Gem recently ran a survey of more than 500 talent acquisition professionals to better understand priorities, pain points, and goals as recruiting teams head into 2022. It would be an understatement to say that one consistent theme in responses concerned diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) as it relates to hiring.
Regardless of role or company size, talent professionals across the board ranked “diversity hiring” as the most important trend in the recruiting industry for 2022. Other trends they ranked as critical—embracing remote/flex/hybrid work, rethinking role requirements, and pay transparency—all feed into diversity.
What’s more, “difficulty meeting diversity goals” was among the top-3 hiring challenges talent acquisition professionals anticipate their organizations will experience in 2022—coming in only behind “difficulty finding qualified candidates” and “uncompetitive offers.”
Here’s what some of your peers specifically had to say:
No doubt, diversity will continue to be an urgent topic in talent acquisition, and diversity strategies an integral element of exceptional culture and team-building. In our 2022 Recruiting Trends: Diversity report, we give you a long glimpse into how your peers are thinking about diversity in their respective organizations: what their goals and initiatives look like, how they’re tracking, where they’re challenged, and how remote hiring has impacted diversity on their teams. Here are some highlights from that report.
47% of ICs at smaller orgs, 39% of ICs at enterprise orgs, 30% of talent leaders at smaller orgs, and 33% of talent leaders at enterprise orgs say that meeting their business’ diversity goals will be one of the hardest challenges for their teams this year—putting “difficulty meeting diversity goals” as the #3 recruiting/hiring challenge for 2022.
ICs tended to rank “meeting diversity goals” as a slightly more pressing challenge than talent leaders; and recruiting professionals at larger organizations appeared, on the whole, less concerned about meeting those goals than their counterparts at smaller companies. This suggests that the brunt of the weight for meeting diversity goals rests on the shoulders of ICs, and that talent acquisition teams at larger organizations are more likely to believe they have the resources they need to meet them.
The biggest barrier to improving diversity by far, talent leaders told us, is finding underrepresented talent to begin with—an obstacle that’s required teams to stop “relying too heavily on one platform (the big LI),” as one talent leader put it, and start seeking out job boards, platforms, and organizations where historically underrepresented and/or marginalized talent hangs out.
The second-biggest barrier to improving diversity in hiring is moving URG candidates through the funnel once they’re in it. Talent leaders who are tracking the data attributed these drop-offs in their hiring funnels either to bias in their processes or to the number of opportunities URG talent—let alone talent on the whole—has access to right now.
Retention of underrepresented employees came in as the third-biggest barrier, suggesting that teams need to pay attention to the “E” and “I” of DEI in their organizations as much as they do to the “D.” It’s one thing to hire a diverse team; it’s another to afford them equitable opportunities and a culture of belonging to keep them there.
Talent leaders at smaller orgs are more than 3x as likely to say their company decided to go fully remote during COVID than talent leaders at enterprise orgs are (34% v. 10%). They’re also less likely to say that their business will eventually expect new hires back in an office at least part-time.
Given that the majority of talent leaders say remote hiring has helped improve diversity in their orgs during COVID (59% of leaders in smaller orgs and 54% of leaders in enterprise orgs say as much), one best guess is that smaller orgs might find it easier to hit their diversity goals over the long run because of remote or remote-first cultures.
Talent leaders at enterprise organizations are somewhat more likely (72% v. 66%) to say their team has a formal diversity hiring initiative or diversity goals in place than talent leaders at smaller companies are. (Regardless of company size, most of these goals are internal rather than public.) The majority of talent leaders with formal diversity goals and initiatives (56% of smaller orgs and 59% of enterprise orgs) say these initiatives consider diversity across the board—gender and racial diversity, alongside other considerations such as veteran or LGBTQIA+ status.
Over half (55%) of sourcers and recruiters at smaller companies say they have formal diversity hiring initiatives or diversity goals in place, while nearly ¾ (74%) of sourcers and recruiters at enterprise orgs say they do. ICs at enterprise companies are twice as likely (11% v. 22%) to say their diversity initiatives are “very successful.”
When we asked ICs to elaborate, some patterns emerged:
Here are some strategies your peers said they’re using:
Curious to hear more strategies, best practices, and insights regarding diversity recruiting and hiring? Check out Gem’s 2022 Recruiting Trends: Diversity Edition. And if you’re curious about how Gem can help you track your diversity efforts through insights into your hiring funnel… well, we’re more than happy to chat with you about that as well.
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