Diversity hiring and six top tips to get it working for you

TL;DR

• Diversity hiring means giving every candidate an equal shot by removing irrelevant personal characteristics from decisions and structuring your hiring process around skills, values and evidence.
• True workplace diversity blends inherent traits (gender, age, ethnicity) with acquired traits (education, life experience, perspectives) to create stronger, more creative teams.
• A clear diversity hiring strategy, centered on data-driven goals and skills-based evaluations, is essential for reaching underrepresented talent. Tracking diversity metrics helps measure progress and ensures your approach is effective.
• The business case is settled: diverse teams outperform on profitability, problem solving and innovation, and they improve employee retention and employer brand.
• Unconscious bias still slips into the hiring process via CV-first screens, unstructured interviews and subjective “fit” calls. Structure, blind screening and rubrics are the fixes.
• Sapia.ai delivers interview-first, blind, structured assessments at scale, lifting fairness and speed while improving the candidate experience.
• Start now: agree measurable diversity hiring goals, audit your job descriptions and channels, widen sourcing, and standardise the interview process with explainable scoring.

To find out how to interpret bias in recruitment, we also have a great eBook on inclusive hiring

What is workplace diversity?

While workplace diversity might once have been considered a ‘nice to have’, today it’s a ‘must-have’ for employers who recognize the value it brings to their organization, especially in the context of diversity hiring. The core idea of workplace diversity is that the people in any organization’s team should reflect the society in which we live – that is people of different genders, different ages, and different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Many organizations begin their diversity hiring journey by assessing their current diversity to establish a baseline for improvement.

That seems logical and simple enough, yet achieving diversity, and especially achieving diversity hiring goals, is still a struggle for many.

What does diversity look like?

Today, workplace diversity is not just about increasing female representation and employing team members from different cultural backgrounds. While these are great goals and are central to many diversity hiring ideas, true diversity is about so much more, including life experiences and other demographics. Achieving true workplace diversity means actively seeking a wider range of backgrounds and experiences to ensure a broader spectrum of perspectives within your team.

Diversity can be broadly sorted into two categories:

Inherent – effectively the defining traits and characteristics we are born with – gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic background, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Acquired – reflecting our experience of the world around us and covering things like education, life knowledge, learned values and skills, socio-economic mobility, political beliefs. These are developed, earned or achieved over time.

It’s the combination of inherent and acquired traits that make people and societies diverse. This holistic view of culture, background, life experience, education, values, and perspectives is a top priority for recruiters and employers alike, emphasizing the need for effective diversity hiring platforms and tools.

Diversity and inclusion strategies, including DEI hiring, are essential for organizations aiming to build truly inclusive teams. Prioritizing DEI hiring as part of broader diversity and inclusion initiatives helps foster equity, innovation, and long-term business success.

What is diversity hiring?

Diversity hiring, often inquired as “what is a diversity hire?”, simply describes the processes of recruiting that support diversity in the workplace. Diversity hiring is not about increasing workplace diversity for the sake of diversity. Hiring for diversity is all about giving every candidate an equal opportunity, regardless of their background. It’s about providing equal opportunities and reducing bias related to other personal characteristics, ensuring that factors such as gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, and other personal characteristics do not unfairly influence hiring decisions. It’s about identifying and removing any steps in the diversity hiring process in sourcing, screening, and shortlisting candidates that may allow discrimination against candidates and personal characteristics that have nothing to do with their ability to do the job such as gender, age, religion, sexual orientation and so on.

By removing biases against individuals or groups of candidates, the process of finding the best candidates to be considered for the role can be based on merit and all the qualities identified as essential for the role and the organisation.

A fairer path to recruitment considers the experience of the candidate at every single step.

From discovering an opportunity through to offer. It addresses bias, inclusivity and fairness. A fair recruitment process helps create an inclusive environment and supports the development of an inclusive company culture, which in turn boosts employee morale and engagement by fostering trust, belonging, and openness. And ideally, it makes recruiters’ lives easier.

