Creating an Inclusive Candidate Experience for Diverse Engineering Talent

In today’s world, fostering diversity in recruitment is important for businesses. Diverse teams create different perspectives, bring innovative ideas, and have much better problem-solving capabilities. 

The goal here is to make sure that every candidate is valued regardless of their background, and there are a few steps you need to follow to make this happen. From crafting a simple job description to the onboarding process, you can do a lot to create a good candidate experience for your diverse engineering talent pipeline. Let’s dive deeper into the steps you need to take to achieve this. 

Write Inclusive Job Descriptions 

Diverse companies benefit when it comes to attracting talent, as research has shown that 70% of job seekers prefer diverse companies. Attracting diverse engineering candidates starts with making an inclusive job description that welcomes engineering candidates with different backgrounds. Here’s how: 

• Emphasize diversity: Point out how committed your organization is to diversity and inclusion, either in the job description or the careers page on your website. Diversity can be shown in many ways, such as through a diversity statement, images of how diverse your team is, and even diversity awards you possess (if you have any). 

• Replace unnecessary requirements: It’s best to only include requirements that add value to the position. For example, instead of writing down the years of experience required, mention a range (e.g., 4 to 8 years). 

• Use gender-neutral language: Avoid using words that are gender-based like “salesman.” Use general words like “leading,” “strong,” etc. You want to make sure that men and women are given equal treatment in the job description and that nobody feels left out. 
• List preferred and essential qualifications separately: This encourages engineering candidates who can meet most criteria to apply. 

Job descriptions matter a lot and play an important role in giving your candidates a first impression. If the job description looks one-sided and candidates have a bad first impression, it’s going to hurt your chances of attracting diverse engineering talents. 

Use Diversity-Focused Recruitment Platforms and Partner With Educational Institutions 

It’s important to use a variety of recruitment platforms, since where you post your job openings also matters. Different platforms have different applicants, so the more places where your job openings are displayed, the wider range of candidates you’ll reach. 

There are also platforms that are focused on diversity and help companies reach certain underrepresented groups. Here are a few: 

• DiversityJobs is specifically made for focusing on diverse candidates. When you visit their website, they mention that all job openings are posted by employers who embrace diversity. 
• Workplace Diversity is similar to DiversityJobs, but it’s never enough to choose one job board. You can post your job openings on all diversity-focused job boards. 
• Jopwell strives to create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce. They specialize in helping Black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals advance their career by connecting them to partner companies who place a high priority on diversity.

However, you may not want to post your jobs on too many platforms, since you might have to later face the pressure of screening a very large volume of applicants. 

Aside from using job posting websites, you can also look to educational institutions that also prioritize diversity. Partnering with universities can help you identify diverse talent early on in their careers. 

Make Your Resume Screening Process Unbiased 

Bias can often occur when recruiters are screening resumes, so it’s important to create an unbiased process that enables you to effectively evaluate resumes. This can involve using a resume summary generator that creates unbiased summaries on the skills and experiences of engineering candidates. However, the key to removing bias from resume screenings is creating clear and consistent criteria, as well as always asking for feedback and making improvements where needed. 

• Clearly define your hiring criteria: If you can’t properly define your criteria, you won’t be able to effectively screen resumes. Hiring criteria should only include skills that are relevant to the job so that irrelevant and subjective factors like a candidate’s hobbies or a recruiter’s personal preferences do not introduce bias and discrimination. 

• Use standardized formats: A great way to avoid resume bias is to use standardized formats when reviewing resumes. Standardized formats will help you compare your candidates much more easily and objectively, eliminating design, layout, and style influences. 

• Use the help of AI tools: AI tools can help you save time, reduce human errors, and analyze a large volume of data much faster than a human being would. In fact, 38% of HR leaders are using AI solutions to make their hiring process more efficient. However, always use AI tools with caution, and be sure to always check their quality and accuracy.

• Always ask for feedback: Avoiding bias in resume screening and AI tools can be easier when you’re asking for feedback and looking to improve continuously. Nobody is perfect and feedback can come from many different sources, such as employees, managers, candidates, and even external experts.

Prepare Teams to Conduct Inclusive Interviews 

Recruiters, hiring managers, and any interviewer should be prepared to not only conduct technical interviews, but to also conduct inclusive interviews. You can help educate them with these tips: 

• Promote gender-neutral language. 

• Be aware of cultural differences in communication styles.

• Offer flexible interview scheduling to ensure that candidates who have activities like childcare or religious practices are easily able to schedule their interview.
• Assess candidates’ soft skills and not just their technical skills. 

To make your candidates more comfortable, you can also ask them to answer questions via recorded videos. This means that you aren’t directly conducting a live interview. Instead, candidates will send over a recorded video of them answering your questions whenever they can and feel comfortable to do so while respecting deadlines at the same time. This gives candidates more confidence and flexibility, and recruiters and hiring managers are able to review candidate responses at their own pace. 

Use Scorecards for Unbiased Assessments  

By using a scorecard, recruiters and hiring managers can fairly evaluate applicants and remove bias or subjectivity. Creating a scorecard requires defining the criteria that candidates will be evaluated on and what success looks like beforehand. Then, rating candidates based on those criteria. This makes sure that all engineering candidates are fairly judged and based on the same standards. 

Don’t Forget About the Onboarding Process 

A candidate’s experience doesn’t just end once the job offer is signed. Onboarding is the final stage of the hiring process and another important moment to foster an inclusive environment. That being said, here are a few tips you should follow when onboarding diverse engineering talent: 

• Language: Help new hires become familiar with the terms your company uses. Some may not be native English speakers, so this is an important step. 

• DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) transparency: Let new hires become familiar with your company’s DEI policies. 

• Support: Give them the tools they need so that new hires can set themselves up for success. 
• Establish a buddy system: Assigning a buddy to new hires can help them feel more at home and comfortable.

A diverse culture is the first step to succeeding in the hiring process, both before candidates are hired and after. 

You’re One Step Away From Creating the Best Diverse Experience for Engineering Talent 

Creating an inclusive experience to attract and retain diverse engineering talent is a crucial part of creating a diverse workplace. By implementing the right practices and committing to making your hiring process better, you can cultivate a culture that values the strengths and perspectives of all team members. This will not only help your business become better, but also improve employee satisfaction. After all, diverse workplaces are the most interesting and can contribute to a better future for the entire organization. 

About the Author

Tony Ademi is a freelance SEO content and copywriter. For roughly four years, Tony has managed to write more than 500 SEO-optimized articles and most of them have ranked #1 on Google. When writing, Tony’s main focus is to carefully do research and make sure that his content is high-quality.