When you are struggling to build a diverse team, you'll often hear it blamed on a "pipeline problem".

While many teams will focus on adding new channels to source candidates, it may also be your job descriptions that are keeping talented people out. Here are some tactics to make yours more inclusive.

Take out requirements that aren't truly necessary

Do you need a specific degree from a specific school to do this job? Or 7 years of experience in 3 different steel plants?

Instead, limit your requirements to what's really required, and make explicit what's nice to have.

This is especially important for appealing to women as it's been shown they tent to think they need to hit close to 100% of requirements before they apply.

Include salary benchmarks and recruitment process

As a job searcher, you shouldn't be getting to 3rd interview, only to find out the job pays less than that your current one does!

Take out the effort by stating the benchmark in job ad. The same goes for the recruitment process - let the candidates know each step, what's expected for them and how much time it will take.

State your openness to adapt your interviews and process to accommodated neurodiverse candidates or people with different physical abilities.

Remove non-inclusive languages

Textio, the augmented writing tool, found that words like "exhaustive" and "fearless" result in more men applying to positions than women. Meanwhile, terms like "transparent", "catalyst", have all been proven to appeal more to women than men.

Put your job description into tools like Textio or Gender-Decoder to see how much it's biased towards men or women. Remove or replace words that enable more people from one gender to apply.

Be mindful of using personal pronouns

Don't refer to candidates as "He/She". While you may be trying to be inclusive, you are actually excluding anyone who is transgender or on-binary (or knows someone who is).

Your job descriptions should instead say something like this "The Associate Engineer needs to..."

If you invite them for an interview, ask them which pronouns they prefer and inform your team. This shows you are aware and you walk the talk of inclusion.

Share details about your onboarding process

Quite often, job descriptions give the impression that a person must be the 'employee of the month' from day one. That can be daunting for many candidates and they''' refrain from applying for these roles. 

Try adding a brief write-up on how you'll support the new hire during their first three months.

Avoid generic D&I statements

Include specific details on what Diversity, Equity and Inclusion means for you as a company, why it matters, and what your current ongoing initiatives are on this topic.

Pro-tip: Insert a link to your company's blog posts on Diversity, Equity & Inclusive status update.

Follow these steps and you'll be surprised at the talent you attract!

 When you are hiring, you want to be as fair as possible, and also find candidates who might be perfect for the role even if they don't obviously rise to the top of the list.

It can be frustrating when your usual interview techniques aren't bringing diversity to your team. So how do you implement foolproof strategies to level the playing field?

Counteract the external factors affecting your judgment

Everyone has unconscious biases and you are not going to change that. Before every call, take a few minutes to set aside whatever else is on your mind, by reminding yourself, 

"This is a human being who has hopes and dreams associated with this job, so I need to be fully present for them."

Stay hydrated, stretch and walk around the room, take a few deep breaths, lean back in your chair and arrive prepared.

Set up an objective scoring system

Use a scale of satisfactory, good, or excellent to give objective scores during the interview. Take notes and ask follow-up questions to clarify specific strengths and weaknesses.

Always ask the same questions

Remove small talk

Just because someone is better at chatting doesn't mean they are more qualified to do the job. Don't let a pleasant social connection inhibit your judgement when evaluating their skills.

You can say, "I hope you don't mind but I'm going to jump straight into the questions. I'd love to get to know you better and there will be opportunities for that later in the process. For today, we want to give everyone a level playing field."

Use other tools to assess and compare