4 Ways to create a more inclusive candidate and employee experience
Throughout the month of June, you’ve likely seen the rainbow flag as you scroll on social media feeds and company websites for Pride Month. While this is a good first step in showing your support, there’s still much more work that needs to be done to promote inclusivity in the workplace.
According to a Human Rights Campaign Report, almost half of LBTQIA+ employees in the U.S. say they are closeted at work. The challenges employees face of not feeling belonging at work doesn’t go away with the end of Pride Month, and neither should your focus on supporting your LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual+) employees and candidates.
Now that the month is coming to an end, what’s next to support your candidates and employees in the LGBTQIA+ community throughout the year? We’ve identified four practical steps you can take at your organization to showcase your support for your LGBTQIA+ employees and candidates all year round and create a more inclusive candidate and employee experience.
Use inclusive language throughout your candidate experience
It’s crucial that inclusivity is infused throughout all your candidate touchpoints. This could be everything from your social media channels, to your job postings, to your career site. That’s because your candidate experience is the first glimpse into what candidates can expect to experience at your workplace.
Here are a few candidate and employee touchpoints you can update to promote inclusivity:
Job postings. Using gender neutral language is a great way to promote inclusivity, while also attracting a broader talent pool. For example, use they/them for placeholders on people instead of she/he. And where possible, remove gender-coded words from your job ads. According to a study by Appcast, job ads without gendered-coded words resulted in higher apply rates, more applications, and a lower cost per applicant.
Career site. Add a section to show your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in action, beyond a set statement.
Job applications. Ask candidates to complete a preferences questionnaire ahead of their interview with preferred names and pronouns and share that with the interview panel to ensure your team gets this important info right.
New hire onboarding. As part of your new hire onboarding ensure to update your new employee’s HRIS profile with their preferred name and pronouns, as well as include these in your company introductions.
Company communication platforms. Encourage all employees to update their preferred pronouns on your messaging systems, like Webex or Slack, email signatures, and LinkedIn (which is also a particularly important channel for your recruiters and hiring managers!).
Support causes that give back to the LGBTQIA+ community
According to a Cone Communications survey, 75% of respondents cite a brand’s social and environmental practices as an important factor when considering a job offer. Candidates and employees alike are actively seeking out organizations that share their values and “walk the talk.”
Not only that but employees and candidates are increasingly holding companies accountable to social justice initiatives to go beyond reactive statements and see how companies are taking action.
To demonstrate that your support for Pride goes beyond the month of June, consider including causes and charities that support the LGBTQIA+ community in your corporate social responsibility (CSR) program.
And don’t forget, showcasing how your company is actively supporting social causes is a great way to attract candidates with similar values. That’s why it’s important to develop attention-grabbing content to share these initiatives and communicate your employer brand values to candidates.
Learn more about companies doing this well and why it works in our blog 5 Ways to attract talent by showcasing the causes you care about.
Showcase your LGBTQIA+ employees in your content
What’s more meaningful to a candidate than hearing from a company about their commitment to inclusivity? Hearing from a real employee at that company. That’s why profiling your LGBTQIA+ employees on your company blog and social media highlighting stories about themselves, their work, and what it’s like to work at your company is a great approach.
And to make it authentic, let go of your “key messages” and provide them with the tools and support to tell their own stories, in their own words. Here are some tips on how to turn employees into employer brand advocates.
Hubspot is a great example of this. They’ve profiled employees on their Instagram account this Pride Month, using quotes, photos, and video. This is the kind of content you can bake into your content strategy all year round.
Hire a DEI expert for training to reduce bias in interviews
It’s not enough to just have more LGBTQIA+ candidates clicking “apply,” you also want to ensure that they’re actually getting through the door at your organization. Your hiring managers and interview panellists are often the gatekeepers to your open roles, which means that to reduce bias and create a more inclusive interview process you should be conducting training with these folks.
We recommend hiring an external expert to help you out here. There are many talented organizations and consultants available to lead training for your employees, especially for your hiring managers and interview panelists. And if you want to get a head start in educating yourself, there are plenty of experts in the DEI field you can follow. Here are a few resources we’ve found helpful:
Season 2 Episode 7 of The Employer Brand Shop Talk Podcast: Building a comprehensive DEI strategy with Dean Delpeache, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant and Strasity
While Pride Month only happens once a year, employers who are committed to diversity and inclusion showcase Pride all year long. While there are endless ways you can showcase your support and create an inclusive employee and candidate experience, we hope that the tips above are enough to help you get the ball rolling at your organization.
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About The Employer Brand Shop
The Employer Brand Shop is a boutique recruitment marketing and employer brand agency located in Kitchener, Canada. Our team helps organizations around the world attract and engage talent using creative marketing strategies.