FACILITIES MANAGEMENT JOURNAL JOBS
LATEST JOBS
ON FMJ
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR
Salary: £80,000k +
Location: London
https://bit.ly/2zMJ2hn
FACILITIES MANAGER
Salary: £30k - 34k per year
Location: Cambridge
https://bit.ly/2RDwAaw
CONTRACT SUPPORT
Salary: £30k Per year
Location: London
https://bit.ly/2PqZR6u
jobs.fmj.co.uk
Over 350 jobs live on site
In the world of recruitment,
diversity and inclusion are so o en
the causes of many a restless night.
However, current diversity initiatives
are o en inadequate, leaving
companies to face a multitude
of barriers. This ranges from the
struggle to find diverse candidates
in the first place, to the failure to
convince them to accept a role, once
you’ve got them through the door.
Sound familiar?
In order to overcome this challenge,
organisations typically implement a
number of corporate strategies to attract
a more diverse pool of candidates. This
can include employee training, diversity
policies, “CV blinding” and compliancebased
reporting. Whilst they sound
impressive on paper, these solutions
rarely change hiring behaviours within
a company. For this, the main obstacle
recruitment needs to overcome is the
impact of unconscious human bias,
which previous studies have shown
to influence up to 40 per cent of hiring
decisions.
So, how can you overcome
unconscious bias, to increase the
impartiality of hiring?
Show the diversity you’re looking for,
in the hiring team
It may seem obvious, but if you want
to attract more diverse candidates, you
must ensure that the interview panel
reflects diversity. Many organisations see
the benefit of a diverse interview panel,
which allows for a range of experiences
to be included in the discussion.
This also helps candidates feel more
comfortable. It sends a clear message to
prospective employees and your current
employees that you are committed to
an inclusive culture. More importantly,
recent research suggests that
organisations that implement diverse
interview panels are seeing a 41 per cent
increase in the percentage of new female
and minority hires. When you consider
the significance of this number, diverse
hiring becomes so much more important
than a box-ticking exercise and one
which can drive real business impact.
Make sure your job descriptions
are inclusive
An o en-overlooked strategy, but one
that’s relatively simple to execute, is
to review your job postings with fresh
eyes and omit any phrases that could
indicate bias and deter candidates from
applying. An example of this is to remove
aggressive words such as “decisive” or
“superior” from your job specifications,
instead replacing them with more
inclusive terms like “committed” and
“responsible.” Similarly, terms such
as “rock star” or “ninja” tend to have
masculine connotations and may
discourage some female candidates
from applying for a role within your
organisation. If you are looking to attract
a more diverse pool of talent, these
words should be removed or switched
with more gender-neutral terms.
Think outside the box, when it comes
to hiring sources
Whilst we all have our own tried-andtested
methods for finding candidates,
you may need to expand your go-to
platforms for advertising new roles,
to reach a broader mix of talent. For
example, exclusively promoting new
roles on social media may receive a
greater volume of millennial and Gen-Z
applicants, as they are generally more
actively engaged on these platforms.
Similarly, companies which heavily
recruit via internal referrals may find
they are hiring many similar candidates
over a period of time. It’s also worth
bearing in mind that some job seekers
still use (sometimes highly niche) job
boards or learn about positions through
word of mouth – so there is no catch-all
solution. Instead, it’s important to make
sure you are spreading the net far and
wide, making use of a combination of
methods, to best reach the greatest
variety of applicants. Don’t forget the
traditional methods of recruitment
websites, as well as LinkedIn and other
social media.
Ditch the CV, in favour of
video interviews
The CV was designed as a general
overview for recruiters to judge potential
employees, based on factors such as
work experience or education and has
been the pivotal point of recruitment
for a long time.. However, studies have
shown that rating candidates by these
incidental factors is one of the worst
predictors of performance. In fact, rating
candidates based on core and so skills
is a much better indicator of potential
and allows you to open up the talent
pool for people to apply based on ability,
rather than background. But how can
you do this?
Structured video interviews are a
great way to narrow your candidate
pool, based on their skills and attributes
versus experience. It also makes the job
application process more accessible to a
broader range of applicants. Candidates
record answers to a structured question
set at a time and in a place that suits
them, allowing recruiters and hiring
managers to review the responses (and
any data the platform collates around
them) at their convenience. Not only
does this allow you to consider more
candidates, due to the accessibility
of a video interview, but, seeing as all
candidates answer the same questions,
you create a more objective and
fair evaluation process that ensures
consistency in hiring decisions.
Incorporate AI into the decisionmaking
process to reduce bias
There are many discussions in the media
about the use of AI in recruitment and
the fear that it could be just as biased
as the human alternative, if proper
attention is not paid to its coding or
implementation. However, the reality is
that unconscious bias is most common
in interviews with humans.
Whether deliberate or not, even
well-intentioned recruiters and
hiring managers have biases that
play a significant role in their hiring
process. Any factors can be taken into
consideration; perhaps the interviewer
had a tough weekend with their family,
impacting their attitude during a Monday
morning interview. Such distractions
can disadvantage a potentially perfect
candidate.. In contrast, AI doesn’t
have a bad day and will o er the
same consistent experience to every
candidate.
It’s important to ask any vendor
o ering an AI-driven recruiting
technology to describe the ways that
they combat bias in the development
and implementation of their algorithms.
Some have developed and are
stringently following strong best
practices in the mitigation of bias in their
technologies, and some are not. Then
ask whether any of their customers are
increasing diversity through the use of
these technologies, as well. The proof
is in the metrics. From small tweaks to
larger technology implementations,
there are a number of ways companies
can significantly reduce unconscious
bias in their hiring – so why not take
the first step toward reimagining your
recruiting processes today?
FIVE WAYS RECRUITERS CAN
INCREASE WORKPLACE DIVERSITY
Recruiting leaders know that if their companies aren’t sourcing and hiring
for diversity, they are missing valuable talent and experience argues James
McGill, VP International Customer Success, EMEA & APAC for HireVue
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019 55
FMJ.CO.UK
FM CAREERS - RECRUITMENT
/2zMJ2hn
/2RDwAaw
/2PqZR6u
/www.jobs.fmj.co.uk
