Harnessing the Power of Diversity

Harnessing the Power of Diversity: Executive Recruiting Done Right

Diversity is a critical aspect of any modern organization. A diverse team can bring a range of perspectives, ideas, and experiences that can help drive innovation, creativity, and ultimately, success. However, achieving diversity can be challenging, especially when it comes to executive recruiting.

Executive recruiting is an essential process that can help organizations find the right leaders to steer their businesses towards success. However, traditional recruiting methods often lead to homogeneity in leadership teams, limiting the potential benefits of diversity. Here are some ways to harness the power of diversity in executive recruiting:

1. Define Diversity Goals: The first step towards achieving diversity in executive recruiting is to define diversity goals. Organizations should set clear objectives that outline the types of diversity they want to achieve, such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, and cultural background. These goals should be communicated to the recruiting team and be an essential consideration when assessing potential candidates.

2. Expand Your Network: Expanding your network is a crucial step towards achieving diversity in executive recruiting. Organizations can reach out to diverse communities, attend industry events and conferences, and build relationships with diverse professional organizations to expand their pool of potential candidates.

3. Reconsider Qualifications: Organizations must rethink their traditional qualifications when assessing potential candidates to achieve diversity in leadership teams. They should consider non-traditional backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets that can bring unique perspectives and ideas. Focusing on qualifications that only cater to a specific demographic can lead to homogeneity in the team.

4. Eliminate Bias: Unconscious bias can be a significant roadblock to achieving diversity in executive recruiting. Organizations should evaluate their recruitment processes and eliminate any unconscious biases that may exist. They can do this by implementing blind resume screening and avoiding questions that may lead to bias.

5. Diversify Your Recruiting Team: Diversifying the recruiting team can help ensure that the organization is considering a range of candidates from diverse backgrounds. Including individuals from diverse backgrounds in the recruiting team can bring new perspectives and ideas that can help identify the best candidates.

In conclusion, achieving diversity in executive recruiting is critical for any organization looking to achieve long-term success. By setting clear goals, expanding networks, rethinking qualifications, eliminating bias, and diversifying the recruiting team, organizations can harness the power of diversity and build strong, diverse leadership teams that can drive innovation and success.

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Measuring Diversity

Measuring Diversity: The Metrics That Matter

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McKinsey & Company’s 2018 “Delivering through Diversity” report stated companies in the top quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33 percent more likely to have industry-leading profitability. Additionally, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21 percent more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation. These facts are proof that efforts to elevate your D&I initiatives can have a bottom-line impact on your organization.

 

Moreover, research has proven that, without inclusion, diversity is unsustainable.

 

Additionally, the idea of “belonging” is becoming increasingly important to a strong D&I strategy. Belonging is the sense that all employees can be their authentic selves, and as such, are essential to their team’s success. However, to continue effectively driving your D&I initiatives in the right direction, you need to know what is working and how well.

 

The metrics that measure the success of any people initiative are the same for D&I. Performance indicators, especially financial performance (specifically profit margin), should be paired with softer metrics for a complete picture. Correlate financial performance with measurements of employee engagement, employee retention, talent attraction, customer orientation, employee satisfaction and employee participation in decision-making.

 

In addition to these, there are a couple of specific initiatives you should implement to focus on measuring D&I:

 

Diversity Reports:

 

From a broad view, your company may appear to be diverse, but consider segmenting the company several ways to ensure it is representative of all levels and functions. Completing a quarterly or biannual report that shows the following (compiled from Project Include) will lend insight into your initiatives’ success:

 

  1. Employees overall, by function, seniority and tenure (cut by demographics)
  2. Employment status (i.e., full-time, part-time, contractor) (cut by demographics)
  3. Management and leadership (cut by demographics)
  4. Salary (cut by demographics) – Raises and bonuses (cut by demographics)
  5. Board of directors (cut by demographics)
  6. Candidate pools and hiring funnels, by role (cut by demographics)
  7. Voluntary and involuntary attrition rates (cut by demographics)
  8. Promotion rates (cut by demographics)
  9. Formal and informal complaints (cut by demographics) – Complaint resolution status (cut by demographics)

 

As an executive placement firm specializing in workplace diversity, we ensure that our clients have a keen understanding of what it will take to create the best culture to create a sense of belonging for all cultures. We aren’t just an executive headhunter. We are committed to being the best D&I search partner that we can be. Give us a call if you’re interested in finding out more.