3 THINGS YOURTECH START-UPCAN DOTO ATTRACTMORE WOMEN

Written by: Michelle Gyimah

http://www.equalitypays.co.uk/

1WRITTEN BY: MICHELLE GYIMAHIHTTP://WWW.EQUALITYPAYS.CO.UK

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Statement DiversityThis is not a statement that just pays lip service to diversity, but onethat shows that you are truly committed to having a diverse workforceand developing all your internal talent.

There are no hard and fast rules around how to improve diversity inyour hiring strategy. There are several things that you can do. Noteverything will work for you, which is why it's important not to try andadopt a cookie-cutter approach to improving diversity. Therefore, you need to sit down and be clear on what your businessneeds are; why you need those things and how you will set out to getthem. How this looks for everyone will be different.But doing this work from that start will help your diverse hiringstrategies be more successful.

To start

Equal pay commitment statement: Not many people talk about their pay gap or commitment to minimisingthe pay gap. Having a public statement confirming your commitment toaddressing any issues you have will go a long way to attract morediverse talent.

Highlight diverse staff benefitsparental leave/ maternity leave childcare, vouchers, disability access,mentoring/sponsorship schemes, flexible working etc. These are thetypes of benefits that benefit anyone. Not everyone wants to work fulltime or in the office, some people will have family commitments whileothers just want more trust and flexibility. By focusing and highlightingthe range of staff benefits (not just the typical bro-grammer typebenefits), you'll immediately allow more people to 'self-select'themselves and give them a reason to consider you as an employer.

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Your recruitment strategy What does your recruitment strategy say about you? Not got one? Well,there is your first mistake. Hiring someone in your business costs toomuch time and money to either have no strategy or a weak one. Theteam that you build is the backbone of your company, get this wrong andthis could negatively impact your business.

Widening the pool of talent that you have access to will allow you toaccess more potential new employees that you may not have considered.It's a well-known fact that most posts on star-ups are filled throughreferrals and word of mouth. Whilst this may seem like an easy way todo this, it is very limited.

How? Because it relies on the person referring their friends. And studiesshow that people are friends with people just like them. So, if thispattern was to continue, this is where start-ups easily consisting of justwhite men. Women and ethnic minorities, don't even get a foot in thedoor. That's 50% of the working population being excluded (without themeven realising it because the job is never advertised.)

When people are looking for new jobs, they are looking for a reason tojoin your firm. If you are serious about attracting more women, havingthese things clearly made on your website, social media and as part ofyour branding is a step in the right direction.

The three key areas to concentrate on are: • Your recruiting strategy• Your interview techniques• Your hiring process

When people are looking for new jobs, they are looking for a reason tojoin your firm. If you are serious about attracting more women, havingthese things clearly made on your website, social media and as part ofyour branding is a step in the right direction.

The three key areas to concentrate on are: • Your recruiting strategy• Your interview techniques• Your hiring process

So, what about if you don't rely on referrals and advertise jobsexternally? How can you improve the diversity of the people who applyfor jobs with you?

1. Expand where you advertise your jobs. Think outside the box. Insteadof just advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn consider the following:

• Community agencies and organizations• Community events• Professional associations• Colleges and universities• Education field – urban teach programs• Volunteer organisations• Religious groups• Job fairs• Newspaper/magazines/journals• Radio stations and programs• Web sites, webcasts, podcasts and other online channels• Women in tech forums

By casting the net wider, you are more likely to attract morecandidates that you would never had been in contact with. To get asmany diverse eyes on your job adverts you need to start advertisingwhere they are.

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Draw up the list of the all the places that you normally advertise yourjobs. Is there space for more? Places you've not thought of? Try somenew places where you are likely to attract more people from diversebackgrounds.

To Do

2. Think about how you advertise your job.

What type of language are using?What benefits are you pushing?Do you already have a gender in mind that would be 'best' for the job?

These things influence how you are 'selling' the job to the outside worldand this is reflected in the language you use. Fast Company wrote areally good article on this Analysing the subtle bias in tech recruitinge-mails

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After reading the Fast Company article, go over your old adverts andjob descriptions. Take a look at the language that is in there andhighlight anything that screams 'exclusivity' or suggests bias. This is anot a finger pointing exercise, but merely a way for you to see whereyou may have gone wrong in the past. From there, try re-writing therecruitment e-mail/advert/job description in a way that is moreinclusive and less 'exclusive.' Once you've done this try software likeTextio to further review your language and pick out any language thatis not inclusive. This is now a basic blueprint for all your recruitingcampaigns.

To Do

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Your interview Technique

Interview techniques are so important. Winging it or just going with'gut' feelings when making hiring decisions very rarely ends well.Mainly because those gut feelings don't always translate into actualtalent that brings in revenue to your business.

Another negative aspect of going with gut feelings is that these areoften based on people we like (very often people like ourselves) whichcloses us off to other people re who are equality or more talented purelybecause we don't like them or can't 'see' them in the job.

So, what do you do to ensure that your interview questions/tasks donot put off diverse candidates?

• Stick to questions that focus on the job, not the person’s familyarrangements, race or disability. So, for example asking someone howthey will be able to cope working full time with small children is notappropriate. It's not your place to question that.• When asking questions where you want to know more about them, beprepared for the fact that they may talk about things that are not ofinterest to you e.g. their family, certain hobbies etc.• Stay away from questions based on age, race, national origin,disabilities, pregnancy status, gender, religion, marital status andsexual orientation.• Prepare your interview questions in advance and make sure that youask everyone the same questions.

Remember, interviews are a two-way exchange. As well as you tryingto figure out if they're the best person for the job, they're deciding ifthey want to work with you.

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Your Hiring Process

How do you decide who to hire? You should have a set criteria based onthe job description and interview questions which should guide you inchoosing the best person for the job. If you don't have one, then youneed to make this a priority for the next time you are hiring.

The point of working on a diversity hiring strategy is not to hire anyonewho is not a white male, but to ensure that you are not turning talentaway from other demographics based on the basis that they are notwhite and male.

This is where having a clear criteria and diversity embedded into yourrecruitment and interview strategy in place works. Because, by thetime you get to this stage you've put 2/3 of the diverse hiring strategy inplace. This next stage is about looking at unconscious bias in your finalhiring decisions.

The best advice I can give you is to not go with any of the following asthe reason to turn someone down:

“I am just not comfortable with [the applicant],” or“I don’t think [the applicant] will be a good fit here,” or“I don’t think [the applicant] would be comfortable working here,”.

These are subjective statements not based on any facts and could beviewed as discriminatory. Therefore, having a criterion in placealongside your diversity strategy will help you avoid making thosemistakes.

You need to be able to give clear evidence based reasons for offeringsomeone the job and refusing them the job. Getting these 3 things rightwill put you on the right road to improving gender diversity and inreturn improve your financial bottom line.

Need help in taking this to the next stage?

Looking for personalised help in making gender diversity areality in your workplace?

I have two spots each month to provide one to one help for 90days on improving your attraction and retention of talentedwomen in tech.

Book here to have a FREE discussion about how I can helpyour business make more money whilst recruiting the bestmost diverse talent there is out there.