Leadership is necessary when creating a lasting culture of diversity and inclusion.

Why do you need diversity?

Diversity is embraced by companies who understand the value it brings to their business. Why diversity hiring is important is highlighted by many studies.

According to McKinsey&Company found that:

• Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 39% more likely to financially outperform their peers than those in the bottom quartile, a gap that has grown over the past decade. Similarly, companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity on executive teams also showed a 39% greater likelihood of outperformance versus those in the bottom quartile.
• McKinsey also found that greater diversity in leadership teams, both on boards and executive teams, is correlated with higher holistic impact scores, including stronger social and environmental performance, indicating that diverse leadership supports broader business and societal outcomes beyond financial returns.

While McKinsey’s study was focused on US global companies, their findings are reflected in other studies, white papers and shared experiences of organisations all around the world.

They confirm that workplace diversity impacts a wide range of business metrics:

• better performance and productivity
• business growth
• improved problem-solving abilities
• increased creativity and innovation
• a sense of belonging that  boosts employees’ health and wellbeing
• fewer incidents of discrimination or harassment in the workplace
• improved employee retention and tenure
• enhanced reputation as an employer
• positive impact on both the company and society by fostering social responsibility and promoting equality
• strategic advantage through understanding customer diversity and cultural insights, with diverse firms being 70% more likely to capture new markets

It’s what employees want too

Unsurprisingly, diversity in the workplace can be a deal maker or breaker for millennial and GenZ job seekers. Deloitte found that 83% of millennials are more engaged when they can know a company fosters an inclusive culture.

Approximately 76% of candidates consider a diverse workforce critical when evaluating job offers.

But it’s not just the next generations. A recent survey by Glassdoor found that 67% of all candidates say it’s an important factor when considering employment opportunities while more than 50% of current employees want their workplace to do more to increase diversity, emphasizing why is diversity hiring important.

Diversity hiring laws

While there’s no doubt that diversity hiring is good for business, for any organization that doesn’t embrace diversity and hiring practices, the opposite can also be true. Apart from missing out on the benefits that diversity brings to productivity, employee satisfaction, and business reputation, employers also risk breaking the law.

Within Australia, diversity is supported by national and state laws that cover equal employment opportunity, human rights, and anti-discrimination in the workplace. It’s essential that all employers understand their own responsibilities and the rights of employees or job candidates. The cost of non-compliance can be severe while the damage to an organization’s reputation could be matched by irreparable damage to sales, business contracts, and their employer brand.

In Australia, it is unlawful to disadvantage employees and job seekers in any way because of their:

• race
• colour
• gender
• sexual orientation
• age
• physical or mental disability
• marital status
• family or carer’s responsibilities
• pregnancy
• religion
• political opinion
• national extraction (place of birth or ancestry)
• social origin (class, caste or socio-occupational category)
• industrial activities (such as belonging to a trade union)

Unconscious bias  – it’s a human condition

Whether innate or learned, everybody is capable of unconscious bias. Reinforced by our own personal experiences, cultural background, beliefs and world view, bias is how we feel about something – a person or group of people, an idea, a thing – and how we use those feelings to make judgements and decisions about those people or things, often instantaneously.

Psychologists and researchers have identified over 150 types of bias that impact the way we engage, assess and interact with others. In the recruitment process that’s 150 ways that otherwise suitably qualified candidates can be overlooked, ignored, put aside or deliberately discounted. Learn all about unconscious bias in our free whitepaper here.

Regular bias awareness training for hiring teams can help mitigate unconscious biases in the recruitment process.

Algorithms do the job humans can’t

Because unconscious bias is a universal and inherently human condition, it’s a problem that can’t be solved by any amount of bias training or awareness.

So if humans can’t solve the very human problem, what can be done? Sapia has solved the issue of unconscious bias in hiring by taking humans out of the process for top-of-funnel interview screening through an Artificial Intelligence enabled chat interview platform. It’s an easy way to implement data-driven decision-making with a structured and automated process that provides a level playing field for all candidates.

