British companies give greater priority to education over diversity in the executive search process, a new study has revealed.
The data, which was discovered by Cornerstone OnDemand, claims that only 25% of UK companies said that diversity is a priority in the process, whereas more than 40% said education was the key to discovering new talent.
Over 1,900 HR, Business and IT Managers across 14 European countries were surveyed in the report, which also highlighted problem-solving as a key trait in the executive search process.
The top five resourcing priorities in the UK are: job skills, education, problem-solving, cultural fit and references. In Europe, references and cultural fit are reversed, with the former coming in at number four, and the latter at number five.
Diversity doesn’t feature on the average UK and EU top-five priorities list, and only 35% of organisations in Britain named it in their top three priorities.
“Managers need to encourage diversity in how they market themselves and the business, not just through marketing and public relations, but also through job advertisements,” commented Talent Director at Cornerstone Alexandra Anders.
“From a leader’s perspective, when you bring a diverse set of people together you must be clear how you want to be as a company. Yes, there will be local laws and cultural aspects that individuals in your organisation hold dear, but you must set the ‘laws’ as a company and what it means to be at your organisation. And for many organisations, this means moving away behaviours that stifle diversity,” she continued.
What is diversity and how do I promote it?
“Diversity is the who and the what: who’s sitting around that table, who’s being recruited, who’s being promoted, who we’re tracking from the traditional characteristics and identities of gender and ethnicity, and sexual orientation and disability—inherent diversity characteristics that we’re born with,” HR Consultant and author of Inclusion: Diversity, the New Workplace, and The Will to Change, Jennifer Brown recently told Forbes.
Brown explains that inclusion in the workplace concerns how the individuals feel and how executives accept the diversity of prospective employees within the hiring process. She continued:
“If you are a great leader for inclusion, you have figured out how to embrace and galvanise diversity of voices and identities.”
“Businesses with a healthy balance of men and women are 15% more likely to outperform their competitors, while those with employees from a good mix of ethnic backgrounds are 35% more likely,” added Katherine Early in an article for The Telegraph.
So, the key takeaway for businesses is to implement programmes and initiatives — firstly into the resourcing process, to actively attract the very best talent, fairly and diversely. Following this, it’s important that the D&I of a company’s culture is promoted and celebrated to retain staff, make them feel included and create a business model that enables customer satisfaction as the end goal.
Source – www . recruitmentgrapevine . com