RPO provider PeopleScout recently held a client forum to discuss key recruitment themes, one of which was a discussion around Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) led by Dr. Arin Reeves. This focused on the importance of D&I, including the tendency for diverse groups to outperform non-diverse groups in solving problems, and how D&I can support the hiring process.

Tips on how D&I can support the hiring process included:

• Video interviewing – this is still valuable, and can actually reduce selection bias so long as interview guidelines/questions are issued beforehand
• Talent acquisition needs to be connected to talent development – every time there’s attrition, it makes it harder to retain others. Insist that talent acquisition is part of the onboarding process, including following up quickly with new hires after they have joined to make sure they are getting what they need
• Talent acquisition also needs to be part of the exit interview process to find out why people are leaving, and to feed data back to leadership for improvement opportunities, and to help talent acquisition teams in recruiting talent that is more likely to stay. Exit interviews are best conducted by third parties, as employees tend to be more honest and open regarding reasons for leaving than they would be with their own employer
• Talent acquisition teams should also conduct ‘stay’ interviews to find out why people remain with the company. This is helpful in determining how to improve employee engagement, and in turn helps with employer branding (see my earlier blog on Employer Branding: An essential Talent Management Strategy)
• The resume (CV) stage can be the most biased part of the process, as someone reviewing a resume may start to make judgments before having spoken to the candidate. Good practice includes simple actions such as taking notes separately during a candidate interview rather than annotating the resume
• Obviously, but importantly, don’t make hiring decisions until you see sufficient candidates. This can be a challenge, as RPO vendors try to put forward the best, but fewest, candidates for hiring managers to interview to help the business save time. Talent acquisition needs to be part of workforce planning with the business, and engage in discussions around the optimum number of candidates to be interviewed.

As part of NelsonHall’s recent RPO market analysis, interviews were conducted with clients of ~20 leading RPO vendors, which included a question on the vendors’ ability to ‘improve diversity of employees’. PeopleScout’s customer satisfaction score was 10% higher than the overall RPO industry average, which indicates that its focus on getting D&I right is paying off.

More widely, all RPO providers need to continue improving the diversity of their clients’ workforce. In our survey, clients rated the ‘future importance’ of diversity to be on average 18% higher than ‘current importance’.

In July, I will publish a blog on overall RPO client satisfaction, along with current and future importance in key areas such as diversity, quality of hire, and employer branding.