Standardising the interview process for fairness and inclusion

Standardising the interview process is a powerful way to ensure fairness and inclusion for all job applicants. By developing a structured interview process—complete with consistent questions, clear evaluation criteria, and objective scoring systems—hiring managers can significantly reduce the impact of unconscious bias. This approach ensures that every candidate, regardless of their personal characteristics or background, is assessed on the same criteria, making the hiring process more equitable for diverse candidates.

Implementing blind hiring techniques, such as removing names and other identifying information from resumes, further levels the playing field and helps focus attention on skills and experience. Anonymous interview platforms can also be used to ensure that first impressions are based on merit, not on factors unrelated to job performance.

To maximize the effectiveness of a standardized interview process, organizations should provide bias awareness training for all hiring managers and interviewers. This training helps teams recognize and mitigate unconscious bias, leading to more objective and inclusive hiring decisions. Ultimately, a standardized and structured interview process not only helps attract and select the best talent from diverse backgrounds but also creates a more positive and inclusive experience for all candidates.

Six more ways to build your diversity hiring capabilities

Adopting Sapia Ai-enabled decision-making to remove bias from the early interview process is one of the easiest ways to get diversity hiring working for you. Implementing strategies that attract diverse candidates is also crucial, as it broadens your talent pool and supports an inclusive culture. Here are some further ideas from Sapia’s team to help increase diversity in candidate sourcing, screening, and, ultimately, hiring.

Tip: Consider using a pre-hire personality assessment. Research shows that personality scores do not significantly differ for minority group members, making these assessments a valuable tool to help increase workplace diversity.

1. Agree your diversity hiring goals

More female graduates in technical roles? A better cultural spread across the organization? More women in middle management? Before setting any goals, it’s crucial to assess your current diversity to understand your starting point and identify areas for improvement. Without understanding how diversity hiring supports your business plans, how would you ever know you’re making progress? Diversity hiring strategies and initiatives should be agreed by your leadership team, documented in HR plans, socialized among all stakeholders, and tracked using diversity hiring metrics.

2. Develop your employer brand and policies that support diversity

Developing a reputation as an employer who values and nurtures diversity starts with your own people. Building an inclusive company culture is essential—create a respectful, supportive workplace where employees of all backgrounds feel empowered, valued, and able to contribute to their fullest potential. Talk to your people to hear what’s important to them and understand if they think any policies (or attitudes) are holding diversity back. Talk to your team about diversity and the benefits it can bring.

Think about policies that may support more diversity in your workplace. Beyond hiring, it may be providing extra time off for community events or religious festivals, or simply providing workplace flexibility and freedom for employees to be comfortable being themselves.

The more your team buy into policies that support, value, and celebrate diversity, the more your reputation as a diversity employer will organically grow. And the more it grows, the easier diversity hiring will become… as candidates who value diversity will be lining up to work with you.

3. Use your ATS to build diverse talent pools

Sapia’s automated interview platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with leading Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Even before the interview process, use screening tools in the ATS as part of the screening process to filter and sort candidates based on skills, qualifications, or experience alone. This blind screening process helps ensure fair candidate assessment and adds an additional layer of bias-free screening to your diversity hiring. Automated intelligent shortlisting increases workplace diversity by replacing the most tedious and time-consuming part of recruitment: manual shortlisting.

4. Mind your language and rethink your screening factors for diversity

Undertaking a review of past job ads and job posting language can help you see where bias may have crept into your recruiting process. Is your language inclusive? Would all candidates feel they could apply regardless of age, gender or cultural background? While being careful not to actually be biased, your words can talk more directly to the candidates you want to attract and explain why they’d be a great fit for your team.

