Implementing fair hiring practises in business is no longer an option but an absolute necessity. Simply put, such practises ensure you promote diversity, equality, and inclusivity in business, attracting top talent.
Resources say nearly 67% of job seekers apply for a company that encourages workplace diversity. These statistics depict the importance of fair hiring in every organisation. Otherwise, you are going to lose top talents from applying for your vacancies.
Recruitment today is more than just finding the right people with experience and qualifications, but the “best hire”. A bad hire not only puts a dent in your company funds but also leads to decreased productivity, wasted time, and low morale.
Under such scenarios, how fair are your fair hiring practises? This guide will help you better understand fair chance hiring practises.
What are Fair Hiring Practises?
These days, companies prefer hiring a top-quality candidate who can contribute to the company’s profit rather than miss out on an opportunity because of discrimination based on gender or country of origin.
Fair hiring strategies involve selecting candidates based on their abilities to perform the role rather than considering unrelated, subjective factors. Simply put, you must choose candidates because of their merit, not personal characteristics.
For example, there’s a popular misconception that women cannot work like men, limiting their recruitment in companies. A recent study depicts the participation rate of women in the current global labour force is below 47%, while for men, it’s 72%. But when you eliminate these discriminating factors, you are more likely to tap into the yet undiscovered talent pool.
Such fair hiring techniques eliminate unconscious biases or stereotypical ideologies and contribute to innovations in your business.
Implementing equitable and fair hiring practises at every stage of the recruitment process is essential. It ensures you comply with anti-discrimination laws, labour laws, and fair hiring of employees act in the country.
But the question is how to achieve a fair hiring standard. You can follow fair employment practises examples, like incorporating blind hiring practice, using inclusive language in job descriptions, using recruiting tools, etc. In the later part of the guide, we will discuss how to implement these hiring practises.
Why Adopt Fair Hiring Practises in Organisations?
According to some predictions, by 2030, the Global talent shortage will be over 85 million people. Companies struggle to find quality candidates for their roles in these dire conditions.
Therefore, it is important to implement strategies that act as bait to both active and passive talents. Active talents are those who are actively looking for jobs. Passive talents already work in another company and aren’t actively looking for jobs but will switch when better opportunities arise. When a company that promotes DEI measures through a fair and transparent recruitment process, they can attract these talents as well.
There are numerous reasons for adopting an equal employment opportunity in organisations.
- Firstly, it adds a touch of creativity and innovation to your business.
- Secondly, hiring people from different backgrounds instils fresh perspectives.
- Additionally, fair hiring ensures you choose talents that align with your business culture and values.
- Finally, you have lower employee turnover, higher retention rates, better productivity, and an improved brand reputation.
Ways to Ensure Fair Hiring Practises in Your Organisation
The start of creating a diverse and inclusive workforce is introducing fair hiring practises in companies. We have listed a few ways to implement such practises in organisations.
Use Inclusive Language in the Job Description
The first mistake in the recruitment process is using non-inclusive language in job descriptions.
For example, you write, “We need a fresh graduate under 28”; this clearly indicates you are biased towards people above that age group.
Other mistakes include using jargon that ordinary people don’t understand, use of gender-coded languages, unconscious biases towards race, disability, or elitism, etc.
Instead, you must have a clear job description listing the qualifications, experiences, skills, and knowledge required for the post. You must keep a keen eye towards employee benefits and promote equality.
For example, instead of using maternity, go for the term parenthood, as raising children is the responsibility of both parents.
Promote Your EEO Policy
Every company must have its EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) policy outlining the steps to promote equality in employment opportunities. Ensure you also have a well-written EEO policy explaining your hiring processes, the tools you mainly use, and your approach towards fair hiring.
Moreover, you can include the link to your policy in your job advertisements and company career pages. This will help applicants get a clear image of your recruitment process and ensure fair hiring practises.
Implement Blind Hiring Practises
One of the great ways to ensure fair hiring is by implementing an anonymous or blind recruitment process. These practises remove subjective and non-job-related information from the first stage of hiring. You can use software like an application tracking system to anonymously source and verify candidates’ resumes.
Also, pre-screening resumes for objective information can be helpful in fair hiring. This removes unconscious biases from the recruitment process and ensures you focus mainly on objective criteria.
Set Fixed Candidate Selection Criteria
After sourcing candidates’ resumes, the next step in the hiring process is filtering candidates. You must ensure this part is fair and transparent for all applicants.
This means you must focus on the merit of a candidate, such as their knowledge, skills, and abilities. In addition to that, you can also discuss the attitude and behaviours required to fulfil specific job roles. For example, a sales representative must have problem-solving skills, while an accountant’s speciality is their attention to detail.
Incorporate Skill Assessment
While assessing candidates, you can adopt skills-based hiring approaches to ensure fair recruitment. Rather than relying only on resumes, you must assess candidates’ skills and competencies.
For example, use cognitive ability assessments or personality questionnaires to measure applicants’ skills and qualities.
Create Standard Interview Questions
You must create a structured interview process for your recruitment team. This removes biases from the interview process, and candidates feel equally treated.
Not only is preparing a set of interview questions sufficient, but it also makes sure the team strictly follows them. This way, you can prevent recruiters from asking discriminatory questions and discouraging applicants.
Train Your Recruiters
You must invest in training recruiters on fair and equitable hiring practises, employment law, interview skills, and DEI measures. Additionally, you can create diverse hiring teams to remove biases and improve fairness in the hiring process.
How Does 6 Pence Help with Fair Hiring Practises?
Fair hiring practises are beneficial for candidates and companies alike. However, if hiring top talents is difficult, contact 6 Pence. If you are struggling to hire the right talent, connect with us.
We have almost two decades of experience in temporary and permanent staffing solutions. By working with us, you can access an extensive candidate pool and experienced recruiters, enabling you to hire top talents from anywhere worldwide. We also help to process work visas and perform document verification. Connect with us to know more.
Also Read: A Guide To Adopting Employee Referral Bonus Policy
Frequently Asked Questions
What is fair treatment for employees?
Fair employee treatment refers to no discrimination, no backstabbing, no deceiving remarks, and treating all employees with the same respect and values.
What is fair treatment of workers’ ethics?
Fair treatment of workers’ ethics refers to an aspect of your organisation’s justice concerning both process and outcome impartiality. Fair and equal treatment involves fulfilling employees’ unique needs, motivations, and goals equally without playing favourites among their ranks.
What is an example of fair treatment?
One example of fair treatment is equal pay for equal skill and work. It means you should equally compensate your employees based on their skills and work irrespective of gender, religion, age, etc.
