job. The way you word the job description should be reviewed carefully.

You want an inclusive job description that doesn’t use specific grammar or wording that could exclude certain individuals. 

Conduct blind resume procedures

Finally, when you’re looking at resumes, consider doing blind resumes. What does this mean? Blind resumes are where you look at everything in the resume other than the personal details like their name and anything else they’ve included.

It completely removes any ability to bias and helps you focus on what’s most important: the talent you have gained through experience, skills, and knowledge.

Diversifying your talent as a startup is the best approach when starting a new company. You want to be the future of tomorrow rather than adopting outdated processes that could unwillingly set you back before you’ve even got started.

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Originally Published on https://www.breakfastleadership.com/

Michael Levitt Chief Burnout Officer

Michael D. Levitt is the founder & Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego and Toronto-based burnout consulting firm. He is a Keynote speaker on The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and Burnout. He is the host of the Breakfast Leadership show, a Certified NLP and CBT Therapist, a Fortune 500 consultant, and author of his latest book BURNOUT PROOF.