While you’re reviewing the way you reach out to candidates, also consider whether you’re screening or interviewing for the qualities you actually value most or you’re unconsciously guiding the process towards certain types or profiles. Using inclusive language in your job postings can help you reach a wider range of candidates and perspectives. Sometimes you need to ask others to check your own bias.

5. Add some diversity into your candidate sourcing

Is it time to fish for candidates in a different talent pool? If you’re relying on the same sources and same screening factors, you’re likely to keep cultivating the same type of candidate. Think about where and how you can connect with a more diverse candidate pool. Implementing strategies to attract diverse candidates is essential, as it helps ensure your sourcing and recruiting efforts appeal to a broader range of talent.

If you are targeting more women in specific roles, for example, find relevant interest or networking groups online or within platforms such as LinkedIn and talk to candidates directly. Ask your female employees to recommend their own connections or former colleagues and share job leads. The same principle applies to reaching out to any particular demographic or skill set and employees appreciate having their opinions and recommendations heard and valued.

Encourage referrals from minority workers to broaden your candidate pool. Encouraging minority employee referrals helps increase your diversity hiring with the added benefits of hiring from referrals in the first place, such as improved retention and faster onboarding.

6. Consider some affirmative action

Especially when you’re starting your diversity hiring journey, you may want to help things along with specific diversity programs that could offer an internship or traineeship to candidates of specific backgrounds. Consider working with local schools, colleges, or community groups to make connections and target the appropriate up-and-coming candidates. Encourage minority employees to participate in referral programs to further enhance workforce diversity. It can also be a great way to engage and motivate your own team in supporting diversity hiring goals.

Creating a workplace diversity plan

A well-crafted workplace diversity plan is essential for organizations aiming to attract, hire, and retain diverse talent. This plan should be tailored to your company’s unique needs and goals, and serve as a roadmap for increasing diversity and fostering an inclusive workplace. Start by conducting a diversity audit to assess your current workforce and identify gaps in representation and inclusion. Use these insights to set clear, measurable objectives for your diversity hiring initiatives.

Effective diversity plans often include strategies such as hosting or participating in diversity focused job fairs, partnering with organizations that support underrepresented groups, and implementing inclusive hiring practices that minimize unconscious bias. Providing ongoing training for hiring teams on inclusive hiring and bias reduction is also key to ensuring fair and equitable hiring practices.

Additionally, your diversity plan should outline how you will measure progress, using diversity metrics to track improvements in hiring, retention, and overall workplace diversity. By demonstrating a genuine commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, your organization will be better positioned to attract top talent from a wide range of diverse backgrounds and create a more innovative, dynamic, and successful workplace.

Sapia: Blind screening at its best

Sapia solves bias by screening and evaluating candidates with a simple open, transparent interview via a text conversation. 

Candidates know text and trust text and questions can be tailored to suit the requirements of the role and the organisation’s brand values. Sapia’s process ensures that diverse people are included and considered fairly throughout the hiring journey. Unlike competitors, Sapia has no video hookups, visual content or voice data. No CVs and no data extracted from social channels. All of which can be triggers for bias– unconscious or otherwise.

Sapia’s solution is designed to provide every candidate with a great experience that respects and recognises them as the individual they are. People are more than their CV and candidates appreciate the opportunity to tell their story in their own words, in their own time. Research shows the ‘two in the pool’ effect: having at least two minority candidates in the final candidate pool significantly increases the chances of hiring a minority candidate. Sapia also helps organizations track and analyze diversity hiring metrics, enabling them to set goals and measure progress towards more inclusive hiring. For example, Pinterest set annual public hiring goals and requires at least one candidate from an underrepresented background for each leadership position. Sapia is the only conversational interview platform with 99% candidate satisfaction feedback. You can read more about blind screening in our article here.

Find out more about Sapia’s AI-powered interview automation platform and how we can support your diversity hiring goals.  

You can try out Sapia’s Chat Interview right now – here – or leave us your details toget a personalised demo.

FAQs on diversity hiring

About Author

Laura Belfield

Head of Marketing